salt (athletes read others ignore please)

[robblok]

 

Below something i copied from an UK site for bodybuilding they copied part from T-Nation. A while back i was complaining about feeling weak and having problems recovering and feeling totally dead one day after some loaded carries. The reason party (for that time at least) was low sodium. As some people know i prepare all my foods myself and limit myself a bit by easy preparing meals and don't go out much to eat. Right now even more so than normal as I try to lose even more fat. Not by design but by accident I never really included sodium in my diet my oats don't have it my protein shakes also don't have it what does have it are the pickles I eat with my salad and of course when I eat tuna the tuna in brine. I normally eat oats (or home made whole wheat bread where I don't include salt) for breakfast. I normally ad a protein shake to keep my proteins up. Now a few days in a row I did not eat salad (normally the GF prepares it and she was not there and I was lazy) So that made my salt intake even lower. 

 

Now I do farmers walks, walking with weights a few rounds around 1500 meters in the morning sun. I normally sweat a lot at that time I drench a T shirt and during my normal training I sweat too and I am sure that during the rest of the day I sweat too, point is I sweat a lot. So a few days of excreting a lot of salt and not replacing it, that is what led to me being weak and losing all energy and mental focus (hard to work). So there are definite dangers of going to low salt.  Recent research shows that the link between low sodium and blood pressure is not really supported. But there is a 10% minority that does respond to sodium with higher blood pressure so if your going to add sodium monitor your blood pressure. I am doing it and its fine. I now supplement with 8-12 grams of salt (not the same as sodium as salt contains only 40% sodium). The rest I hope i get from food.  Below some interesting information about sodium, i can say one thing my loaded caries have gone up a lot recently and I now last longer in the gym. The last exercises are still feeling good no cramps (used to have cramps or decreased performance). I have had more then once that i tried to do abs and it cramped up so painfully i stopped. So for me it seems to work a bit. I just started it for a week so more time is needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sodium, Your Secret Weapon by Scott Abel.

In ancient times, salt was precious. It was traded as the most valued of all commodities, and having a good supply of salt was as close to life insurance as you could get. Age-old aphorisms like "salt of the earth" and "worth your salt" remind us how important salt has always been.

So all the modern-day phobias surrounding salt and sodium seems to present us with a paradox: how could something so vital to survival in one era be considered so deadly in another?

The answer may surprise you. The anti-sodium campaign actually began as a commercial movement to sell different foods and snacks, under the guise of being healthier. Much like the low-fat movement, manufacturers care more about selling products than they do about scientific accuracy.

As soon as the low-sodium content advertisements were shown to create dividends, other food and supplement companies followed suit, to the point where consumers started to believe that low-sodium was good, and salt, in general, was bad. People failed to see that they had been internalizing advertising, not actual scientific information.

For generations, manufacturers have marketed their products by bombarding the public with what ingredients their brand either does or does not have to make their product sell better than the competition's. Like sheep, consumers followed along, buying the "low fat this" or "no sodium that" product, without asking themselves why. In regard to sodium intake, studies are coming in regularly refuting its bad reputation and negative impact on human health, performance, and physiology.

Even after thousands of years, human biochemistry and physiology haven't changed much. Although few of us toil under the sweltering sun any more, our bodies' need for electrolytes hasn't changed. In fact, the metabolic needs of high-performance athletes probably most closely resembles the needs of our ancient forefathers, especially in regard to electrolyte ingestion.

Studies in Canada at McGill and McMaster Universities have concluded that unless one has a specific and serious condition that would preclude him from taking in salt, then salt intake will produce no negative health problems, and could actually be health promoting. As a matter of fact, only 10% of hypertension cases have a known cause, and in almost all of these cases, the cause was either genetic or stress related.

For all you short attention span types out there, here is the bottom line: high-performance athletes should not avoid sodium. They should, in fact, ensure that they get adequate amounts of sodium every day to prevent negative metabolic consequences, and to promote maximum performance. That's all. You may be excused.

Everyone else, keep reading.

Why Sodium?

