Why should I avoid sodium?

treetop57

Crossposted with your edit pointing out that MFP doesn't vary micronutrients!

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!

But MFP doesn't vary the sodium recommendation based on how much you eat. It's 2500 mg for everyone regardless of body weight or caloric allowance. And food labels to vary some nutrients based on calories in the diet . . . but not sodium. Look at the bottom of this example label, where values for fat, saturated fat, total carbohydrates, and fiber are given depending on calories in the diet. But sodium (and cholesterol) are exactly the same for 2000 calories and 2500 calories.

aspire2bfit

Replace table salt with pink Himalayan salt which contains all 84 minerals and trace minerals our bodies require. If you crave salt its because you are not getting the nutrients from your current salt product. Once your receive the minerals from H. salt, you will notice your many positive changes in your body. Below is a link with more info and the benefits of H. salt.

http://www.himalayancrystalsalt.com/health-benefits.html

treetop57

From the CNN article on the Belgian study, linked above:

Despite the study's shortcomings, the findings do suggest that sodium guidelines should perhaps take into account differences among individuals, says Randal Thomas, M.D., a preventive cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota.

"We know that not everybody is as sensitive to sodium in their diet as others. Even among people with high blood pressure, no more than half are probably sodium sensitive, and in the general population, it's probably less than 10 percent," Thomas says. "In setting up a public policy, it's important to recognize the need to have a policy that doesn't punish the majority for the benefit of the minority."

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

It sure would be nice to know whether I'm part of that 10%. Everything I've read about reducing sodium basically comes down to "cook at home, everything from scratch." That ain't happening till I can afford a personal chef!

agentscully514

It sure would be nice to know whether I'm part of that 10%. Everything I've read about reducing sodium basically comes down to "cook at home, everything from scratch." That ain't happening till I can afford a personal chef!

have you talked to your doc about it?

treetop57

have you talked to your doc about it?

Nope. He's never said anything about it . . . which probably gives me the answer to the question of whether I should be concerned.

LorinaLynn

I stopped fussing about sodium. Some days I'm under, some I'm over. It was a lot easier to be under when I was eating around 1500 calories. Not so easy now that I'm over 2000 most days.

boggsmeister

Thanks everyone. So far the answers I have received are the ones I expected. I cook quite a bit of food at home, and I don't crave salt, though I do find it a necessary flavoring for many foods. My blood pressure has always been pretty low, and I have a resting heart beat of about 60.

I hadn't seen the Belgian study before. It's good to see large scale science backing up ideas. Though sometimes even that can be suspect. The idea that salt contributes to high blood pressure has a scientific basis too. The trouble was they didn't test that idea on people who didn't have high blood pressure.

At any rate, I think I will try to raise my potassium intake. I'm buying a vita-mix soon and will seek out high potassium ingredients for my smoothies. Minerals absorb sooo much better when they come from food sources. At least that's what I have been told.

19danno77

Thanks everyone. So far the answers I have received are the ones I expected. I cook quite a bit of food at home, and I don't crave salt, though I do find it a necessary flavoring for many foods. My blood pressure has always been pretty low, and I have a resting heart beat of about 60.

I hadn't seen the Belgian study before. It's good to see large scale science backing up ideas. Though sometimes even that can be suspect. The idea that salt contributes to high blood pressure has a scientific basis too. The trouble was they didn't test that idea on people who didn't have high blood pressure.

At any rate, I think I will try to raise my potassium intake. I'm buying a vita-mix soon and will seek out high potassium ingredients for my smoothies. Minerals absorb sooo much better when they come from food sources. At least that's what I have been told.

Yeah, bogg if you're not bitter sensitive potassium chloride is a decent salt replacer in the 20% range before the metallic off flavor can become more obvious. The problem with a study is that what it doesn't cover specifically is often construed to apply to a group larger than it should. At what point does anyone drop out of the conditions exhibited by those who experience a certain result? But we often forget the details as time goes on and only the generalizations remain...salt's not as bad as we think. But what happens when the body gets older and who knows how much plaque we have built up that can be shaken loose by a bloat caused by sodium intake/water retention? Boom, you have a stroke...

