in today's video we are going to be debunking the
myth that salt causes hypertension and getting to the bottom of the actual cause it has long been
assumed that too much sodium in your diet will increase your blood pressure and in turn your
risk of heart attack and stroke but sodium is also an essential mineral that's critical for our
health it plays an important role in maintaining fluid balance in the body and nerve and muscle
function and especially if you're working to reverse insulin resistance and keep your blood
sugar more stable when your blood sugar is more stable and more low consistently your body
actually excretes more sodium so more intake is required through your diet a healthy individual
will have 16 grams of sodium circulating their bloodstream at any given time so why are we told
to limit our daily intake to less than 1.5 grams per day we're going to answer these questions
and More in today's video so stick around [Music] hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new
here my name is Kait I'm a certified health and nutrition coach I post videos twice a week here
on YouTube talking all things insulin resistance weight loss sleep and more so if you're ready
to take control of your metabolic Health make sure to click that subscribe button and you can
also find me on Tick Tock and Instagram whereas your new posts every single day today's video
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slash health coach Kait to start your free trial today so we're going to start off talking about
the basics what sodium is what salt is and the role they play in our body and then we will get
into whether or not too much salt is bad for you first let's clarify the difference between salt
and sodium because the two terms are often used interchangeably basically all there is to it is
that salt is made up of sodium but not entirely salt is about 40 sodium and 60 chloride and
that really is all there is to it now sodium is essential to our health for a few reasons
most of the sodium in our bodies is either in our bloodstream or in the fluid that surrounds
our cells and its present is required in order to keep these fluids in balance and as I already
mentioned sodium is required for proper nerve and muscle function and this is why low sodium
is often the cause when you experience muscle cramps when exercising especially if the
weather is hot and you're sweating a lot we lose sodium through our sweat and when levels
become low we can experience muscle cramping and this is also why sports drinks are so popular
with athletes these drinks are meant to replenish electrolytes including sodium now I am in no way
making a case for sports drinks including Gatorade these drinks are packed with sugar and artificial
sweeteners but my point is is that it is well known that sodium is something we need especially
when we're active so I think the campaign against it is a bit hypocritical but the question is still
there is too much salt bad for you and does it cause hypertension the answer to these questions
in most cases for most people is no so where does the confusion stem from well the thing is is
that salt can temporarily increase your blood pressure but a temporary increase is not the same
as hypertension which is when your blood pressure is chronically elevated temporary increases are
not a bad thing another example of something that causes a temporary increase in blood pressure
but that isn't a bad thing is exercise when we are exercising blood pressure goes up but over
the long term exercise actually helps to lower blood pressure and improve hypertension there
is another driver behind hypertension but it's not salt it's poor metabolic Health stemming from
insulin resistance over 50 percent of people with high blood pressure also have insulin resistance
and it's estimated that that number could actually be as high as 90 percent Studies have found that
essential hypertension is significantly associated with insulin resistance and I think part of the
confusion is that hypertension isn't actually a condition as it's often referred to it's actually
a symptom and a symptom of insulin resistance when insulin sensitivity improves we see high blood
pressure decrease further hitting on this point is the fact that 80 of people with normal blood
pressure do not see any increase to their blood pressure when they consume more salt now there is
a small percentage of the population who are salt sensitive but again that's not most people and
even in these individuals who are salt sensitive when they decrease their sugar intake they're
no longer affected as I mentioned earlier in the video it is normal to have 16 grams of sodium
circulating your bloodstream at any given time and the kidneys are constantly processing
sodium throughout the day they actually process 1400 to 1600 grams which is equal to 3.2 to 3.6
pounds of salt every single day and taking into consideration that the average person consumes
about 8 grams of salt per day this is just a drop in the bucket when you consume less your kidneys
have to work harder to reabsorb what you already have now I'm going to get more into the importance
of salt in a minute and also why it's important to consume more when you're trying to reverse insulin
resistance but first I'm going to take a quick moment to talk about today's sponsor Squarespace
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can use code health coach Kate to save 10 off your first order thanks again to Squarespace for
sponsoring this video now I've already touched a little bit on why salt and sodium is important
but I really want to make it clear that there are risks to under consuming it now of course most
people eating the standard American diet are getting plenty of sodium this is because sodium
is loaded into processed food but what I see with my clients is when they decide to change their
diet when they switch from a processed food diet to a more Whole Foods diet focusing on quality
Protein healthy fat and non-searchy vegetables and especially if they incorporate some form of
intermittent fasting into their routine their sodium intake decreases dramatically not only that
but as an additional side effect of consuming less carbohydrates the body actually excretes more
sodium as well so they're consuming less and their needs have actually increased side effects
of low sodium can include headaches fatigue heart palpitations muscle cramps as we already spoke
about and irritability and the thing is is that when we consume too much sodium our bodies
just excrete what they don't need so if you think that you're not getting enough sodium
in your diet if you're experiencing some of these side effects up your intake with a good
quality salt I will link to some of my favorite brands in the description box down below but two
that I really love are Redmond and cell squared because ideally if you are eating any variation of
a low carbohydrate diet or if you're incorporating any intermittent fasting into your routine you
want to be consuming about four thousand to seven thousand milligrams of sodium a day which is
about two to three teaspoons of salt you might need more if you're really active or if you live
in a hot climate but start with that and adjust from there salt your food liberally and also add
a pinch of salt to your water to hit these intakes and you can also use an electrolyte supplement
such as sodi if you don't really like the taste of plain salt in water anyways guys that's
all I have for you today let me know in the comment section down below if you have eaten a
low sodium diet in the past did you experience any of the side effects of eating low sodium did
you experience any benefits to your health um from doing this or did your blood pressure decrease
anything that you have experienced in terms of salt let me know in the comment section down
below I love hearing from you and hearing your experiences so even if you just want to come and
say hi I appreciate that as well and also remember to check out Squarespace before you go if you did
enjoy this video you might also enjoy my video on what causes insulin resistance you can check it
out here if you want to catch up on my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to
check out my coaching programs including my seven day insulin resistance Master Class you can find
that here thanks guys I'll see you next time bye
