The Salt Myth: Ending The War On Salt

Salt. The undervalued and misjudged nutrient source we have abused and misused for decades. What I once shivered away from in fear, I now research new brands in my free time whilst drinking my morning glass of lukewarm saltwater. How did we get here? Mass fear over this little substance. “Don’t eat salt,” they say, “it will cause heart disease and clog your arteries and you will die. Instead, have this cereal loaded with sugar that we call, “heart-healthy.”’ You know what this tells me? Trust no one. Trust history. Trust the facts.

If we go back a few hundred years, say to Europe in the 1600s, we can see that refrigerators did not exist and as a result, most, if not all, food was stored in an abundance of salt. I mean, a lot. To help you visualize it, think about an ocean of salt, and then take one-tenth of it out, and that is how much salt we eat today comparatively. If we zoom out to look at this salt gorging culture as a whole, we will see that, while many different plagues and diseases ran rampant within them, we are not seeing obesity, diabetes, or the hypertension crisis we are having now.

Why is this?

Salt is bad, we are told. It clogs arteries and causes kidney stones and exhausts your heart until it fails, they say.

Yet, in this snippet of time, the people are thriving in a different manner and we must acknowledge their diets of real whole foods, lots of salt, and minimal sugar.

Salt of the Sea or the Table?

Here is the thing about salt: there are different kinds and while they are much the same, they are also different in some key departments and it is important to be able to identify these to care for yourself properly.

Table salt is what most of us work with daily, and it is obtained through mining salt deposits. It is usually fortified with iodine which is essential for thyroid hormone production. Table salt goes through a process that strips it of its minerals to create a fine texture, fortifies it with this iodine, and is given additives to prevent clumping. Therefore, it is the ideal cooking and sprinkling salt; it mixes effortlessly.

Sea salt, on the other hand, is obtained directly through the evaporation of seawater. It has little to no processing and as a result, it retains trace levels of natural minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, and others. But it has no iodine. If you are looking at sea salt vs table salt because of the sodium, keep in mind that it is all done by weight and while sea salt is bigger all salts are 40% sodium by weight.

Salt is made up of two things: sodium and chloride.

Sodium is an essential nutrient that drives vitamin C to the brain, controls blood pressure, helps nerve and muscle function, promotes normal cell function, allows maintenance of acid balance in the blood, and balances harmful mineral imbalances to support thyroid function. Basically, it does a little bit of everything which is why it is essential. While most of this can be addressed with any bit of sodium, not all sodium contains iodine as most table salts do. Always make sure you see iodine on the label when purchasing, as consuming this type of salt can help you avoid an iodine deficiency which can cause growth and cognitive disorders in children, goiter, and other symptoms.

This is not an either/or ultimatum I am handing you. I am here to say you must pick both, and you must consume wisely.

Curb Your Cravings: Sweet or Salty?

What makes a lot of people nervous about touching salt is that we correlate it with sugar. We talk about it when we discuss how we taste things, what we crave, and the rewards both offer us when consumed. The issue here is sugar has nothing to offer us as salt does.

I could go on for ages about how harmful sugar is, but unfortunately, I am just as sensitive to these cravings as the next person and have no business chastising anyone for this addiction. They make it hard to get away from it. But, trust me, take a week off from eating sugar and see what it does to your body and mind. I dare you. Especially if you don’t believe withdrawing from food can mimic withdrawing from a drug. It’s ugly.

Here is the thing about salt, though. Salt does not make you crave more salt as sugar does. Sweet taste receptors do not signal for you to stop eating sweets, in fact, they make you crave more sugar and that is why it is so dangerous.

Salt taste receptors “flip” when you eat loads of it and provide you with an aversions signal. This means your body has a built-in defense mechanism that causes you to crave less salt during the day after consuming a lot of it.

Think about how you feel after eating a load of Chinese food or pizza.  And the beautiful thing about salt? Unlike sugar, the less you eat it the less you need. So, if you are looking to ween yourself off your sodium diet, you can. And you’ll learn that salt is an acquired taste and once you eat less you tolerate less as well, and vice versa.

Scary Salt or Scary Misinformation?

Doctors cannot agree how much salt is too much, and it is likely because the diet is everything, and the type of salt you are consuming matters.

My salt intake from a large McDonalds’ French fry is not equivalent to my heavily sea-salted, beef tallow smeared ribeye (I’m salivating at the thought of the latter though).

The American Health Association (AHA) says 1,500mg of sodium per day, while the Dietary Guidelines for people in the US suggests limiting sodium to 2,300 a day for adults and children. Do these numbers look the same? The AHA has additionally made claims that 75% of sodium comes from processed foods. Ah. Here we are now. Could it be that poor diets linked with high consumption of processed foods are to be blamed for the sodium fear?

Doctors recommend limiting salt intake because too much sodium can contribute to dehydration, heart disease, kidney stones, and high blood pressure. The problem here is a lot of these theories have been disproved and yet this ideology is spreading like wildfire.

I drink salt and people are concerned about my health while they are watching me with a hot dog covered in mustard and ketchup in hand. We are not the same. Sodium balances our fluids, transmits nerve impulses, influences the contraction and relaxation of our muscles.

