Its Time To End The War On Salt

[9th]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/

 

For decades, policy makers have tried and failed to get Americans to eat less salt. In April 2010 the Institute of Medicine urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the amount of salt that food manufacturers put into products; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already convinced 16 companies to do so voluntarily. But if the U.S. does conquer salt, what will we gain? Bland french fries, for sure. But a healthy nation? Not necessarily.

 

This week a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure. In May European researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the less sodium that study subjects excreted in their urine—an excellent measure of prior consumption—the greater their risk was of dying from heart disease. These findings call into question the common wisdom that excess salt is bad for you, but the evidence linking salt to heart disease has always been tenuous.

 

[Marblehead]

Excess salt will be removed various ways from our body.  Not a serious problem.

 

I have reduced my salt intake because excessive salt causes me to dream.  No, I can't explain that.

 

[Stosh]

It probably makes you have to pee more ,annoying your bladder , sleeping lightly, you remember your dreams more . 

Just a guess ,, dunno , I mean , how would I know? 

[Gunther]

You mean less salt more pee?

That seems to be true, salt binds a lot of water in the body. But, same here, what do I know?😀

[Gunther]

29 minutes ago, Stosh said:

It probably makes you have to pee more ,annoying your bladder , sleeping lightly, you remember your dreams more . 

Just a guess ,, dunno , I mean , how would I know? 

 

Edited November 2, 2017 by Gunther

[Taomeow]

46 minutes ago, Marblehead said:

Excess salt will be removed various ways from our body.  Not a serious problem.

 

I have reduced my salt intake because excessive salt causes me to dream.  No, I can't explain that.

 

 

This is true (I've even seen a study), but only for salt taken late in the day.  If you don't eat anything salty later than 3-4 hours before your bedtime, you will be fine.  Eating salty stuff after 7-8 pm can cause delayed sleep, disrupt all its phases for 2-3 hours, and negatively affect its quality.

 

Where I come from it's common knowledge.  We are fond of salted fish, e.g., but it will be typically served as part of breakfast or lunch, not dinner.  And of course all those salty snacks people like to indulge in in front of their screens -- potato chips, salted nuts, pretzels, what not -- are not traditional, and used to be reserved for an outing with friends that involved beer and took place not too late in the day.

 

Timing rules, as usual.  

[Stosh]

14 hours ago, Gunther said:

You mean less salt more pee?

That seems to be true, salt binds a lot of water in the body. But, same here, what do I know?😀

I read that If you are dehydrated you will tend to need to pee more often in lesser amts , because whatever is in there is more irritating. Whereas if You are not , and if you were just getting rid of excess water , one would collect longer and release a more dilute solution.  Carbs and fiber also tend to bring in- hold  a lot of water which is why a meal of pasta or bread can pack more pounds on as a a scale reveals than the meal itself weighed. 

When folks privately say to themselves " Man! I must have the worlds smallest bladder " they need to consume more unadulterated water for a few days. 

Edited November 3, 2017 by Stosh

[9th]

Found some crazy lookin douche chips in the store today...

 

[silent thunder]

Vinegar!     Salt! 

pure awesome.

[rainbowvein]

And you bought them?

 

How'd they taste?

[thelerner]

On 11/2/2017 at 5:03 PM, Stosh said:

It probably makes you have to pee more ,annoying your bladder , sleeping lightly, you remember your dreams more . 

Just a guess ,, dunno , I mean , how would I know? 

I have the same assumption, more salt, more bathroom trips, especially at night.  I make the connection through soups that are often very salty (course I guess there liquidy too, still). 

There's a lucid dreaming technique where you drink 2 or 3 cups of water before bed.  You use the urge to urinate as a reminder to know that you're dreaming.  Plus it wakes you in the middle the night allowing you to refocus on getting lucid. 

[Pavel Karavaev]

Excess of salt extracts water from the body. So when I eat too much salt, then after that I need to drink a large amount of water. Reading this topic, I was at first surprised why I never get up at night to go to the toilet. Analyzing this I realized that it seems like I never eat salted in the evening.
I think salt should be eaten in small quantities (at least not too much), so that the water balance in the body is not disturbed. But I guess that sometimes it could be necessary , for example, for cleansing the kidneys.

