The Salt Fix: Why the Experts Got It All Wrong--and How Eating More Might Save Your Life

“Addiction to sugar may even be more intense than addiction to other drugs of abuse. Studies have found that when rats are addicted to cocaine, if they’re given a choice between cocaine and sugar, they will opt for the sugar instead, likely because the reward from sugar surpasses that of even cocaine.”

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to reevaluate the evidence relating to sodium intake and cardiovascular risk, and its 2013 report found that there was no benefit for restricting sodium intake below 2,300 milligrams per day. In fact, it found that there may be adverse health outcomes.”

“glucose challenge test” along with an insulin assay. In this test, your insulin and blood sugar levels are measured two hours after consuming a drink that contains 75 grams of glucose. The test helps to determine if you have a large blood sugar and insulin spike after a meal, often a better gauge of internal starvation. If you have a high fasting insulin or high postprandial (after a meal) insulin level, you probably have some degree of internal starvation, and those high insulin levels will cause you to store an abnormal amount of fat for each calorie consumed. Reevaluate”

“Inhabitants of Kotyang, Nepal Sodium intake: ~ 4,600 mg sodium/day Blood pressure: No cases of hypertension in the men. Blood pressure did not increase with age. In the women, hypertension was extremely rare (1.4 percent). The authors concluded, “In the present study, no significant increase in systolic blood pressure with age was found in men living in Kotyang, and no hypertensive men and very few hypertensive women were detected in Kotyang”

“Ames, R. P. 2001. The effect of sodium supplementation on glucose tolerance and insulin concentrations in patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Am J Hypertens 14(7 Pt 1): 653–659.”

“Also, diluting salt in a mixture of lemon, lime, and orange juice is quite pleasant.”

“Nicotine: Those using forms of tobacco that contain nicotine (cigarettes, cigars, pipe and chewing tobacco) have an increased risk of low blood sodium levels due to nicotine’s ability to increase water retention (via an increased production of antidiuretic hormone).152”

“It has been postulated that a high salt intake during times of repletion causes the “salt receptors on the tongue to ‘flip’ from positive to negative…quite unlike the response of the other four basic taste sensors and thereby tends to decrease intake of salty foods.”24”

“In essence, compared to someone who hasn’t slashed his or her salt intake, a low-salt diet may cause you to absorb twice as much fat for every gram you consume.4”

“excess consumption of refined sugar, particularly of fructose-derived sweeteners such as sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup, can also trigger resistance to the satiety hormone leptin, throwing your appetite and your body’s fat-regulation system out of whack.41”

“Addiction to sugar may even be more intense than addiction to other drugs of abuse. Studies have found that when rats are addicted to cocaine, if they’re given a choice between cocaine and sugar, they will opt for the sugar instead, likely because the reward from sugar surpasses that of even cocaine.38”

“Furthermore, only a small percentage (around 25 percent) of the population can even drive their salt intake down to what most guidelines recommend.13”

“1998—Niels Graudal publishes a meta-analysis of strictly randomized trials testing a low-sodium diet. The results found minimal reductions in blood pressure, whereas low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, total cholesterol, noradrenaline, renin, and aldosterone were increased with a low-sodium diet. Their conclusion was, “These results do not support a general recommendation to reduce sodium intake.”36”

“In the elderly, hyponatremia is over 31 times as prevalent as hypernatremia (high sodium levels in the blood)15 and is associated with an increased risk of death, length of hospital stay, falls, rhabdomyolysis (rapid breakdown of muscle), bone fractures, and increased healthcare costs.16”

“Indeed, we’re finding that increasing your salt intake, even above what’s generally considered a normal intake, may help improve your insulin sensitivity. One clinical trial found that compared to consumption of about 3,000 milligrams of sodium per day, those who consumed around 6,000 milligrams of sodium per day significantly lowered their glucose response to a 75-gram oral glucose tolerance test. Moreover, the researchers found that when diabetic patients were placed on the higher-sodium diet, their insulin response improved. The authors were quite emphatic and suggested that some people even supplement with sodium, stating that “an abundant sodium intake may improve glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, especially in diabetic, salt-sensitive, or medicated essential hypertensive subjects.”27”

“Large-scale studies continued to emphasize these same findings. Two large prospective European studies, which included almost four thousand patients without prior cardiovascular disease, found a more than fivefold increase in mortality with a low sodium intake versus the highest sodium intake.127 The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study examined over 100,000 people in seventeen countries and found that the lowest risk of death or cardiovascular events was in those consuming between 3,000 and 6,000 milligrams of sodium per day.”

“Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis) have significant problems absorbing salt in the intestine and colon, respectively, which leads to excreting more salt and lower blood sodium levels, even in moments of remission.126”

“Another study confirmed these findings, saying they “support the importance of salt in normal pregnancy, a critical issue given the passionate campaigns to lower salt intake in the general population.” The researchers suggested that salt could be a “cheap and easy intervention,” particularly in areas with lower resources, to help avoid dangerous pregnancy conditions such as preeclampsia.61”

“Scientific research suggests that the optimal range for sodium intake is 3 to 6 grams per day (about 1⅓ to 2⅔ teaspoons of salt) for healthy adults, not the 2,300 milligrams of sodium (less than 1 teaspoon of salt) per day that’s commonly advised. And some people need even more.”

“One manufacturer producing reduced salt bacon has already used this technique; when the salt content of bacon was reduced from 3.5 percent to 2.3 percent, the shelf-life was reduced from 56 days to 28 days.”145 Lowering the salt content of packaged foods may also require higher use of suspect preservatives, such as phosphates, nitrates, and nitrites, in order to maintain microbial stability, which are likely more detrimental to our health compared to salt.146”

“The heart receives blood supply during relaxation, whereas every other organ gets blood when the heart is contracting. So the quicker one’s heart pumps means the less time the heart is relaxed to receive blood and, hence, oxygen. This is one reason why low-salt diets122 have been implicated in increasing the risk of heart attacks: by reducing blood flow to the heart. The increase in norepinephrine on low-salt diets may even produce cardiac hypertrophy, overgrowth of the heart, which can lead to heart failure.123”

“Our java-junkie habits and our dependence on energy drinks, teas, and other caffeinated beverages put us at risk for salt depletion because caffeine acts as a natural diuretic, flushing water and salt from our kidneys.”

“However, this increased intake does not mean salt is habit-forming—it’s actually evidence that if enough salt is available, people will consume more, but only up to a physiologically determined set point, one that provides ideal health and longevity. Indeed, when salt is freely accessible, people across numerous populations tend to eat an amount that stays within a remarkably narrow range, generally between 3 and 4 grams of sodium per day.9”

“Weder and Egan concluded, “The potentially adverse impact of dietary salt restriction on the risk factor profile for cardiovascular disease suggests that further studies are necessary before a reduction in dietary salt intake can be prescribed for the general population.”125 This was in 1991, over twenty-five years ago.”

“In people with chronic high blood pressure, cutting salt increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL; “bad” cholesterol) levels in the blood.”

“Your body drives you to eat several grams of salt (around 8–10 grams, equal to 3,000–4,000 milligrams of sodium) every day to remain in homeostasis, an optimal state in which you put the least amount of stress on the body.”

“also implement weight training, because lifting weights or doing resistance exercises (using resistance bands, weight machines, or your own body weight) is one of the best ways to help with insulin resistance. While aerobic exercise helps your body use insulin better and decreases storage of visceral (abdominal) fat, resistance training makes your body more sensitive to insulin and helps your muscles take up more glucose (sugar) from the blood, thereby lowering blood sugar. Even simply exercising before or right after you eat something with higher carbohydrate levels can help reduce any resulting swings in your blood sugar and insulin release.”

“Adding 2,300 milligrams of sodium (1 teaspoon of salt) per liter of water has been found to reduce total fluid loss during exercise.”

“2014—Te Morenga and colleagues publish a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials showing that a high-sugar diet significantly increases blood pressure versus a lower-sugar diet (the effect is around twice that found with altering sodium intake).45”

“In essence, if you choose a low salt intake on top of a high-sugar diet, you have the perfect formula for causing kidneys that can no longer hold on to salt.123”