Countries have fought for hundreds of years for access to salt, and for good reason. Table salt, made up of NaCl (sodium chloride), is essential for our survival. Sodium drives basic cellular processes of the body including nerve and muscle function and is involved in the regulation of fluids in the body. Sodium also plays a role in the body's control of blood pressure and volume. In recent years however, it has been in vogue to avoid salt like the plague. Where does salt=bad come from? There are two likely sources.
First, heart and vascular doctors see increased sodium levels in patients with cardiovascular disease. The correlation between sodium and high blood pressure isn’t so cut and dry however. From nutrition and performance specialist and best-selling author Robb Wolf, “We know mechanistically, that sodium is important in blood pressure, we know that blood pressure is important for cardiovascular disease. But what got missed in that story is that the reason why the body hangs on to this sodium in the first place is we're just generally over-eating and maybe over-eating too many carbs. And when our insulin levels elevate, we become insulin resistant, then we tend to retain sodium. Insulin causes an upregulation in the production of a hormone called aldosterone. Aldosterone causes the kidneys to retain sodium. And so it's interesting because there is a reason to be concerned about sodium and blood pressure, but it's not really the way that we've been looking at things.” What Robb is saying is that high blood pressure, in most individuals, is due to overconsumption of food and increased insulin levels rather than elevated levels of sodium.
Second, anecdotally, people feel bloated and heavier after heavy doses of sodium. The thinking goes, if I feel bloated after meals rich in sodium, I should avoid salt all together. This idea doesn’t pan out though. The issue is that most people who over consume salt also, in most cases, are eating a lot of processed foods to get that salt in their body (ie. fried foods). If you were to salt let say, a baked potato, the body wouldn’t respond in the same way as eating deep fried chicken tenders (excess fat and refined carbohydrates). Moreover, once you have stabilized your salt intake, after a few days the body’s osmolarity will equalize, and the excess water retention will diminish.
For my nutrition clients, I don’t spend too much time obsessing about salt, but when they ask, I recommend lightly salting their food at meals (unless they have found to be hypersensitive to sodium. Which is ~1% of the population). I don’t spend as much time focusing on salt with clients as they usually have much bigger issues like food quality, portions, and variety to worry about.
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