Salt, or sodium salt, was once so valuable it was used as money. Why was it valuable? Was it healthy? No. It helped to prevent starvation, because it enabled food preservation, which enabled food storage. This rewarded advanced planning and enabled people to live in more hostile climates, specifically, colder climates.
Salt kills germs through dehydration. That also hurts us, too.
People cannot drink sea water, exclusively, because it kills us by inducing dehydration. Why? The concentration of sodium in sea water is higher than the concentration of sodium that we can excrete in our urine and sweat, so the sodium builds up.
Seawater has a salinity of roughly 3.5% (about 35 g of dissolved salts per liter). Sodium concentration in the urine is typically around 10.5–11 g per liter.
Twenty fluid ounces of seawater (≈591 ml) therefore contains roughly 6–6.5 g of sodium.
Dry salt is far more concentrated than sea water.
Excess sodium is now known to cause well over 50 major health problems. And the mechanisms of action for causing these problems are scientifically proven.
Problems / Symptoms / Diseases:
dehydration (increased thirst)
muscle cramps (dehydration)
muscle wasting
headache (dehydration)
poor sleep (muscle wasting)
feeling weak (low energy, muscle wasting)
edema or swelling (puffy legs, feet, face, hands, ankles, shins)
weight gain (edema, swelling, puffiness)
bloated stomach (edema)
upset stomach, diarrhea, nausea, cramps
stomach cancer
high blood pressure
low energy (excess sodium uses up more ATP for energy, putting strain on the sodium/potassium pump, and thus causes low ATP)
diabetes (another energy conversion problem)
Excessive salt causes excessive urination.
Diabetes literally means “excessive urine”.
The excessive urine is the body’s attempt to excrete salt. So is excessive sweating.
excessive sweating
kidney disease (kidneys need energy) Kidney disease is frequent in diabetes.
kidney stones
heart disease (heart needs energy)
enlarged heart muscle,
stroke
osteoporosis
difficulty breathing, air hunger, hyperventilation, can’t catch your breath
Potassium wasting and potassium loss. This then causes all the problems of low potassium, which is a similar but slightly different cluster of problems:
You can see the harms when considering the benefits of potassium and the problems of low potassium.
poor brain function
mood problems
thinking problems
brain fog
muscle twitches
racing heart problems
heat intolerance
calcium metabolism problems: weak bones, calcified soft tissues
poor protein synthesis
poor blood sugar control
low insulin sensitivity
weak digestion
low stomach acid
excessive hunger
poor vision
hair loss
asthma
poor lymph drainage
low immune system
more infections
liver problems
detoxing difficulties
more allergies / dehydration
Other signs of excess sodium:
Addiction to the taste.
Foods taste bland without it.
Craving salt, feeling addicted to salt, wanting more salt, enjoying the taste of salt, craving heavily salted foods like potato chips, cured meats, pickles, hot dogs, pizza, soy sauce, etc.
Most people get from 6 to 12 grams of sodium salt per day. A gram is about the weight of a paperclip.
It’s better to get sodium intake down to 5 grams or less or even 2.3 grams or less.
While it may have been optimal to “not starve”, excess sodium is not optimal for human health.
Salted food should be eaten only in an emergency, when no other food options are available.
To mitigate the problems of excessive sodium when it has to be consumed, more water and more potassium should be taken.
When too little sodium is consumed, the body responds by increasing a hormone called aldosterone, which is also another form of stress, because the body is struggling to retain sodium. Then, when a small amount of sodium is consumed, symptoms of excessive sodium, such as edema, can happen with just a bit of increased sodium, because the body is not used to excreting it. To prevent this “overreaction” from some sodium, a moderate but low intake of sodium might be more optimal than extremely low sodium. So somewhere around 2000 mg of sodium per day might be more optimal than 500 mg to 1500 mg.
Refuting alternative claims.
Advocates of salt will often only attempt to refute one negative health effect of salt: high blood pressure, and even then, while admitting it, they say “not always”. That’s not even a refutation. It obviously depends on the dose, and time, and other lifestyle habits. Drinking more water, doing more exercise, sweating more, eating more leafy greens, consuming more potassium would all be mitigating factors that would reduce the chance of salt leading to high blood pressure, but does not refute the claim. Nor does that address, nor refute, all the other problems of higher sodium intake.
Alternative “healthy” salts.
Sea salt, Himalayan salt, or other sodium based salts do not contain enough other minerals to be beneficial, except in cases where people have an excessively low sodium intake. Nor do the extra minerals make the sodium itself healthy.
First steps:
Make gradual changes to your sodium and potassium intakes. These minerals are regulated by hormones, and it takes time to let the body shift production of hormones. Making fast changes can lead to worsening of symptoms of excessive sodium, as sodium can suddenly be excreted out of the cells, leading to racing heart issues and swelling and cramping.
Gradually lower sodium intake.
Gradually increase potassium intake.
Start by reducing the frequency of the saltiest foods you consume.
Start by adding 1/8th of a teaspoon of Nu-Salt, or other source of potassium chloride, to your beverages or food.
Slowly work up, over a month or two, to 3000 to 4500 mg of potassium per day, which is 1 full teaspoon to 1.5 teaspoons of NuSalt or other potassium chloride.
Then, upon reaching that dose, continue for about another two months.
It takes the first month to help excrete the body’s excessive sodium. It takes the next month to begin retaining the missing 100 grams of potassium that most people need to restore in the body.
So it can take 3-4 months overall, or longer, to restore the right balance of sodium to potassium in the body, and reverse the many health problems this typical imbalance causes.
We do not need to supplement any sodium from any source. Unsalted foods are naturally loaded with sodium. A single slice of bread has 250 mg sodium. A single slice of cheese has 250 mg of sodium. An egg has about 70 mg of sodium. An unsalted hamburger has about 350 mg of sodium. It is nearly impossible to get sodium intake under 500 mg unless you are eating a vegan diet. Even celery contains sodium.
Warning. People taking diuretics, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, potassium-sparing drugs, or other medications that affect fluid/electrolyte balance or blood pressure should not make major dietary or supplemental changes without medical supervision.
They can end up with low sodium problems if they follow natural advice while taking drugs at the same time. So quit the drugs first, then follow good health advice, otherwise, it can backfire.