Athletes eat for different reasons. Three of the main ones are: 1) as a preventive measure to help stay free from illness 2) for fitness, to ensure optimum energy stores, recuperation, and restoration 3) for bodybuilders especially, to produce a cosmetic effect, i.e. a leaner, harder physique.

If you're an athlete concerned about maximizing your performance (you have no business being an athlete otherwise), you should know that a high-sodium diet fulfills all three of the above. In fact, many problems with athletic performance or sub-maximal athletic performance, even failure to improve, begin when athletes reduce or eliminate sodium from their diets. These ill effects can last for a long time.

While sodium is the primary focus of this article, no nutrient acts on the metabolism by itself. Any discussion on sodium is incomplete without mentioning potassium, and the hormone aldosterone.

As an electrolyte, sodium is the positively charged ion on the outside of the living cell. Cations, anions, and ions exist in an exact balance outside and inside cells, so that a change in the balance of one or more cations or ions will cause a change in other cations and ions in order to maintain cell integrity. Simply put, sodium is responsible for regulating blood volume and blood pressure, although it serves other functions as well.

During a set of high-intensity muscle contraction blood pressure rises. This is a primary response of high-intensity training. During high-performance exercise, the metabolism of the body is better served by a higher blood volume since this translates into better oxygen and nutrient delivery to working cells. Just as importantly, a higher blood volume results in a more efficient removal of fatigue toxins.

A low sodium intake translates into a lower blood volume, and over time this is disastrous to an athlete. Even in healthy people, low blood volume leads to a myriad of problems. Studies at the University of Bonn concluded that a low-sodium diet (and the resulting lower blood volume) was more health-threateningthan the hypertension that the low-sodium diet was intended to fix.

For athletes, the effects are even more profound. In a low-sodium situation, the resulting low blood volume delivers less oxygen and nutrients to working muscles, and also allows for greater accumulation of fatigue toxins that might not otherwise occur with a normal or higher blood volume. This results in reduced recuperation and overall weakness. It's the last thing a hard-training athlete wants, but it's what happens when you eliminate crucial electrolytes from your diet.

A low-sodium diet makes the situation even worse in regard to optimum electrolyte metabolism, because potassium is dependent on sodium to be effective for a number of reasons. Potassium's primary responsibilities are the regulation and control of skeletal and cardiac muscles. The vagus nerve, which controls heartbeat, is totally dependent on potassium.

Potassium is the positively charged ion inside of the cell. While its independent functions in the control of muscles have been pointed out, potassium itself is dependent on sodium to maintain cell integrity: the exact balance of cations and ions inside and outside cell walls.

How does potassium get into the muscle cell in the first place? Sodium delivers it. The cell wall is partially permeable to sodium. It takes three molecules of sodium to get one molecule of potassium inside the cell, through a process called "active transport." Sodium is the chaperone, and potassium can't get into the cell without it. Therefore, for optimum cell integrity and optimum potassium delivery, there must be ample sodium present.

This is even more crucial in athletes where electrolyte balance and exchange takes place more rapidly and is more crucial for optimum performance. Also, since the active transport of potassium inside the cell by sodium is metabolically expensive, the activity of sodium-potassium pumps can be adjusted by the thyroid hormones in order to regulate resting caloric expenditure and basal metabolic rate (BMR).

It follows, then, that in a prolonged low-sodium situation, the body may lower BMR in order to control this metabolically expensive function. This spells disaster for the dieting bodybuilder or competing athlete who wants his BMR as high as possible, not lowered by a body compensating for costs it cannot afford to incur.

Even more importantly in this metabolic circumstance is that cell integrity is jeopardized and less potassium can be delivered less often to the cell. This is disastrous for any serious athlete. Obviously, it's the most negative electrolyte situation for a bodybuilder to be in.

Here's how a body could get into such a state of disarray. The primary avenue for the loss of sodium is through sweat glands. No one, except our ancient forefathers, sweats as much as high-performance athletes and bodybuilders.

A typical combination of high-intensity training, interval cardio activity (two sessions per day), and persistent tanning produces an exorbitant loss of sodium through the skin. Combine this with a nearly fanatical effort by bodybuilders and other athletes to exclude sodium from their diets, and you can see how a bad situation can become chronic.