It's nice to say we'll quit smoking/drinking/speeding some day but as you delay those decisions, it becomes harder to stop...if you get salt down within say 50% of the RDI I'd say you're doing OK although it wouldn't hurt to get it lower. But as has been discussed, there's no reason to fear sodium and obsess over it unless you've already been diagnosed with hypertension or have been identified as at-risk for stroke--I think the regulators and health nazis are going overboard on salt patrol. It's good to see your Dr. ~once a year for a check on the vitals because things can change and we get old without hardly noticing. Personally, I'm anxious to get my cholesterol checked since dropping 25% of my bodyweight and ~70% of my bodyfat. I've always had LOW cholesterol so it'd be reassuring to see that my HDL has risen the past year...fingers crossed!

tigersword

Thanks everyone. So far the answers I have received are the ones I expected. I cook quite a bit of food at home, and I don't crave salt, though I do find it a necessary flavoring for many foods. My blood pressure has always been pretty low, and I have a resting heart beat of about 60.

I hadn't seen the Belgian study before. It's good to see large scale science backing up ideas. Though sometimes even that can be suspect. The idea that salt contributes to high blood pressure has a scientific basis too. The trouble was they didn't test that idea on people who didn't have high blood pressure.

At any rate, I think I will try to raise my potassium intake. I'm buying a vita-mix soon and will seek out high potassium ingredients for my smoothies. Minerals absorb sooo much better when they come from food sources. At least that's what I have been told.

The problem with the science behind salt contributing to high blood pressure is it went something like this.


There was never any scientific study into whether it caused hypertension or not. Turns out, sodium sensitivity is a symptom of hypertension, not a cause.

treetop57

Next, you'll be telling us that correlation isn't correlated with causation.

ki4yxo

Could be everybody is different.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/468690-almost-3-weeks-in-and-lowered-my-sodium?

19danno77

Here I would have thought global warming and melting ice would increase the number of pirates...science is so hard! I gave up on regulators when they said eggs were bad. Or was it when they said we should eat margarine instead of butter and then said, oops, eat butter instead!

ki4yxo

Here I would have thought global warming and melting ice would increase the number of pirates...science is so hard! I gave up on regulators when they said eggs were bad. Or was it when they said we should eat margarine instead of butter and then said, oops, eat butter instead!

Eggs are bad?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmPwL1YulMA

boggsmeister

Here I would have thought global warming and melting ice would increase the number of pirates...science is so hard! I gave up on regulators when they said eggs were bad. Or was it when they said we should eat margarine instead of butter and then said, oops, eat butter instead!

That's such a crock. Everyone knows that pirates cause global warming, and that graph proves it.

Hood25

My husband is 39 and was a fullback in college and pro ball. He was just diagnosed with high blood pressure. It took an emergency room visit for him to find out. He is ok but he needs to change his eating and exercise habits and is now on medication. It can sneak up on you no doubt. You can get everything checked out at your Dr.'s office. He was never told anything either. He has to get a physical every year for his job and was never given any input on HBP. I'm not sure what your eating habits are but I would definitely keep and eye on it. You check everything else why not sodium? They don't call high blood pressure the "silent killer " for nothing.
By the way..keep up the good work on your weight loss! Your making a change for the better as we speak.

aspire2bfit

Salt is a mineral comprised mainly of the two elements, sodium and chloride. The unrefined, unprocessed, sodium chloride plus all of the other 82 natural occurring mineral elements held within the crystalline structure of the salt in its original form; holistic, wholesome, unaltered, and natural, the crystallized remains of an ancient, primal ocean that evaporated years ago, and is today coming from an exclusive mine in the Himalayan Mountains, Original Himalayan Crystal Salt.

Life on Earth is not possible without salt. But our consumption of salt is killing us. Why is that? Because our regular table salt no longer has anything in common with the original crystal salt. Salt, now a days, is mainly sodium chloride and not salt. Natural, Original Himalayan Crystal Salt consists not only of two, but also of all natural elements.

Salt is the mediator between Energy and Matter. The word salt comes from the Latin word, Sal. In ancient times, the Roman soldiers were paid with salt. The Latin word salarium; meaning a payment made in salt, is the root of the word salary. The word sal is synonymous with its root origin, sol, again synonymous with the Sole, Latin for Sun. Mythologically, and from definition, sole means "liquid sunlight," the liquid materialization of the Sun's Energy bound into the geometric structure of a cube, capable of creating and sustaining life. Interestingly, our blood contains the same salty solution as that of the primal sea; that is, a fluid consisting of water and salt. It also has the same concentration as existed in those days when life left the primal sea. This salty water flows through more than 56,000 miles of waterways and blood vessels throughout our organism with the forces of gravity and levity and regulates and balances every single function of our body. There can be no thoughts or actions without the presence of salt in the body.