The Water / Sodium Balance

MercuryBlue

I've been reading a lot about the importance of drinking enough water, and reducing sodium intake. I know that too much salt is bad for you, and too much salt + not enough water = water retention. I also know that the more salt you consume, the more water you should drink to ‘flush it out’.

I also know that salt is an electrolyte and critical to our body, in order for it to function. Too much water and not enough salt can be a bad thing…

What I’m having trouble finding is any information about how much water we should drink to flush out an excess of sodium. Like, say a person consumes 500mg more sodium than they ‘should’ have; in this case, how much water would that person need to drink in order to ‘flush out’ that sodium?

I know it’s recommended that adults consume no more than 2300mg of sodium per day and should drink 8-10 cups of water per day. But say a person eats 2800mg of sodium. This person will be told ‘drink lots of water, it will flush out the salt’ but there’s not a lot of guidance about how MUCH water the person should drink. And since I know it’s possible to go overboard on water intake, I wanted to ask… is there a guideline for this? Is there any research done that shows, “X amount of water will flush out Y amount of salt, in an average adult”?

Just a question that came to mind today after reading some sodium-related threads….

BombolinaM

That's a good question. It's so amazing how much sodium is in foods. I've been watching my intake. I wish I knew the answer. If I have to much I bloat like a balloon.

courtney_love2001

I think it would be very complicated to answer this question. In short, there is a gradient of extracellular to intracellular sodium in your body (as with other cations and anions). Your kidneys have just such a gradient, and this gradient, along with certain hormones like anti-diuretic hormone and angiotensin-renin, tell your kidneys how much sodium to retain/expel and how much water to retain/expel. You body will adjust concentration and amount of urine to deal with whatever you decide to put in it--that's what they were made for! I don't know the ratio that you are asking for, but I would say that it is different for everyone. It all depends on hormone levels and how fast those hormones are released into your blood, and how long it takes your body to respond. I have never heard any of my professors say drink X ounces of water to flush that Chinese food that you just ate, so no idea about that! I guess I'm just trying to say it's really complicated, and there is probably no consensus on it. I always take the approach of more water= more better so I drink like a gallon a day, and I hardly ever have that puffy feeling you get after a salty meal. Hope this helps :flowerforyou:

EmilyStrick

i don't know about the water, but i do know that sodium levels need to be thought about along with potassium levels. in order to keep a balance, you want to consume at least equal amounts of sodium and potassium, erring on the side of high potassium. you won't be eating a lot of processed food if you do that!!!

AlyssaC2010

That's a good question...I have no idea lol. I have heard many times that lemons are great for bloating/water retention, especially around "that time of the month." I usually add lemon juice concentrate to my water and it makes me drink more. I don't know if that helps any, but I hope it does

Sparksfly

well if at 2300mg you should be drinking 10 cups of water, then at 2800mg you should consume 12.2 cups of water to balance it out.

I know this isn't after the fact you ate something higher in sodium, but I think for next time try to be proactive and drink an extra glass or two to even it out.

MissKim

I wouldn't be too worried about drinking too much water. Too much water being bad comes into play when you get water poisoning. It's very rare and in the cases it does happen it's an athlete that drank gallons in a short time. It would take alot in a short amount of time. And if your like me you sip all day and pee all day! There will be no harm in that. The only time I would be concerned about having too much water is when your at the gym and you drink a whole lot at one time. So as long as your body is expelling the water, no worries. I drink 7-8 20 oz bottles a day. That's 160 oz's. I have no problems with water retention. The problem comes in when I cheat all weekend and don't even pick up my water bottle all weekend, come monday i'm sure to be 5 lbs up!

MercuryBlue

Thanks for your input everyone!

Lol... not really worried about it for myself (I try not to eat more than 2000mg of sodium per day, closer to 1500 whenever I can. And I drink 8 cups of water per day, too!) but more for others. It's become second nature to tell people who consume too much salt, "Oh, just drink a bunch of water!" but I wanted to make sure that there wasn't more to it than that.

I know that water intoxication is SUPER rare. And it usually happens not because of QUANTITY of water, but because of how much water was consumed over a short period of time. That being said, I had this silly mental image of someone hearing, "Oh, drink a bunch of water? OKAY!" Then going on to drink a quart of it at once or something, lol.

Generally, I drink an extra cup of water for every 500mg of sodium I consume (over 2000mg). I don't know if that makes any difference, but I do find it helps keep me from retaining too much water! Of course, given how much water I consume on a daily basis ANYWAYS, I try to avoid eating too much sodium just to avoid that extra glass of water. I can't tell you how many bathroom breaks I take a day!!!!

MissKim

I'm right there with you! I probably spend a good hour peeing a day......but it's worth it!

jennylynn84

i don't know about the water, but i do know that sodium levels need to be thought about along with potassium levels. in order to keep a balance, you want to consume at least equal amounts of sodium and potassium, erring on the side of high potassium. you won't be eating a lot of processed food if you do that!!!

I have heard this as well. The problem for me as that most items don't have the potassium for them listed. Pretty much none of my recipes I cook for dinner that have the nutrition values have potassium included and I don't see it on most of my granola bars and things like that either.

So how do you know? I hate bananas, btw. Is there something else I can have regularly to make sure I'm getting potassium. If I'm correct, potassium also helps with muscle cramps when working out, so that would be nice.

MissKim

Foods high in Potassium

•raisins
•prunes
•apricots
•dates
•strawberries
•bananas
•watermelon
•cantaloupe
•citrus fruits
•beets
•greens
•spinach
•tomatoes
•mushrooms
•soy products
•veggie burgers
•peas
•beans
•turkey
•fish
•beef
•salmon
•cod

jennylynn84

Thank you MissKim!

Looks like I'm not doing half bad on my potassium by this list - there's potassium in a lot more than I thought there was.