Monday, October 10, 2011

Secret 28: Don't Pass The Salt or 'Why Americans Are Too Salty'*


Do you remember the experiment in school in which we learned how much salt can be dissolved in water before it becomes saturated? Fill a cup with water and add salt. Stir the water and watch the salt disappear. At saturation the salt no longer dissolves but becomes visible since the solution is over-saturated. Keep that image in mind as you read this secret.

Without salt there is no life. In fact salt was once so precious that it was used in lieu of money. The word 'salary' contains the Latin for salt or 'sal'. Yet salt is another great example of 'everything in moderation'.

Let us first examine why salt is necessary for life, then learn about the correct dosage, and investigate the repercussions of too much salt in one's diet. We will finish off by looking at the salt concentration of some popular foods.

Salt: vital and dangerous
Salt or NaCl (sodium chloride) is needed:
  • to transmit messages via the nervous system: messages are transmitted by the exchange of sodium and potassium
  • to regulate blood pressure
  • to make stomach acid from the chloride molecules
  • to stimulate muscular contraction and relaxation
  • to maintain the correct fluid balance throughout your body 
How much salt do we need? According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2010, those under 50 years should limit their sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams, whereas those over 50 years and African Americans should limit this to under 1,500 milligrams. Different people have different sensitivities to sodium. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute 'NHLBI' equates 2.4 g of sodium to 6 g or one teaspoon of salt (NHLBI is a division of the National Institutes of Health 'NIH'). In the U.K., the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition recommends 1.6 g per day for adults.  Note that 1 g of salt does not equal 1 g of sodium. 1 g of salt have 0.4 g of sodium. 

Excessive amounts of salt can cause:
  • stomach cancer: is this due to excess stomach acid or due to salt increasing the activity of Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria implicated in stomach ulcers?
  • fluid retention or edema: according to Beare, nutrients are blocked from entering cells where they are needed and toxins are not as easily flushed out (massages and hot yoga improve detoxification). 
  • high blood pressure
  • osteoporosis: excess sodium apparently causes calcium to leach out of bones
  • kidney disease: the kidneys are responsible for holding onto sodium when your sodium levels are low and for excreting excess sodium.  When God created humans, God did not know that humans would create processed foods. Our kidneys are not designed to be able to excrete the overdoses of sodium fed them via continual consumption of junk food. 
  • heart attacks: if the kidneys are overtaxed and unable to excrete all that excess sodium, the sodium stays in your blood and your blood retains water.  Pushing that higher volume of blood around your body taxes your heart....
  • congestive heart failure
  • cirrhosis (it's not just the alcohol)
  • type II diabetes
  • heart disease

So how much does the average American consume?  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average American consumes 3.4 g of sodium per day.

And where does some of this sodium come from? Let's look at the sodium content in some common SAD (Standard American Diet) foods. The values are calculated per serving size. Note that food does not have to taste salty to be high in salt:

Cheese (Parmesan, blue cheese, feta): 0.2 g to 0.4 g
Frozen pizza, cheese: 0.5 g to 1.2 g
Soy sauce: 1 g
Salted butter: 0.09 g
One bagel:  0.53 g
Salad dressing: 0.1 g to 0.5 g
Catsup: 0.2 g
Mustard: 0.05 g
Average frozen meal: up to 1.5 g

Do be careful with certain antacids and any canned food.   

And in case you were wondering, one Dunkin' Donuts corn muffin contains the same amount of salt as nine McDonald's Chicken McNuggets (they both have too much sodium!). Remember that image of the over-saturated glass of water from the first paragraph? Could that be your body?

As a comparison:
Blood: 9 g/l or 0.9%
Sea water: 35 g/ liter of sea water

So what should you do with such an onslaught of salt? If you want to drastically reduce the amount of sodium in your diet, avoid processed and junk food. Wherever possible, choose fresh. Eat fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh fish, fresh meat.  Increasing the intake of potassium by eating more fruit and vegetables also helps reduce the intake of sodium. And learn to be label savvy! The Mayo Clinic recommends avoiding food that has more than 200 mg or 0.2 g of sodium per serving.  And replace salt with fresh herbs and spices. As you wean yourself from salt, you may realize that foods you previously enjoyed may taste too salty.  Enjoy exploring new flavors in your sodium-savvy life.



*  read in 'The Joy of Looking' published by Beanstalk Press:
'if you happen to run out of a salt, 1/2 an American will work just as well'


Overheard under the beanstalk:

'Fee fi foe fum,
I smell the blood of an American
Don't pass the salt
Americans are too salty.'

from 'John and the Beanstalk'

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