In an emergency situation, the body can only maintain some kind of cell integrity by sending potassium (a positively charged ion) outside the cell to replace the sodium that should be there. The metabolic consequence is weakened cell integrity. Sometimes this causes depolarization between electrically charged ions, and potassium leaving the cell leads to muscle weakness, cramps, listlessness, and lethargy.

Note that it's not the low-calorie diets that produce these physical and psychological symptoms – it's due to a prolonged lack of sodium intake. The problem can be understood better by discussing the hormone aldosterone. We can also understand why sodium undeservedly gets a bad rap, and how to remedy the situation.

Aldosterone

In a normal metabolic situation, electrolyte balance is delicately maintained by urinary output. The kidneys regulate the concentration of plasma electrolytes of sodium, potassium, and calcium by matching almost exactly the amounts ingested to the amounts excreted. The final amounts of sodium and potassium excreted in the urine are regulated by the needs of the body.

Athletes get into trouble when they eliminate sodium from their diet, because their bodies are regularly losing so much of it through sweat and cellular activity. This produces the negative stress response of the release of the hormone aldosterone. Normally, people have low levels of circulating aldosterone. It's a hormone released in response to metabolic or physiological stress.

The release of this hormone serves several functions. The main effect of aldosterone secretion is a reabsorption of sodium through the distal tubules of the kidneys. Thus sodium that normally would have left the body is retained because of the presence of this hormone.

Normal individuals can excrete 30 grams (that's right, 30,000 milligrams) of sodium a day when aldosterone isn't present. This is an average person, not a hard-training athlete. When aldosterone is present, there's no sodium in the urine at all.

Most importantly, water always follows sodium because sodium is positively charged while water is negatively charged. Therefore, the more sodium excreted, the more water leaves the body. But since, in the presence of aldosterone, sodium is reabsorbed and kept in the body, and water follows sodium, water too isn't excreted. The result is water retention.

There's another side to the aldosterone hormonal response, which can also spell disaster for an athlete. Not only does aldosterone cause reabsorption of sodium, but because of this, aldosterone secretion also causes a pronounced excretion of plasma potassium.

Again, in the absence of aldosterone virtually no potassium is excreted in the urine. When aldosterone secretion is maximal, however, there's up to 50 times more potassium excreted than what is initially filtered by the kidneys. A reexamination of the situation reveals that a negative situation exists in such a physiological environment.

First, sodium is reabsorbed. Second, because water follows sodium, there's water retention, which in turn creates an osmotic imbalance. Third, because aldosterone also produces pronounced potassium excretion, the result is further muscular weakness, cramping, performance infringement, and a very flat, tired-looking physique.

This whole misunderstanding of electrolyte function has led to ridiculous myths and misapplications of proper nutrition in the athletic and bodybuilding communities. One of the most bizarre is the practice of taking a potassium chloride (Slow-K) supplement just before a show.

There are two problems with potassium supplementation. First, it's impossible to load potassium inside a cell: cell equilibrium is always maintained in exact ratios. If a certain amount of potassium enters a cell, the identical amount must leave.

The second problem is that an excess of potassium in the blood triggers aldosterone secretion, which leads us back to all of the negative metabolic conditions associated with aldosterone, mentioned earlier. It's a vicious cycle, which can easily be prevented.

Estimating your sodium needs is relatively easy. The rule of thumb is two grams of sodium for each liter of water replacement. Since most athletes are under-hydrated, water needs should also be assessed.

150-pound athletes (both male and female) who train at high intensity levels should drink at least two or three liters of water per day. 200-pound athletes should be drinking a minimum of three to four liters, and athletes over 225 pounds should drink a minimum of four to six liters.

At two grams per liter of fluid replacement, it's obvious that most athletes do not take in nearly enough sodium. For example, a 225-pound athlete would need to ingest between eight and twelve grams of sodium daily. That's right, 8,000 to 12,000 mg a day.

The way to ensure ample sodium intake is through the prodigious use of salty condiments. Sea salt, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, etc. are smart choices to ensure ample amounts of sodium.

