This may be a bit of a controversial topic but I've enjoyed researching and writing this one, Im pretty pleased with it, and think it's definitely worth sharing. Another case of years of misinformation/miseducation I'm afraid and something that is definitely worth understanding better.......
Introduction
For over 40yrs we have been taught that salt increases blood pressure and ideally we should all be eating a low salt diet, guess what, there was never any scientific evidence to support these guidelines! There was a basic hypothesis proposed that said when we eat salt we get thirsty, when we get thirsty we drink more water, and when we drink more water the excess salt causes our bodies to hold onto the water, increasing the total volume of blood and hence increasing blood pressure. There was some circumstantial evidence to support this initially but a lot of the data conflicted, and whilst scientists continued to debate governments had already taken their stance (sounds familiar right!). From this moment on salt has been demonised, but does this really make any sense, I (and many far knowledgeable people) would argue not.
The Evolutionary Case
The first living creatures on the planet evolved in seawater, when they first crawled onto land they brought salt from the ocean with them and millions of years later the human body still mimics the make-up of the ocean. Salt has always been needed to maintain optimum blood levels, to pump blood, for digestion, for cellular communication, bone formation & reproduction.
It is likely that early humans would have eaten aquatic plants, fish, and other seafood which would have contained a significant amount of salt. Even living away from the sea, by eating nuts, insects & animal skin/organs/blood its reasonable to assume that the early human diet would have been relatively high in salt.
And its not just humans, the need for salt can be seen across the animal kingdom. Farmers have long understood the importance of salt as Sodium deficiency reduces successful mating, milk production, birth weights & litter size. The same can be seen in humans where a low salt diet appears to act like a natural contraceptive, causing reduced sex drive, reduced fertility and reduced birth weight.
The Science
So 40 years on here's what medical evidence actually suggests...Demonisation of salt is not only unsupported by scientific evidence its counter productive. The majority of people do not experience the blood pressure raising effects of salt at all, and instead of focusing just on blood pressure we should also consider the numerous health risks caused by low salt intake, such as:
- Increased heart rate
- Compromised kidney function
- Adrenal insufficiency
- Hypothyroidism
- Elevated triglycerides
- Insulin resistance
- Obesity
- Type 2 diabeties
Restricting Sodium essentially causes the body to panic, the body responds by increasing insulin levels to help the kidneys retain sodium, these high insulin levels also help store energy in fat cells. With the majority of fat being stored the only macro-nutrient that can be utilised for energy is carbohydrate, leading to carbohydrate dependency and all its associated problems.
What is salt and what does it do?
Salt (NaCl) is a natural mineral made up of white cube-shaped crystals composed of two elements, sodium and chlorine. It is translucent, colourless, odourless and has a distinctive and characteristic taste. Salt occurs naturally in many parts of the world in mineral form, when ingested it gets broken down into its two chemical components in the body, chloride becomes a part of the acids in your digestive tract. These absorb nutrients from your food. Sodium, the other component of salt, manages how hydrated we are by controlling the movement of water in and out of our cells. It also helps to manage shock (Burns, traumas, haemorages, etc) where we experience a loss of fluid and salt is required to control the fluid levels and the bodies ability to circulate blood.
Salt & Addiction
Here's another interesting little fact with far reaching implications. When low in salt, your body makes your brains reward system hypersensitive, essentially allowing it to receive more pleasure from eating salt, i.e. giving you salt cravings. This is a critical survival mechanism that has developed over 100 million years of evolution and has ensured the survival of almost every species since then. The downside to this mechanism is that the brains reward system is up-regulated for all substances that trigger the reward system. In a world where we are surrounded by such substances this can cause serious issues with addiction (think sugar, alcohol, nicotine, heroin, etc).
How Much is Right
Based on current studies a daily intake of between 3 to 6g of Sodium (1.33 - 2.66 tspn of Salt) is the optimum range. Daily salt intakes of less than 2.3g or more than 6g are associated with an increased risk of cardio vascular events. It is important to note that these risks are far higher with a low salt intake than a high salt intake.When there is an increase of Sodium in the blood the kidneys reabsorb less and the excess Sodium is excreted in urine. Our kidneys filter between 1.4 and 1.6 Kg of salt per day, this is about 150 times the amount that we ingest!
If you let it, your body naturally drives you to eat 8-10g of salt (3-4g of sodium) per day, an intake that places the least stress on our bodies.
