Don't fear the salt!
Our bodies need salt
Humans evolved from the sea and we continue to carry the saltiness of the sea inside us – it is an absolutely essential nutrient we need to live. We have a biological drive to consume salt, although our recent culture has messed with this and given salt a bad reputation.
When populations all over the world are left to their own devices, away from government dietary guidelines, they gravitate towards eating 3000 - 4000 mg of sodium a day, equivalent to 7.5 - 10 g salt or 1½ - 2 teaspoons, which is the intake range for optimal health for most people.
Salt cravings are biologically normal and our clever bodies crave it when we need more. So essential is salt to health that Roman soldiers were often paid with a measure of salt, leading to the English word salary for payment!
Low salt guidelines are based on inherited beliefs rather than scientific evidence
Most of us really don’t need low salt diets or to consciously try and restrict what salt we take in, as our bodies are really good at self-regulating. And for many of us, it would be actually be beneficial to take in a little more salt.
We have mechanisms to manage excess salt consumption such as excretion in our urine and shunting it to our skin to keep it hydrated, so we can generally let our bodies be our guide. Rather than follow flawed dietary guidelines that stem back to the 70s, when we felt the need to start telling people what to eat based on politics, commercial interests and dogma rather than science.
There is a lack of sound scientific evidence that eating salt raises blood pressure and causes heart disease. Excess carbohydrate and sugar consumption, leading to too much insulin and insulin resistance are the key protagonists. It does actually seem that salt has been blamed for what the sugar did!
For the majority of people, their blood pressure will not be affected by salt and there are more health risks associated with low salt levels. Heart attack rates actually increase on a low salt diet.
Many of us would benefit from consuming more salt
We are often told to limit, or even lower, our salt intake and many medications, as well as caffeine, deplete sodium. But cutting down on salt isn’t the best advice for most people.
Add it to your cooking and your food for taste and if you are eating very low carb, like me, consider adding in a salty hot drink to your daily routine made from a stock cube, bouillon powder, Bovril, Marmite or homemade stock.
If you want to know more I highly recommend The Salt Fix by Dr James DiNicolantonio.