However, beware of monosodium glutamate (MSG). Although it's high in sodium, MSG had been shown to be a negative partitioning agent, which means that it may channel nutrients toward fat storage, whether the nutrients contain fat or not. Ingesting MSG can also trigger a catabolic response.

One easy way to ensure adequate sodium intake is by eating pickles on a daily basis. Pickles on average contain about 20 to 30 calories and almost a gram of sodium, so chopping them up into your food makes good sense, as does eating them as a snack.

We've all seen hockey players and other athletes taking post game IV drips come playoff time to replace lost electrolytes. Often these IV drips are no more than saline solution; which, as you probably know, is just a fancy name for salt water.

Ordinary salted water-pack tuna is a lot cheaper and easier to find than reduced-sodium tuna. It also tastes better, and is another good source of sodium. While we're on the subject, let me say that bodybuilders have got to get over this "suffering" shtick when it comes to diet. You are allowed to eat food that tastes good, and eating good-tasting food will make it much easier to stay on a prolonged diet.

Don't forget that we're talking about sodium, and not table salt. Table salt is sodium chloride (NaCl; about 40% sodium, and 60% chloride), and many brands of table salt also contain added iodine. This can cause problems for some people's metabolisms, and of course sodium ends up taking the blame. Avoid the issue and use sea salt instead.

Finding foods preserved with sodium phosphate is also useful. Sodium phosphate is one of the best intracellular buffers around, fighting the metabolic acidosis that training can cause. Taking in 3-4 grams of sodium phosphate can increase both aerobic and anaerobic performance.

Athletes who have been trying to avoid sodium for prolonged periods of time and who switch to this high-sodium approach will experience a temporary osmotic imbalance resulting in water retention. This initial effect is only the body's attempt to hold on to the sodium so rarely given to it.

Water retention is temporary, and will dissipate as long as sodium and water intake remain high. The athlete will then notice a higher volume of urinary output, more sweating, the appearance of a leaner, harder physique, and more pumped and full muscles in the gym.

Through the years I've been testing the precepts of what I prescribe to my top-level amateur and professional athlete clients, with very exacting results. It's important to me that serious athletes and bodybuilders don't waste time making the same mistakes that so many have made before them.

My best advice to any serious trainee or athlete is to get professional advice from properly qualified (not just "certified") and experienced coaches. There are not many of us around, but you will find that such coaches can make all the difference.

If you have followed the scientific information in this article, then you understand the importance of "real sodium" in your diet. You should never have to worry about "too much," because any excess will be excreted. Increasing your sodium and water intake is an easy and effective way to improve "in the gym" performance, and contribute to the cosmetic appearance of the physique at the same time.

Time and time again, I see great physiques of figure competitors and bodybuilders disappear in the last few weeks of contest preparation. Why? The simple but faulty combination of low carbs and low sodium. True, restricting carbohydrate will induce diuresis, but that water will also come from inside the muscles, where it should be staying. This displacement causes potassium to also leave muscle.

Combine this with the effects of no to low sodium in the diet, and instead of a polished and properly peaked physique, you have a disaster. No amount of carb loading can bring a physique back once this happens. That's why so many people report looking better several days after competing.

Postscript: About Sodium Loading

I often receive questions regarding complex bodily processes that bodybuilders and experts think they can manipulate to a predictable degree. Sodium is one such item. If you've followed this article, then you know that changing one thing can set off a whole series of unintended consequences.

Therefore, the concept of "sodium loading" is just foolish, and it's not the point of this article. Sodium loading is a silly practice, just like carb loading, insulin loading, and other "loading" mentalities. I will address each of these loads of bull some other time. The point isn't to "load sodium" but to always get ample amounts of it in the diet, with proper hydration as well. Never cut sodium, never load it, just get lots of it. Enough said!

[dickjones2018]

kaaskroket, you have a bodybuilding icon and you only knew now about salt ?  djeez... I do daily sauna trips and sweat a bucket, off course you need more salt... the good kind... himalaya or sea salt... not the dead white dead baked at 800 °C ... did you try FLOWER OF SALT?  the bag you can find in VILLA market, supposedly sea water evaporated, just a bit more expensive than the white dead, made in Thailand (on the way to hua hin kinda salt collecting)... it are crystals, supposedly the top of the cream of salt....

