Is salt really a big deal?

I try to cook my own food and avoid processed as much as is practical, but I love salt. I put it on everything. I also have never had a problem with high blood pressure. Do I really need to worry about it? I read on these forums all the time to be careful about the salt in, say, canned beans…does it really matter, especially when I’m trying to tackle fats and sugars and excessive calories, none of which are salt’s fault? I read somewhere that we actually consume less salt than people used to back when it was the only way to preserve food. A couple articles/opinions…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/science/23tie…

http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/11/the-shaky-sci…

Salt is made up of two parts, Sodium and Chloride and it is the Sodium that can lead to the health problems. Adults should have no more than 2400mg (2.4g) of Sodium per day (multiply it by 2.5 to get the salt amount which is 6g Salt).
To a certain degree I agree with you that we consume less salt than we used to because the salt you refer to was used to preserve wholefoods such as meats but living in a quick fix society we have so many processed foods now as alternatives to these whole foods and most of these have added salts and sugars. If you eat a mostly wholefood diet then adding salt here and there wont be a problem but it is suprising how much you will find in a procesed diet. (please note, i am not a professional, this is based on my own research. I hope this helps with your question)

I think it depends. Your body also needs salt. I don’t see anything wrong with decreasing the amount of salt put in processed foods/restaurant dishes, there is always a salt shaker, if you want more you can add it. (people already do)

i dont believe the argument that decreasing salt in food will cause people to eat more, and it had a very minor role in his argument and shouldnt really have been used at all.

also i wonder if we really ate more salt then, becasue salt was very expensive and people at much less meat than we currently do.

Apparently, most salt in the average person’s diet is added before the consumer gets to it – that is, during processing. So if you cook your food from scratch, adding salt isn’t a big deal. But if you eat a lot of processed food, which is already heavily salted, then yes, adding salt is a problem.

Yes, salt was used to preserve a variety of foods way-back-when. But it wasn’t the only way to preserve food (air drying, smoking, etc) and most people ate far less meat than we do now. Plus, have you ever eaten salt-fish? You normally have to rinse it out several times, washing away most of the salt, before it is remotely edible.

Maybe you aren’t having blood pressure problems now, but you could develop them later. They usually occur in middle age or later.

Yes, I’m aware of the sodium guidelines, I’m just wondering if they are based on science or whether it’s more faulty info (like the food pyramid). There are plenty of sites that call into question whether salt is a problem for those who do not already have health issues requiring special diets, but I don’t know if these opinions are coming from reputable sources.

For example, "another study in the journal Hypertension concluded that “no single universal prescription for sodium intake can be scientifically justified.” (http://www.esquire.com/the-side/MARIANI/mariani… If true, then maybe the sodium recommendation is not to be taken seriously.

Some say that if your kidneys are healthy, you can’t get excess salt because you will excrete it. Others say it isn’t known whether salt causes high blood pressure, just that it is beneficial to limit it if you have high blood pressure. So…if I want to avoid high blood pressure in middle age, doesn’t it make more sense to lower stress and do more yoga as opposed to worry about how much salt I’m consuming?

I’m just concerned that this is “eat low fat” all over again, which did me a whole lotta wrong because I actually didn’t get enough fat for a long time and ended up eating too much sugar instead.

I get that there’s too much salt in processed foods, but there are far more compelling reasons to avoid processed foods in the first place so it feels a bit like “eat less salt” is a message eclipsing “eat fewer processed foods”, because the food companies will just start marketing “low salt!” on their products and nevermind all the high fructose corn syrup or whatever else in them.

It reminds me a bit of a study that came out recently saying that toddlers who watch too much TV end up bullied more at the age of 10. Huh?! Well…the connection was that they weren’t getting enough exercise, so they ended up being the overweight kids in class, and everyone knows they are the first to get picked on. So, wouldn’t it have been more beneficial to tell parents that TV is only okay if it isn’t interfering with normal exercise/activity? The bullying thing seems like a red herring, so a parent might say “no TV” and then the kid plays on the computer or with video games instead and ends up with the same result. It just seems like these studies would be more beneficial if they focused on the primary negative effect…in the case of processed food, too many calories and unnatural ingredients versus not enough nutrients; salt seems like a minor part of the problem.

