I am sure all of us at one time or
another have been told to watch our salt consumption whether it was from your
doctor or from a concerned family member across the dinner table but the truth is
most of us are not getting enough of this essential nutrient and the case for
low salt diet is actually extremely weak so how did we all come to believe that
salt was the driver of high blood pressure and disease and what are some
signs that you aren't getting enough salt in your diet keep watching to find
it hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Kait I'm a
health coach and I post videos on a high fat nutrient-dense way of eating if you
like this video please give it a thumbs up feel free to share and make sure to
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should new posts every single day this is the first video in a series I am
starting called nutrients we aren't getting enough of
basically these videos are going to be a deep dive into several nutrients we
should be prioritizing and what better place to start than with salt before I
begin I just want to say that a lot of what we're going to talk about today I
learned from the book the salt fix by dr.
James D Nichol Antonia so if you
want to learn even more about salt after watching this video I will link that
book in the description box down below and actually one more thing before we
start I just want to note that there at this video I used the word salt and
sodium pretty interchangeably salt is made up of sodium and chloride and it is
thought to be the sodium in salt that causes a lot of our health problems but
yeah I just wanted to say I sometimes use these words interchangeably
why the salt blood-pressure hypothesis is wrong we will get to why salt is good
for us and why low salt diets are dangerous in a bit but first off I just
want to start by going on how salt in the diet causes high blood pressure came
to be the first recommendation to limit our salt consumption came in 1977 from
the dietary guidelines and wasn't really based on anything except for opinion now
the salt blood pressure hypothesis has actually been around since the early
1900's it was developed from a study done on six patients and the hypothesis
is as follows eating salt drives the body to crave and drink more water the
water is retained by the body to dilute the excess sodium this retained water
increases blood volume and therefore increases blood pressure leading to
hypertension and eventually premature death here is the first reason why this
hypothesis can't be true our kidneys processed about 1400 to 1600 grams of
salt per day yes that is 1 and a half kilos of sodium processed by the kidney
every single day the average American consumes 8 grams of salt per day which
is only a drop in the bucket compared to the 1500 grams our kidneys process every
day it is recommended that we keep our salt consumption under 4 grams per day
so is this extra 4 grams that we're consuming really gonna make a difference
it's not likely when we do consume less salt our kidneys simply reabsorb more of
what we already have the second fact that totally debunked this hypothesis is
that clinical studies have shown 80% of people with normal blood pressure do not
see any increase to their blood pressure when they consume more salt none at all
and 75% of those with pre hypertension and 55% of those with hypertension are
also not affected for those who are salt sensitive meaning that their blood
pressure does Crees when they consume more salt when
they decreased their sugar consumption they are no longer affected this seems
to indicate that our salt consumption is not actually driving high blood pressure
the importance of salt salt is important for so much within the body salt helps
keep the correct balance of water in and around ourselves and tissues the salt
blood pressure hypothesis states that water attention from salt is a bad thing
when in fact it's a life-saving mechanism that helps us survive
dehydration as I said at the start of this video sodium is an essential
nutrient it is an electrolyte and it always find it so interesting how on one
hand we demonize it whereas on the other hand we praise it as being necessary for
athletic performance now don't even get me started on Gatorade there is a measly
270 milligrams of sodium and 75 milligrams of potassium in a bottle of
Gatorade while also having 34 grams of sugar Gatorade is not even a good source
of electrolytes even though that's how it's marketed the presence of sodium is
essential for the contraction of muscles including the largest and most important
muscle in the body the heart if you're someone who experiences heart
palpitations upping your salt content might be the key to preventing this
other electrolytes so potassium magnesium calcium as well as sodium play
a role in regulating the body's metabolism sodium is also fundamental to
the operation of signals to and from the brain dangers of not getting enough salt
when you are not consuming the amount of salt that your body needs the body
activates salt retaining hormones these hormones save your life in the
short-term but damage your body in the long term they harm vital organs
including stiffening of the heart and blood vessels low salt diet have been
shown to have numerous negative health outcomes including accelerated hardening
of the arteries compromised kidney function increased insulin resistance
increased sugar cravings increased appetite
accumulation of visceral fat increased fasting insulin and that's just to name
a few our biological system drives us to
actually be in a sodium surplus because this prevents dehydration infection and
blood loss don't worry about consuming too much salt because our bodies have
several mechanisms in place to deal with this like I said we are meant to be in a
surplus what really causes hypertension in his book dr.
D Nichol Antonio makes a
strong case that's high sugar diets lead to weight gain obesity and type 2
diabetes which in turn caused hypertension several studies have found
that when patients lose weight their hypertension disappears even when their
salt consumption remains the same so limited sugar consumption is the key
factor here how much salt should be consumed three to six grams of salt per
day which is equal to about one teaspoon to three teaspoons is the optimal range
for most however if you are on any version of a low-carb diet you will need
to consume more other factors that might mean you need to consume more salt or if
you consume a lot of caffeine during heavy exercise if you have kidney
problems if you have IBS or are taking any diuretics when you are working out
dosing before exercise includes benefits such as less thirst greater exercise
capacity improved performance improved muscle gains reduced risk of iodine
deficiency and improved kidney function take half a teaspoon before you exercise
and half a teaspoon for every hour going forward as you exercise salt is critical
for our health and our guidelines have everything backwards
we shouldn't be limiting our salt consumption we should be listening to
our bodies because they are really really good at regulating it and craving
it only when necessary thank you guys for watching let me know in the comments
down below do you prioritize salt in your diet
have you eaten a low salt diet in the and what was your experience let me know
down below give this video a thumbs up feel free to share and I will see you
next time