[StreetCowboy]

So in summary, we should have some salty chips with our cider when rehydrating.

 

Salty Bob put salt in his beer.

 

SC

[robblok]

31 minutes ago, dickjones2018 said:

kaaskroket, you have a bodybuilding icon and you only knew now about salt ?  djeez... I do daily sauna trips and sweat a bucket, off course you need more salt... the good kind... himalaya or sea salt... not the dead white dead baked at 800 °C ... did you try FLOWER OF SALT?  the bag you can find in VILLA market, supposedly sea water evaporated, just a bit more expensive than the white dead, made in Thailand (on the way to hua hin kinda salt collecting)... it are crystals, supposedly the top of the cream of salt....

To be honest I really never gave salt much thought and it only came to play after i started exercising outside. It probably already happened at a smaller scale while exercising in my air conditioned gym but put that down to normal cramps - performance loss. 

 

So sorry, I can't know it all that is why I keep reading and learning more. This goes against what we have always been told. 

[robblok]

17 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

So in summary, we should have some salty chips with our cider when rehydrating.

 

Salty Bob put salt in his beer.

 

SC

Not sure that you should take alcohol when re-hydrating but I am sure you were pulling my leg. I think salt is even more important for you than me as you are driving a couple of hours in he sun. I can imagine you sweat out a lot of salt, but of course if you have a fast food diet you get plenty of it already. So it also depends on your diet. 

[VocalNeal]

15 minutes ago, robblok said:

Salty Bob put salt in his beer.

Yep pinch of salt in each beer . But not if having a session solving all the world's problems. 

 

Beer is absorbed faster than pure water, so if really dehydrated a beer is good. 

[transam]

https://www.popsci.com/heres-what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-eat-too-much-salt

[robblok]

Just now, VocalNeal said:

Yep pinch of salt in each beer . But not if having a session solving all the world's problems. 

 

Beer is absorbed faster than pure water, so if really dehydrated a beer is good. 

But does the alcohol in beer does not negate the effect 

[robblok]

7 minutes ago, transam said:

https://www.popsci.com/heres-what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-eat-too-much-salt

There are many new researches proving the opposite.  But we are talking here replacing the salt you lose during training. Don't forget Trans these articles your quoting are for "normal" people who don't live in a hot country and not exercise and lose a lot of salt during training. 

 

I have been researching this a lot recently after that time i felt so weak and faint for a whole day. You should see me how drenched my T shirt is after that morning walk with the weights. You should read what happens if you have too little sodium in your body. 

 

But Trans, I am also using a blood pressure machine to keep tabs on my blood pressure to see if it gets higher or not. That is of course the ultimate test. So far no influence on blood pressure but a lot of influence on my walking with those weights. In a short time I now have increased the weights twice.

[transam]

https://barbend.com/sodium-salt-benefits-for-athletes/

[VocalNeal]

42 minutes ago, robblok said:

But does the alcohol in beer does not negate the effect 

The alcohol is only 5% of the volume . After the first one drink water. After a run I drink 50/50 Sprite and water.

[robblok]

31 minutes ago, transam said:

https://barbend.com/sodium-salt-benefits-for-athletes/

That confirms with what I have posted, anyway you can always try more salt as long as you monitor your blood pressure too. Is it going up.. stop doing it your sensitive for sodium (as stated 10% of the population is). If not then it can increase your training. 

[StreetCowboy]

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Not sure that you should take alcohol when re-hydrating but I am sure you were pulling my leg. I think salt is even more important for you than me as you are driving a couple of hours in he sun. I can imagine you sweat out a lot of salt, but of course if you have a fast food diet you get plenty of it already. So it also depends on your diet. 

I suppose one question is when you should take your salt. 

 

Does your salt deplete so quickly during a ride / workout that you need to take salt immediately before or during exercise?  Or is it more of a question of making up for losses in preparation for tomorrow and next week? 

 

5 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

The alcohol is only 5% of the volume . After the first one drink water. After a run I drink 50/50 Sprite and water.

