Why should I avoid sodium?

boggsmeister

I don't have high blood pressure. The scale weight doesn't mean that much to me, it's fat loss I care about. Is there a reason I should stress out about sodium?

jb852013

From what I understand if you (and I) keep eating high levels of sodium we have a greater chance of developing high blood pressure. After learning to keep my calories down I have started looking at sodium, and am shocked at how much I eat above my goal.

liog

You may not have high blood pressure now, but too much sodium can increase your risk of developing high blood pressure and heart disease. I don't think you should stress out about it, but why wait until there is a problem to develop healthier eating habits? Out of curiosity, what is your blood pressure?

That said, I have a hard time keeping my sodium down. I am slowly trying to cut out processed foods. Quick convenience foods are easy for me, but easy now likely means trouble down the road.

susannamarie

Mine runs 110/60 or sometimes 110/65 and I don't track sodium. I do make sure to keep my potassium high, though.

ladyfingers39

I wouldn't go crazy with the sodium, but I think over time it will catch up to you! Not sure how old you are, but I am 39 and it just hit me right at this ripe old age. HA! I have always loved my salt...wish I would have watched it a little more, but it is what it is. My husband has no issues with it, he has low blood pressure, he eats whatever he wants.

lizard053

If you drink lots of water, you don't have to worry about sodium. It flushes right through!

agentscully514

Just to add some science to the discussion:

A large-scale study of thousands of European men in 2011 showed that "above-average sodium intake did not appear to up the risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension) or dying of a heart attack or stroke."

In fact, they found that low salt intake INCREASES the risk of heart attack.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/03/salt.heart.attack/index.html

This is solid science, so I am sure it will be completely ignored here.

kyle4jem

Just to add some science to the discussion:

A large-scale study of thousands of European men in 2011 showed that "above-average sodium intake did not appear to up the risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension) or dying of a heart attack or stroke."

In fact, they found that low salt intake INCREASES the risk of heart attack.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/03/salt.heart.attack/index.html

This is solid science, so I am sure it will be completely ignored here.

Thank You! :flowerforyou:

I like salt... I don't stress about it in the slightest. My husband LOVES Salt and adds it to everything. He doesn't have any probs with blood pressure and neither do it.

If I listened to some of the scaremongering from the Sodium Police, my life and food would be pretty bland.

But it's a personal preference and it depends on whether or not you like salt and/or have any medical reason to reduce your salt/sodium intake.

agentscully514

Thank You! :flowerforyou:

I like salt... I don't stress about it in the slightest. My husband LOVES Salt and adds it to everything. He doesn't have any probs with blood pressure and neither do it.

If I listened to some of the scaremongering from the Sodium Police, my life and food would be pretty bland.

But it's a personal preference and it depends on whether or not you like salt and/or have any medical reason to reduce your salt/sodium intake.

agreed! I think the main lesson is, if you DON"T have high blood pressure right now, don't sweat it. Eat the amount of salt that makes you happy.

alyson820

Just make sure you drink a lot of water and you should be fine. Also, make sure you're taking in enough potassium to help reduce pressure in your arteries.

jenlarz

I had a huge amount of sodium over the weekend, not enough water. I could see the puffiness all over. Even if you're not concerned about the scale if you don't drink enough H2O to flush out the water you can look puffy and bloated.

VanessaMFaulkner

I don't ...a person needs a tsp everyday just to maintain...just don't go wild. If you're craving some salt...eat a pickle.

AllTehBeers

I don't add salt to hardly anything but I have been eating crap food for the last few years so I think it goes hand in hand. If you eat 'clean' so to speak, there's naturally less sodium in those foods. Right now I'm most focused on calories and losing all this weight. The rest will follow after I get to a healthier weight. I also drink crazy amounts of water so everything is always flushed out.

bcattoes

I don't have high blood pressure. The scale weight doesn't mean that much to me, it's fat loss I care about. Is there a reason I should stress out about sodium?

If you get regular check-ups and your blood sodium levels are in the good range, then you likely don't need to worry. If you don't , you might want to check your BP several times throughout the day and see if there is a significant rise after eating a meal high in sodium. For some people it doesn't affect BP at all, for others it can cause a significant rise which over time can lead to hypertension. If you sweat a lot, this could also counteract eating a lot of sodium.

tigersword

I don't have high blood pressure. The scale weight doesn't mean that much to me, it's fat loss I care about. Is there a reason I should stress out about sodium?

No. There really isn't. High sodium can aggravate hypertension, but there is no actual scientific evidence that says that high sodium causes hypertension. In fact, high sodium, on it's own, doesn't seem to have any negative overall effects on healthy individuals.

If you wanna hedge your bets, increase potassium. Potassium is sodium's polar opposite in terms of human physiology, so they essentially cancel each other out. Also, just make sure you properly hydrate, as higher levels of electrolytes can cause dehydration.