[cold]

As a kid (child laborer laws were lax to nonexistent for farms) I was routinely given salt tablets on days that were either hot or forecast to be warm. My t shirt and jeans would become stiff with sweated salt. Don't recall peeing to much, but we did drink a lot of warm water (ambient temp.) Pre Gatorade days.

[Taomeow]

34 minutes ago, cold said:

As a kid (child laborer laws were lax to nonexistent for farms) I was routinely given salt tablets on days that were either hot or forecast to be warm. My t shirt and jeans would become stiff with sweated salt. Don't recall peeing to much, but we did drink a lot of warm water (ambient temp.) Pre Gatorade days.

 

How could you survive this without Gatorade?  It's got electrolytes!..

 

 

 

[Jonesboy]

 

Is much better than Gatorade and has more electrolytes.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Jonesboy

[Taomeow]

Just to give folks who don't like to waste money and prefer to steer clear of idiocracy products something to munch on, here's a brief overview of what electrolytes actually are and where to get them:

 

Electrolyte #1 | Sodium (Na+)

That's in salt.

Electrolyte #2 | Chloride (Cl-)

That's also in salt.

 

Electrolyte #3 | Potassium (K+)

 

Meat, milk, fruits, and vegetables.  Most people don’t get enough potassium in their diets.  Processed foods usually have none, also modern agricultural practices rob foods of a lot of potassium by depleting the soil.  The proper balance between potassium and sodium is very important, so if you eat out of a box or can, you are exacerbating the imbalance, getting the sodium-potassium ratios farther off. 

Electrolyte #4 | Magnesium (Mg++)

Necessary for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, plays an important role in the synthesis of both DNA and RNA, essential to every cell of every known living organism.  Deficiency is rampant due to modern water processing techniques.  Europeans are thought to get 1/10th of the optimal magnesium intake from their municipal water.  Americans, only 1/100th.  Food sources may help (magnesium deficiency is one of the greatest dangers in simple malnutrition), but may be not enough in many cases -- anyone drinking water artificially impoverished in magnesium may want to supplement.

 

Electrolyte #5 | Calcium (Ca++)

 

That's pretty much everywhere, but your ability to metabolize it is compromised if you eat low fat or no fat products (calcium is only bioavailable in the presence of fat and fat-soluble vitamins, otherwise it either gets excreted as junk or clogs the kidneys, calcifies the blood vessels, the heart valves, the brain, etc.)  Also the phosphate preservatives used in many foods to give them a long shelf life by faking an appearance of freshness (phosphates are used in all commercial breads, e.g.), not only prevent the body from absorbing calcium from your food but actually leech it out of your bones.

 

Electrolyte #6 | Phosphate (HPO4–)

The second "everywhere" electrolyte after calcium.

Most people get adequate amounts of phosphorus from a good diet, the best sources (thought to improve mental health and intelligence, among other things) are fish and seafood.  Alcoholics, people with Chron's or celiac disease seem to be about the only categories at risk of developing a dietary deficiency.  

Electrolyte #7 | Bicarbonate (HCO3-)

This is a no-brainer -- you will get enough unless you do something truly drastic to your diet trying to throw off your pH balance, which this electrolyte is in charge of maintaining.  Lungs regulate the amount of carbon dioxide in the body, most of which is combined with water and converted to carbonic acid (H2CO3). This carbonic acid can then be quickly converted to bicarbonate (HCO3-), which is the key component in the pH buffer.  When acids build up through metabolic processes or production of lactic acid in your muscles, the kidneys release this bicarbonate (an alkaline solution) into your system to counteract the increased acidity. If your body is becoming more basic, the kidneys will lessen the amount of bicarbonate to increase acidity. Without this system, rapid changes in pH balance could cause severe problems in the body.  The bicarbonate buffer is one of the biggest reasons our bodies can maintain homeostasis and function properly.  Forget all those "you are too acidic" and "you want to alkalize" scams.  If you eat normal healthy foods, there's no such thing.  In saliva, sweat, tears, sperm, urine, i.e. anywhere you excrete fluids, measured pH can fluctuate pretty widely with no metabolic significance, but your healthy blood pH level is an ironclad constant that is intolerant of "improvements" and quite independent of what you eat (unless -- see first sentence of this paragraph.)  So, don't bother. 

 

Just wanted to set the electrolyte record straight a bit while we're on the subject...   

