New Surprising Research on Salt’s Effect on the Body
The legend of the king's daughter who
declared to her father that she loved him like salt is a testimony to
the important presence of this mineral in our lives. Food without salt
is perceived by many as food without taste and therefore we add it to
almost every meal we eat, and this fact raises a number of questions. On
the one hand, table salt, despite it being associated with an increase
in blood pressure, is a vital component that our body that could not
function without, and new studies on sodium intake have even found that
salt causes increased calorie burning.
On the other hand, the industrial and
processed food we consume every day adds very large amounts of salt to
our diet and endangers our health. So what should we do? Is salt really a
dangerous substance that should be minimized as much as possible or is
it an important component that we need provide our bodies with? The
answer to this question is given in brand new research we’ll talk about
below.
Some basic salt facts:
Sodium chloride, known as a cooking salt, is a healthy and essential
mineral for the body, which helps, among other things, various organs
such as the heart and kidneys function, transmits nerve signals, and
regulates fluid in the body and many other processes. The sodium we need
to get from an external source, that is, the food we consume, and the
state of lack of sodium is dangerous for us and may endanger life as in
cases of dehydration or excessive consumption of liquids, which disturb
the balance of salt in the body. An equally dangerous, but much more
common, phenomenon is the surplus consumption of salt known as one of
the "evils" that accompany industrial and processed food that the
Western world consumes in large quantities.
The salt that is added to the food we buy is intended to enhance flavors
and smells, acts as a preservative that prevents expiration and is used
to create fermentation processes, as in the case of cheeses and
pickles. Foods that seem to us to be "innocent" like bought bread,
cheeses, salads, and even foods we think we need to add salt to, already
come with a high sodium content. By the way, just as with sugar, our
sensitivity to salt decreases as we consume more of it, so to feel its
taste we often feel the need to add more and more of it to our food.
Things to Know about Smart Salt
Consumption:
According to the World Health Organization, 99.2% of the world's adult
population consumes more than 6 grams of salt per day, which is the
daily recommended amount (not to be confused with the amount of sodium -
a chemical element in salt – with a recommended daily intake of 2.3
grams), therefore we can definitely coin this excess an epidemic. By the
way, 6 grams of salt is about one teaspoon, and we all know how fast a
teaspoon of salt is added to our plates, not considering the amount
added in the factories. The question is why is excess salt dangerous to
our bodies and what is its effect on our health? - and here the opinions
are divided.
The main concern that arises from excessive
salt consumption is the association found in various studies between
salt consumption and increase in blood pressure. As you know, high blood
pressure – the pressure blood places on the walls of the arteries in
which it passes - is one of the main causes of cardiovascular disease,
stroke, and kidney failure. Excess sodium has also been linked to the
development of kidney stones, edema and bone loss (osteoporosis). The
relationship between salt and blood pressure is probably due to the fact
that sodium pulls water from the blood vessels in the body and
increases the pressure on them, but new and multiple studies have begun
to contradict this connection and present surprising findings.
In a study of salt intake on more than
2,600 participants, participants who consumed less than 2.5 grams of
sodium a day had higher blood pressure than those who consumed higher
amounts of the mineral. These findings may be explained by the
conclusions of another study that found that even people who adhere to a
low-salt diet and those who consume a diet with excess salt have a high
risk of developing heart disease, so the relationship between salt and
blood pressure and the recommended amount of sodium intake is not as
straightforward as we once thought. Another important part of the study
was that potassium, calcium and magnesium intake, combined with sodium,
led to a decrease in blood pressure.
A new study from 2017 on salt intake and
the effect of sodium on the body shatters other myths we had about this
complex issue. After many years of being accustomed to thinking that
eating salty foods makes us thirsty and being served pretzels or peanuts
at a bar to make us drink more, we were mistaken. The findings from the
study, conducted on a small number of Russian cosmonauts, indicate that
what we feel is actually increased hunger. The researchers, who
increased the amount of salt given to some of the subjects, found that
although the latter received the same amount of calories as their peers,
they reported a stronger sense of hunger. The researchers also tested
the effect of sodium on mice and found similar findings that an
increased-salt diet caused the rodents to consume much more food.
Another interesting finding in both studies was that the higher the salt
intake, the greater their amount of urine, although they drank less
water and did not report increased thirst. The reasoning behind these
findings is that humans, like camels, know how to extract water from
their bodies by dissolving fat and muscle tissue. When we consume too
much salt, the body strives to remove it, so the level of
glucocorticoids that affect metabolism in the body increases and causes
the breakdown of fat and tissues that become liquid and remove the
excess sodium from the body. That is to say, salt causes increased
metabolic activity and calorie burning - which explains the sense of
hunger reported by cosmonauts.
How should we treat salt in the light of
these studies?
Based on the findings of these studies, should we switch to a high-salt
diet to lose weight and disregard warnings about excessive consumption?
The answer is of course no, but the research does shed new light on the
recommendations that many of us have followed with our eyes closed to
this day.
First of all, as noted, when the body gets rid of the excess salt and
releases energy, there is an increase in the sense of hunger that may
lead to excessive consumption of calories. Another reason why salt
should not be overdone and relied on as a "dietary" ingredient is that
the same glucocorticoid hormones mentioned above, cause the body to
break down fat and muscle, which is not the kind of weight we want to
lose. Incidentally, high levels of these hormones are also associated
with diseases such as bone depletion and diabetes.
In addition, very salty foods are usually
very fattening - so there's no point in leaning on them as our diet
friends. As for the conflicting findings about the relationship between
blood pressure and a high-salt diet, since an increase in blood pressure
is linked to other risk factors, the recommendation is to make changes
in the amount of salt you consume in your diet with help from a doctor
or nutritionist and monitor your blood pressure levels to find out the
effects of salt on your health.
Since the amount of salt your body needs may differ from the standard
recommendation, and because it is influenced by age, climate, genetics,
background diseases, and more, the best thing to do is to carefully
examine the effect of salt on you and not to exaggerate in any
direction. Remember, table salt is not the enemy, but the industrial
foods that many of us eat every single day are. It is therefore
recommended that all of us maintain a balanced diet that doesn’t prevent
our body from benefiting from substances such as salt, sugar, fats or
other essential substances, while not being harmfully excessive,
something that may cause health damage.