19danno77

The dose makes the poison so too much salt like absolutely EVERYTHING else isn't good for you. That said, the primary impact excess sodium intake has on you is that your ionic balance can be thrown off. Very little sodium is actually needed...seldom is too little a concern; if only fiber was that easy! To keep the osmotic pressure (linked to ionic balance) in the body's acceptable range and to remove the excess amount when we consume too much the body will hang on to water to dilute the salt concentration and to facilitate the excretion through our urine. If you don't get enough water while consuming an excess of salt you could find yourself in trouble. I would also think that the elevated blood pressure is a direct consequence of the extra water high salt levels cause. Think about it: if our body hangs on to extra water, much of it will be in our blood stream...the volume of our capillaries, veins, arteries, etc. is only so large and has only a small ability to expand to accomodate the extra water...the more water you push into a balloon, the higher the pressure goes and the same theory applies to our circulatory system. As we age, our cirulatory system get less pliable, coated with plaques and overall less resiliant than it was in our youth so it stands to reason that excess salt and the corresponding surge in water retention/blood pressure spikes would pose a greater risk to our health. The real question I think would be: at what age does restricting salt intake become more important in a meaningful way? Bad habits are hard to break so perhaps the answer would be: as soon as you can.

agentscully514

The dose makes the poison so too much salt like absolutely EVERYTHING else isn't good for you. That said, the primary impact excess sodium intake has on you is that your ionic balance can be thrown off. Very little sodium is actually needed...seldom is too little a concern; if only fiber was that easy! To keep the osmotic pressure (linked to ionic balance) in the body's acceptable range and to remove the excess amount when we consume too much the body will hang on to water to dilute the salt concentration and to facilitate the excretion through our urine. If you don't get enough water while consuming an excess of salt you could find yourself in trouble. I would also think that the elevated blood pressure is a direct consequence of the extra water high salt levels cause. Think about it: if our body hangs on to extra water, much of it will be in our blood stream...the volume of our capillaries, veins, arteries, etc. is only so large and has only a small ability to expand to accomodate the extra water...the more water you push into a balloon, the higher the pressure goes and the same theory applies to our circulatory system. As we age, our cirulatory system get less pliable, coated with plaques and overall less resiliant than it was in our youth so it stands to reason that excess salt and the corresponding surge in water retention/blood pressure spikes would pose a greater risk to our health. The real question I think would be: at what age does restricting salt intake become more important in a meaningful way? Bad habits are hard to break so perhaps the answer would be: as soon as you can.

your body is very good at maintaining the osmotic balance. Yes, eating tons of salt will cause water retention. But the reverse is also true. Drinking an excess of water is also unhealthy. You''re not just flushing out salt, you're also flushing out potassium.

as far as your speculation about blood pressure, the article I linked addresses your questions directly.

I say ... let your body do what it is supposed to. Don't force it to adjust to huge amounts of salt or huge amounts of water. Osmotic balance is crtitical to staying alive, and your body does it quite well.

neanderthin

Salt has a nutritional bullseye attached to it and an easy diagnosis for the average GP to give, and like agentscully has pointed out has been misinterpreted from the beginning.

treetop57

The thing I've never understood is why the recommendations for maximum sodium intake are exactly the same for all different sizes of people who eat all different amounts of food (2300 mg for most people and 1500 mg for older people and certain other high risk groups).

I'm a tall guy whose healthy weight is twice as much as a short women. Or another way to look at it, my maintenance caloric intake is twice as big as some smaller people.

Why should I only eat the same amount of sodium as a person who weighs half as much as I do and eats half as much as I do? Makes no sense to me that the healthy dose doesn't depend on body weight or caloric intake.

neanderthin

The thing I've never understood is why the recommendations for maximum sodium intake are exactly the same for all different sizes of people who eat all different amounts of food (2300 mg for most people and 1500 mg for older people and certain other high risk groups).

I'm a tall guy whose healthy weight is twice as much as a short women. Or another way to look at it, my maintenance caloric intake is twice as big as some smaller people.

Why should I only eat the same amount of sodium as a person who weighs half as much as I do and eats half as much as I do? Makes no sense to me that the healthy dose doesn't depend on body weight or caloric intake.

Or people with specific athletic goals..........

19danno77

The thing I've never understood is why the recommendations for maximum sodium intake are exactly the same for all different sizes of people who eat all different amounts of food (2300 mg for most people and 1500 mg for older people and certain other high risk groups).

I'm a tall guy whose healthy weight is twice as much as a short women. Or another way to look at it, my maintenance caloric intake is twice as big as some smaller people.

Why should I only eat the same amount of sodium as a person who weighs half as much as I do and eats half as much as I do? Makes no sense to me that the healthy dose doesn't depend on body weight or caloric intake.

Answer is you shouldn't! Medicine and health "experts" are only guessing based on studies...and a lot of studies are highly flawed or incorrectly interpreted. It's easy for zealots in labs to confuse correlation with causation. Scully pointed out that too much water is also bad for the ionic balance...I'm confident more people have died from too much water than from too much salt at least on an acute dose standpoint. Hazing and bladder sweepstakes have killed people. But eating competitions to my knowledge haven't. Like I said, the dose makes the poison so the lethal dose is different for every substance, and that does is dependent on body size and metabolic factors. So, yeah, bigger people can take more...just like the case of alcohol salt intake should be scaled, but regulators can't put that information for every nutrient on a package. That's why MFP rocks although they don't scale micronutrients like they do the macros!