But I could be wrong, I don’t know if the sources I’m reading are good or if the prevailing wisdom is good or what. Thanks for the input!

I think my only issue with salt is that when I have high salt food (like chinese with soy sauce) I tend to retain water. Other then that issue I don’t see salt being the horror that some people think it is. Really it all depends on your body and how you handle salt!

from what I’ve been told by a couple of doctor’s that I work with salt is really only a problem for people with sodium sensative hypertension. Meaning, the person has high blood pressure that is directly caused by sodium intake and their blood pressure is negatively affected when salt intake becomes too high.

for the rest of us it does not seem to be a problem. However, it does cause bloating as it increases water rention and it will dyhydrate you more quickly…so if you are eating a lot of salt make sure you drink enough water to offset that.

@jamie76 that’s what I’ve heard too..

Before I started this both my dad and I used to love salt. He still does, but I’ve dropped it as much as possible. Neither of us ever had issues with sodium-caused high blood pressure. My dad has high blood pressure and takes medication for it, but was never told to restrict his salt intake (when he went on the medication he did bring it up). My blood pressure has always been close to normal even when I was using a lot of salt.

For a person not watching their weight the hypertension thing is the only thing really to worry about. For a person trying to get fit though it helps to cut down on sodium…it will help you shed water-weight as the water won’t be held in the body by sodium as much.

For me, if i have too much sodium i end up weighing more the next day, my body is super sensitive to sodium, if i have say 1900 mg it will affect me so i tend to keep it under that but not everybody is that sensitive to it. Having too much salt is bad for you anyway but personally i am not a salty foods fan so thats fine with me!

There is very little evidence that salt on its own increases blood pressure or causes any other problems. The problem with salt, as far as I can see, is that it causes people to eat more than they otherwise would. In fact, I imagine that any connection that has been found with salt and blood pressure, is probably due to increased calories as a result of the salt. BUT, if you’re counting calories, then it shouldn’t matter.

There is very little evidence that salt on its own increases blood pressure or causes any other problems. The problem with salt, as far as I can see, is that it causes people to eat more than they otherwise would. In fact, I imagine that any connection that has been found with salt and blood pressure, is probably due to increased calories as a result of the salt. BUT, if you’re counting calories, then it shouldn’t matter.

I completely agree with you about these psudo-scientific study results. I rememeber laughing once about a radio news report I heard while at work. One day “scientist” claimed that stress was actually good for you, they then gave a brief reason for why. The very next day on the same radio station (which is what makes it so funny) they reported that “scientists” have actually found that stress is very bad for you and proceeded to give reasons for that argument as well. As far as dieting goes it is easy for someone to say dont eat this, cut down that and eat more of this but common sense tells us that balance is the key to everything and any time you tip the balance something on the opposite end will suffer. The only advice you can take away from my “opinion” is almost anything in moderation is fine but if there is a lot of focus on it then it couldnt hurt to listen but take it with a pinch of salt.

abhoffman: I find your posts worthwhile and informative however, you don’t need to double post. :-)

There is very little evidence that salt on its own increases blood pressure or causes any other problems. *

No evidence ? Epidemiologic study over millions of people are “nothing” ?
I don’t like it when people consider science as definitive knowledge and complete magic… but dismissing all scientific research as BS is not smart at all.

Japan is the country with the saltiest food… and fortunately changing for the better. The world record of stomach cancer comes with it.
They have longly and largely compared the top salt eater, and the lower salt eaters in this country… and it’s not a theory that salt excess over the years is bad, it’s established that excess salt plays a major role. So the salt problem is real… even if we don’t know precisely how, why, how much…
That said, it’s a question of levels.