Additional Sodium (over and above the 3-6g recommendation) may be required if any of the following apply to you as they all can cause Sodium depletion:
- You over consume sugar
- You take certain medications such as diuretics, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics & some diabetes drugs.
- You drink caffeinated drinks (Butter coffee anyone?)
- You engage in intense exercise
- You (like me) follow a low-carb diet
- You (like me) practise intermitant fasting
- You suffer from certain chronic diseases
Salt and Excercise
On average you can expect to lose 1.4g of Sodium per hour of excercise in moderate climates, and this can increase to 2.9g per hour in hot climates. Your sweat contains between 7-80 times the amount of Sodium than tap water so it is important to re-hydrate accordingly.
Salt dosing before, during and after excercise is an effective way to combat dehydration. The following doses can be used as a guide:
| Temperature (deg C) | Salt dosage | |
| Less than 26 | 1/2 tspn prior to exercise and every hour after | |
| Between 26 and 31 | 1 tspn prior to exercise and every hour after | |
| 32 and above | 2 tspn prior to exercise and every hour after | |
Hydration
Correctly dosing sodium is important for hydration, both in general and especially during exercise. You may well have experienced making the common mistake whilst exercising of continually drinking, requiring multiple bathroom breaks, and yet still feeling thirsty?! Guess what, even if you're pee is clear you can still suffer from hypo-hydration. The solution is to put a pinch of salt in your water bottle, this will help your body absorb the water into your tissues. Drinking pure water is fine with food (when you can salt your food) but when you're just guzzling water add a pinch of salt. But wait, isn't saltwater poisonous, we've all been told never to drink seawater right? Well it's all a matter of dosage, a pinch of salt in your drinking water will help your body hydrate, seawater on the other hand is very salty (approximately 3%), and due to the osmosis process, the kidneys can only generate urine which is less salty than the water we drink. Consequently, if you drank seawater your body would tend to urinate more to be able to eliminate the excess of salt, but instead of elimination, the result is the formation of more salt as the urine obtained is always less salty than the original. The body would have to ex-pulse more liquid than the amount drunk, which is impossible, and that’s why the effect of drinking water from the sea is dehydration.
So DO add a pinch of salt to your drinking water to aid hydration, but DON'T dink seawater!
Babies & Children
Now an internet search for recommended salt intake for babies and children will deliver a massive amount of low salt propaganda with most sources saying that our children are eating too much salt, there's no need to to add salt to a child's diet, etc, etc. The reality is though babies and children are no different to adults when it comes to basic physiology, and just like adults their kidneys help regulate sodium in and out of the blood and urine, so if your baby/child has healthy kidneys and is eating real food (no processed junk please) then there’s no need to worry about sodium content in homemade foods. Breast milk (and formula) contains sufficient Sodium for a babies needs, a breast feeding baby will receive approximately 164mg a day from breast milk alone, and that's as nature intended. When they start eating solids they, just like adults, should start including a proportionate amount of salt in their diet.
What sort of Salt
There's a number of different types of salt available, a few are detailed below:
When it comes to what you eat I will always be the first to recommend unrefined, unprocessed natural food and in general I would suggest the same when it comes to salt. Certainly I would recommend avoiding table salt (which is heavily refined and devoid of any additional minerals) and going for one of the other varieties with a higher mineral content, but I would recommend including some iodised salt in your diet....
Unless (like early humans) you're regularly dining on sea vegetables and other Iodine rich foods its likely that you could be at risk of iodine deficiency, iodised salt is a great way to maintain your iodine levels.
Personally when it comes to salt I tend to favour Himalayan salt and iodised sea salt and will generally fill a grinder with a 50/50 mix of the two. This should include a good range of minerals, from relatively natural salts, along with the essential iodine.
Correctly dosing sodium is important for hydration, both in general and especially during exercise. You may well have experienced making the common mistake whilst exercising of continually drinking, requiring multiple bathroom breaks, and yet still feeling thirsty?! Guess what, even if you're pee is clear you can still suffer from hypo-hydration. The solution is to put a pinch of salt in your water bottle, this will help your body absorb the water into your tissues. Drinking pure water is fine with food (when you can salt your food) but when you're just guzzling water add a pinch of salt. But wait, isn't saltwater poisonous, we've all been told never to drink seawater right? Well it's all a matter of dosage, a pinch of salt in your drinking water will help your body hydrate, seawater on the other hand is very salty (approximately 3%), and due to the osmosis process, the kidneys can only generate urine which is less salty than the water we drink. Consequently, if you drank seawater your body would tend to urinate more to be able to eliminate the excess of salt, but instead of elimination, the result is the formation of more salt as the urine obtained is always less salty than the original. The body would have to ex-pulse more liquid than the amount drunk, which is impossible, and that’s why the effect of drinking water from the sea is dehydration.