That's pretty much what we do; after we sit down the first one is usually iced water, as otherwise the first pint of cider doesn't touch the sides, and it's gone before you know it.  Then the remaining ice goes in the cider.

[StreetCowboy]

1 hour ago, VocalNeal said:

Yep pinch of salt in each beer . But not if having a session solving all the world's problems. 

 

Beer is absorbed faster than pure water, so if really dehydrated a beer is good. 

It's certainly absorbed in greater quantities.  I'd not fancy sitting knocking back six pints of iced water after a ride.  

 

I do get through that much water and half as much 100-Plus during the course of a ride, though.

And still rarely have to go for a pee until after the third cider.

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

I suppose one question is when you should take your salt. 

 

Does your salt deplete so quickly during a ride / workout that you need to take salt immediately before or during exercise?  Or is it more of a question of making up for losses in preparation for tomorrow and next week? 

 

That's pretty much what we do; after we sit down the first one is usually iced water, as otherwise the first pint of cider doesn't touch the sides, and it's gone before you know it.  Then the remaining ice goes in the cider.

I just add some salt every day, it just happens to be that I take it just after the walks but that is not intentional just practical. 

 

I do my walks every day (or at least try to do them). Its quite intense. My t shirt is totally soaked so I am losing a lot.

 

Before I always cramped up a bit at the end of my normal workouts (that is the second session of exercise I do on a day but just 4 times a week). I always took it as normal to have some cramps at the end. Did not realize it did not have to be that way. Now when I exercise I feel the exercise I do last go better (not like wow i doubled my weight but really noticeable) I also don't have cramps in my abs when i exercise those last. I often had to break off ab work as i cramped up that badly (hurts a lot). 

 

Just stupid i never thought about salt as I was supplementing magnesium and potassium. I like so many others was caught up in salt is bad for you. 

[StreetCowboy]

Maybe salt water ice cubes would be good for the cider.

Being a little bit colder when they melt might help, and it would release the salt in a gradual way so you might not really notice the change in taste. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't think we could prevail on the pub to put salt in their ice-maker, so I would need to try that at home.  Lucky I've got the pannier bags for getting the cider home...

[simon43]

I run a fast 5 Km on the treadmill after work in my local gym, which has minimal air-con. I sweat buckets!

I've never felt that I had a problem with loss of energy, due to lack of Sodium. And I also avoid any added salt in my diet.

But it perhaps makes sense for me to up my salt intake a little by eating tune in brine, as opposed to the tune in spring water that I currently eat.

I monitor my BP morning and evening, typically 110/65, so all fine there :)

[robblok]

5 hours ago, simon43 said:

I run a fast 5 Km on the treadmill after work in my local gym, which has minimal air-con. I sweat buckets!

I've never felt that I had a problem with loss of energy, due to lack of Sodium. And I also avoid any added salt in my diet.

But it perhaps makes sense for me to up my salt intake a little by eating tune in brine, as opposed to the tune in spring water that I currently eat.

I monitor my BP morning and evening, typically 110/65, so all fine there ?

If you monitor your BP and you take extra salt and there is no increase then all should be ok. I am starting to notice definite benefits. In a short time my loaded carries have gone up and in my normal training i see weights going up again too. But mainly i feel i can do more during the end of the workout then before. I can give the last exercise more intensity then before, especially abs as I used to cramp up easy then. Now no worries about that. I did gain a bit of weight (as to be expected as i probably lost too much water and had not enough salt). 

 

For me there are definite benefits but each should judge it by himself / herself. 

 

When i sweat and dries up on clothes it leaves a white crust (that was before adding salt) so its quite clear i lose salt. Remember all those advice about salt are for sedentary people who are not exercising in the tropics. 

[garrya]

Totally agree with you on the sodium. I have also had problems with feeling weaker, lightheaded et cetera as I had always avoided salt because of the silly and misguiding information that warned people to avoid it. 

After I had started researching low-carbing, I came across the salt issue and tested it on myself and the result was amazing.