Clear excess (you WILL get problems)
Some junk food eaters gets something like 12 g a day. I think that’s people that eat chips and salty peanuts and get 1 g per bag of chips, that’s not only salt from meals that gets you there… but well, I lose illusion every time I step into a US food mall.
The Japanese salt fish fan gets even more, as there are easily 10 g in one salt fish, and you see guys that have it averyday.

Questionable high level :
The average population in most countries people that eat too much process food is at 8 g a day… and “the average” would be healthier with a little less.

Wiser levels :
General recommendation is 4 g a day. It’s very easy to eat under that level, IMO.
The “health extremists” tell you to be under 2 g, or at zero grammes….it’s extreme (I exclude people with a condition and that take certain medications, of course).

I cook at home, I use salt with “economy” but I like a few salty stuff a few servings a week (kimchi, soy sauce, miso, ham, cheese, salt fish…), so I am between 2 and 3 g without effort. 6~10 g certain days (I eat out, I get my salty fish…). I have calculated.

So see where you are. Some persons I know were not thinking they had too much salt. When they calculated, they found they were never under 10g a day, and when they were munching salty stuff with their beer they passed the 25 g level easily….I think they should not “worry”, but do something about it. It’s easy to change a little your diet to avoid large excess.

I’d be interested to hear more about the Japanese studies, if you have any links. After all, correlation is not causation and I’d like to see what sort of information can be gleaned here. After all, I don’t want to focus on this AT ALL if it’s not an issue…I have enough to worry about with getting enough fat/protein, keeping carbs and calories in check, etc. If the body is designed to simply expel excess salt, it’s a waste of energy to track it, think about it, or take action to change it.

Strictly from personal experience: my fairly, but not dangerously, high blood pressure barely moved as a result of increasing my cardio exercise when I started all of this. BUT when I cut back on processed food and switched from adding salt to adding potassium-based NoSalt or a similar product at home, it dropped considerably. I also know that it makes me retain water, because every time I endulge in something salty like pizza (not home-made), I weight more the next day even though I don’t over-eat and I compensate for the calories in the pizza.

From my point of view added salt from eating processed food is just bad for you. If you don’t eat processed food and want to add salt to food you make yourself the I would be more interested in the ratio of sodium to potassium. Generally if your adding iodised salt then it has very little potassium in it. So go for unrefined sea salt. A few articles I have read recommend keeping you potassium twice as much as your sodium.

So in summary, no one has any idea :-) I mean, I keep hearing people say they watch their salt due to water retention, and that’s fine and dandy but I could care less about a couple pounds of water weight—-I’m here to shed the fat, not every pound is a bad pound. I’m also seeing a lot of “…and salt is bad for you anyway…” in these postings which goes right to the heart of what I’m saying: everyone says that, but is it true and if so based on what? Isn’t this the same thing as when everyone said “fat is bad for you” 20 years ago? It’s so much more complex than that. Even if it were proven to cause high blood pressure…so what, you can reverse that by cutting out the salt when the doctor says to. Heck, my JOB is more likely to cause high blood pressure ;-)

@cccc First of all, i said “very little evidence.” That’s not the same as no evidence. Second, yeah, I’ve looked at these studies. Most of them do not control for the macronutrients or total calories consumed. Those that HAVE looked at calories for example, show that reducing calories also reduces blood pressure. Increasing fruits and veggies lowers blood pressure. So this means that salt alone is not the only factor here. I’ve seen meta-analyses of this question and most people do not fall into the category of folks who need to worry much about salt intake.

…also, Japan has one of the highest suicide rates of any country. Is that also due to their high salt intake?

I was warned by my physician to be careful when reducing salt in the diet. Specifically, lowering salt will lower your blood pressure. Mine was on the low side of normal, and was a concern to him.

I was told to cut salt to 2G a day – salt not sodium. The reason was to get water out of my inner ear. Salt maks you retain water EVERYWHERE – ear, brain…

Folks worry about high blood pressure, but too little salt WILL actually lower it.

Like anything else, too much is bad and too little is bad.