So DO add a pinch of salt to your drinking water to aid hydration, but DON'T dink seawater!
Babies & Children
Now an internet search for recommended salt intake for babies and children will deliver a massive amount of low salt propaganda with most sources saying that our children are eating too much salt, there's no need to to add salt to a child's diet, etc, etc. The reality is though babies and children are no different to adults when it comes to basic physiology, and just like adults their kidneys help regulate sodium in and out of the blood and urine, so if your baby/child has healthy kidneys and is eating real food (no processed junk please) then there’s no need to worry about sodium content in homemade foods. Breast milk (and formula) contains sufficient Sodium for a babies needs, a breast feeding baby will receive approximately 164mg a day from breast milk alone, and that's as nature intended. When they start eating solids they, just like adults, should start including a proportionate amount of salt in their diet.
What sort of Salt
There's a number of different types of salt available, a few are detailed below:
- Table salt. This is harvested from salt deposits found underground. It’s highly refined and finely ground, with impurities and trace minerals removed in the process. It’s also treated with an anti-caking agent to keep from clumping. Most table salt is iodized, meaning iodine has been added to prevent iodine deficiency.
- Sea Salt. Harvested from evaporated sea water, sea salt is usually unrefined and coarser-grained than table salt. It also contains some of the minerals from where it was harvested such as zinc, potassium and iron among them.
- Himalayan salt is the purest form of salt in the world and is harvested by hand from Khewra Salt Mine in the Himalayan Mountains of Pakistan. Its color ranges from off-white to deep pink. Rich in minerals it contains the 84 natural minerals and elements found in the human body. Himalayan salt is used in spa treatments, as well as the kitchen.
- Celtic sea salt is harvested from the bottom of tidal ponds off the coast of France. The salt crystals are raked out after sinking; this, plus the mineral-rich seawater its extracted from, gives Celtic salt its moist, chunky grains, grey hue and briny taste.
- Fluer de Sel is a sea salt hand-harvested from tidal pools off the coast of Brittany, France. Paper-thin salt crystals are delicately drawn from the water’s surface, much like cream is taken from milk. This can only be done on sunny, dry days with a slight breeze, and only with traditional wooden rakes. Because of its scarcity and labor-intensive harvesting, fleur de sel is the most expensive salt.
- Kala namak (“black salt” in Nepalese) is Himalayan salt that’s been packed in a jar with charcoal, herbs, seeds and bark, then fired in a furnace for a full 24 hours before it’s cooled, stored and aged.
- Flake Salt. Harvested from salt water through evaporation, boiling or other means, flake salt is thin and irregularly shaped with a bright, salty taste and very low mineral content.
- Black Hawaiian Salt is a sea salt harvested from the volcanic islands of Hawaii. It gets its deep, black colour from the addition of activated charcoal.
- Red Hawaiian salt gets its name and colour from the reddish, iron-rich volcanic clay alaea. Used for centuries in ceremonial ways for cleansing, purification and the blessing of tools, red Hawaiian salt is also great in the kitchen.
- Smoked Salt. Slow-smoked up to two weeks over a wood fire (usually hickory, mesquite, apple, oak or alder wood), smoked salt adds an intense and, yes, smoky flavor.
When it comes to what you eat I will always be the first to recommend unrefined, unprocessed natural food and in general I would suggest the same when it comes to salt. Certainly I would recommend avoiding table salt (which is heavily refined and devoid of any additional minerals) and going for one of the other varieties with a higher mineral content, but I would recommend including some iodised salt in your diet....
Unless (like early humans) you're regularly dining on sea vegetables and other Iodine rich foods its likely that you could be at risk of iodine deficiency, iodised salt is a great way to maintain your iodine levels.
Personally when it comes to salt I tend to favour Himalayan salt and iodised sea salt and will generally fill a grinder with a 50/50 mix of the two. This should include a good range of minerals, from relatively natural salts, along with the essential iodine.
Warning
It would be remis of me not to mention the following. A small proportion of the population should be concerned about consuming/retaining too much Sodium, specifically people who suffer from any of the following:
These people should monitor and possible limit salt intake. the rest of have a number of strong defense mechanisms to maintain the required Sodium levels.
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