It was an almost instant relief and now I run with salt water that I sip before and during running. On those days when I know I will exercise, work a lot whatever but sweat a lot, I simply mix a teaspoon of salt in my water bottle and simply drink it throughout the day. 

Also, I salt my food liberally without feeling any adverse effect.

 

I  remember when I met my partner roughly 10 years ago I noticed that she put much more salt on her foods so did her family. I thought they were crazy but they all are healthy people, parents well over 70 without any blood pressure issues even though they have always used salt liberally.

 

[Justfine]

I too had low sodium levels the past 4 weeks due to eating more fresh food. I experienced malaisse 4 or 5 times. After thinking about what happened I realised it could be salt. Ate plenty of salt for 2 days and sleep a lot better since and trained longer more easily.

 

After reading up on salt it appears the whole anti salt movement is bs. Low sodium is more dangerous than high sodium and it's not the salt that raises bp. When you eat more salt you drink more. Extra liquid raises bp. Fine if you exercise but not if couch potato. Carbs also promote water retention so a couch potato on a high salt high carb diet is drinking and retaining too much liquid which raises bp. Add to that bad fats, alcohol and smoking.

 

Some good info here

 

https://healthfully.net/2012/09/08/how-much-salt-how-much-water-and-our-amazing-kidneys/

 

 

[Justfine]

Having a workout today. Warm water with salt in it to sip as I train.

 

 

[jumbo]

why not use baking soda, has the sodium but less concentrated and less 'dangerous'?

And it has its positive side effects...

[Justfine]

9 minutes ago, jumbo said:

why not use baking soda, has the sodium but less concentrated and less 'dangerous'?

And it has its positive side effects...

Salt isnt dangerous.

[jumbo]

Just now, Justfine said:

Salt isnt dangerous.

Hence the apostrophes?

But it is when you overdo it, which can easily be done with salt as you should get enough through your daily food intake

If you want to take extra salt than you should first look at you actual 'normal daily intake'

But my remark was about baking soda, same effect, less side effects.

I also don't understand people take potassium and than want to take salt as an extra

But maybe I am just overconcerned...

[Justfine]

6 minutes ago, jumbo said:

Hence the apostrophes?

But it is when you overdo it, which can easily be done with salt as you should get enough through your daily food intake

If you want to take extra salt than you should first look at you actual 'normal daily intake'

But my remark was about baking soda, same effect, less side effects.

I also don't understand people take potassium and than want to take salt as an extra

But maybe I am just overconcerned...

Read the link I posted. For each extra 1 litre of water an extra teaspoon of salt is recommended.

 

I've been adding about half that then salting food or eating some higher salt food.

 

Salt has been demonised by the fake news media based on pseudo science.

 

 

[jumbo]

1 minute ago, Justfine said:

Read the link I posted. For each extra 1 litre of water an extra teaspoon of salt is recommended.

 

I've been adding about half that then salting food or eating some higher salt food.

 

Salt has been demonised by the fake news media based on pseudo science.

 

 

I think the warning about salt is valid and through your own careful usage of it you confirm that...

As long as you are calculated on what you do there should be no issue

But I prefer baking soda as an alternative...

 

[Justfine]

"should get enough through your daily food intake"

 

That only applies to people who eat lots of processed food.

 

I don't eat bread, cereals, biscuits etc.

 

My sodium levels got dangerously low due to eating "healthy" fresh food and I was salting the meals. Trouble is one twist of a salt grinder is about 1/64th of a teaspoon.

 

Low sodium for too long will kill you or put you in hospital.

[Justfine]

11 minutes ago, jumbo said:

I think the warning about salt is valid and through your own careful usage of it you confirm that...

As long as you are calculated on what you do there should be no issue

But I prefer baking soda as an alternative...

 

Salt warnings only applies to couch potatoes who don't exercise and their overall diet is bad.

 

Countries with the lowest average salt intake live the shortest.

[Justfine]

"Those who consumed the least salt had a 56 percent higher risk of death from a heart attack or stroke compared with those who had the highest consumption, even after controlling for obesity, cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, and other risk factors."

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/03/salt.heart.attack/index.html

 

[JimmyTheMook]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KquFZYi6L0