We need to use this resource, but doctors are saying that we are overdoing it and it is causing this endless list of issues and it is likely because they are speaking out to the daily fast-food eaters that are not considering all the processed foods they are eating on top of their incredible sodium intake.

So as a result, doctors scare us into consuming less salt and shooting for “Low Sodium!” products because it will prevent health issues. Such as kidney stones. To elaborate, kidneys hold onto sodium when low and excrete sodium through urine when high. Your kidneys keep your storage for optimal health, and when your kidneys cannot eliminate enough sodium, it then begins to build in your blood. Which is a domino effect of increased blood volume, your heart having to work harder now, thus more pressure in your arteries, and so on. Sodium has constantly taken the blame for kidney stones and cheese and whatever else. But it’s not salt. Studies have shown that eating more salt can actually reduce the risk of kidney stones while sugar increases it.

Food for Thought…

1. Eat more fresh food.

Fruit and vegetables are naturally low in sodium. While processed foods such as bread, bagels, pizza, lunch meats, cheese, soups, fast food, prepared dinners with pasta and meat, are very high in sodium. Real whole foods that are fresh or frozen poultry or meat have not been injected with sodium-containing solutions and have the naturally occurring sodium that you do want. Befriend your butcher! They are the ones you can trust to let you know how to find grass-fed meat and fresh wild-caught seafood.

2. Beware of False Labels!

Always look at nutrition facts on the back as a lot of processed and canned foods are mislabeled by a marketing team doing their best to make a hefty paycheck. I will get more into this later but consider the fact that “low-sodium” advertisements on rice boxes do not mean that they are better for you than plain-long grain rice.

3. Condiments Are Silent Killers

Soy sauce, salad dressings, dips, ketchup, etc., have some wild ingredients in them and contain a lot of junk that we forget about with heaps of sodium we do not consider. Consider it. I have been enjoying Mark Sisson’s Primal Kitchen line as I feel he is someone with my best interest in mind when I am feeling the need for a dressing I can feel good about that has few ingredients and only uses whole foods and extra-virgin olive oil.

4. Spice Up Your Life

Do not underestimate the benefits of seasoning your food with fresh and dry herbs. Perhaps you pick up a gardening habit in the process! Always consider adding your own spices and herbs that have only their name on the list of ingredients. Use zest and juice from real fruit. It goes a long way, and you cannot beat the flavor of real food and plants.

Shoppers Jargon

• Be Able to Pronounce or Identify Most of the Ingredients
• Salt-Sodium containing compounds: Monosodium glutamate (MSG), Baking Soda/Sodium Bicarbonate, Baking Powder, Disodium Phosphate, Sodium Alginate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Nitrate. Yikes. A lot of hidden sodium that we do not consider but are usually unnecessary additives. Avoid 200 mg sodium per serving.
• “Sodium/Salt Free”: Less than 5 mg per serving
• “Very Low Sodium”: Less than 35 mg per serving
• “Low Sodium”: Less than 140 mg per serving
• “Reduced/Less Sodium”: 25% less than the regular version which does not always mean it is low sodium (think canned soup)
• “Lite/Light in Sodium”: Content has been reduced by at least 50% from the original version
• “Unsalted/No Salt Added”: This means that they did not salt during the processing of a food that normally contains salt. This means that it still has the potential to be high in sodium due to the other ingredients being high in sodium.

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The Life-Altering Mineral

The more I learn about the food industry the more I learn that the powers that be are not on my side. I constantly feel as though I am being bombarded with ads that promote sugar and poor health and my goal is to help shed some light on the misinformation out there.

I am not saying that the information I am getting is always right or will work for everyone, but that you need to do your research because I am not sure there is anything that will work for everyone besides water. I, personally, am willing to learn, relearn and unlearn whatever I need. I will always keep in mind that what I need and what you need are different, and that is why it is hard to listen to all this information we have always known but never questioned. Doctors are trying to help the public by giving them basic guidelines to follow, but that does not mean you need to listen. You need to hear them out and then adjust according to your own research, advice from your doctor, and your lifestyle.

I drink salt because I should given my diet, exercise, and fasting routine. Salt helps maintain adequate hydration and blood pressure. I resistance train 5 times a week and that involves cardio, HIIT, and Tabata that has me drenched in sweat.

I also drink coffee every single day. I’m on decaf now, but black coffee has heaps of health benefits, but it also causes you to become a frequent flyer to the bathroom. Dr. James Nicolantonio recommends 1.5-2 teaspoons a day if you are an avid exerciser and sweat it out or if you are a coffee drinker and urinate it out. I drink lukewarm water in the morning that is sprinkled with salt because it aids in optimal digestive health, facilitates absorption, and helps my body transport nutrients in the intestines after they have broken down during digestion.

Occasionally I will sprinkle salt in my water bottle before heading out to a particularly hard work out because I know that studies say it helps aid electrolyte balance which is necessary for maintaining optimal blood composition, circulation, muscular strength, and overall functioning of the body. I do not need a power drink that is filled with additives. Especially when one is filled with sugar and the other helps decrease decay of teeth.

I, personally, desire to only use the natural resources around me that my body knows and needs. I am trying to fill my body less with the products people want me to buy and more with the food from the earth. It has changed my life in the form of energy, sleep, digestion, weight maintenance, and strength. Always do your research and be mindful that only you are looking after yourself.

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