Edited December 28, 2017 by Taomeow

[Pavel Karavaev]

I love cooking. And I noticed that some dishes are transformed when salt is added there. Sometime different tastes  exist in the dish kind of separately and the dish does not have integrity. But if you add the right amount of salt, then all tastes are joined together. In my experiments salt is an important ingredient for cooking most dishes. So so i could say that salt is a good connecting element.  

By the way, I have long been using only natural sea salt.  The difference between it and table salt is collosal.

[Taomeow]

7 hours ago, Pavel Karavaev said:

I love cooking. And I noticed that some dishes are transformed when salt is added there. Sometime different tastes  exist in the dish kind of separately and the dish does not have integrity. But if you add the right amount of salt, then all tastes are joined together. In my experiments salt is an important ingredient for cooking most dishes. So so i could say that salt is a good connecting element.  

By the way, I have long been using only natural sea salt.  The difference between it and table salt is collosal.

 

Very true about the "unifying" properties of salt.  I also play with the remaining four of the five wuxing tastes -- sweet, sour, bitter, pungent -- according to the classical Chinese taoist theory (taoists have always taken cooking and food very seriously), if you want your dish to be perfect, you need all five, though of course proportions will vary and some of the tastes will be nearly undetectable.  (You know how to make borscht, right?   It is a perfect example of a dish that only shines when all five tastes are present in a delicate balance, though the main game is between sour and sweet...)  

 

Salt is also what can ruin any dish if you overdo it.  I think hands-on cooking experience with salt, and finding the "just right" amount for every dish, is one of those sensitivity arts that are not practiced enough.  When eating out, I always notice that the true artist is seldom encountered -- absolutely everything tends to be either under- or oversalted.

 

Sea salt is of course superior to table salt with chemical "anticaking" additives (and processed in a way that makes it partially insoluble), but I prefer rock salt.  This is the ancient sea evaporated, millions of years ago when it had even better trace minerals than it has today!   I buy the kind I grew up with, it still comes in coarse paper bags as it did in my childhood, many moons ago, and does tend to get impacted solid in storage -- my anticaking agent is a hammer, a few strategic whacks to the package solve the problem in a few seconds.

 

  

[Pavel Karavaev]

15 hours ago, Taomeow said:

Salt is also what can ruin any dish if you overdo it.  I think hands-on cooking experience with salt, and finding the "just right" amount for every dish, is one of those sensitivity arts that are not practiced enough.  When eating out, I always notice that the true artist is seldom encountered -- absolutely everything tends to be either under- or oversalted.

 

It's true. That's why I said the right amount of salt. If there is too much salt, then the dish also can not become integral. The ancient principle of balance is universal. But unfortunately not everyone understands and especially follows it.

15 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 I buy the kind I grew up with, it still comes in coarse paper bags as it did in my childhood, many moons ago, and does tend to get impacted solid in storage -- my anticaking agent is a hammer, a few strategic whacks to the package solve the problem in a few seconds.

 

I understand what you're talking about. This salt is really good. Manage it with a hammer is a very smart way.

[redcairo]

It's a conspiracy   because without sufficient sodium your body will not maintain sufficient stores of potassium, magnesium, calcium, or some other minerals, which makes you a better consumer of a/ more food your body drives you to eat to get it (especially "ingestible entertainment" of today's commercial world) and b/ medical services, surgeries and drugs that are mostly the follow ons of what happens to human health when it has insufficient minerals.

 

Most people with alleged high sodium problems actually have potassium deficiency.

 

[TheGrayJediKnight]

Not all salt 🧂 is created equal. I eat Himalayan Pink Salt which is high in minerals of many sorts. I eat it for taste, appearance as well as for my mineralization. The School of Greatness taught me that knowing what's MISSING is what is key to optimizing my health. Table Salt is so processed it barely has any minerals in it left.

[Seeking]

99% of what the mainstream tells you is was and will be straight up BS. Why? Because they treat people like mushrooms as its good for business.

[Draco]

The absorption of salt is the main issue. Absorption depends on an abundnance of minerals including potassium, magnesium and lithium.

[anshino23]

Don't blame salt for the harms of sugar.  

[Draco]

Himalayan Pink Salt truly is a blessing. With multiple uses and an un-paralled versatility. 

 

I cook my duck with it