Do you think not eating salt is unhealthy?

[The Chodeminator]

I haven't been eating salt for about 8 months now. I feel great, but my mom is giving me a hard time saying how I'm going to get sick soon. I remember reading about it in Paul Bragg's book ''The Miracle of Fasting'' but for the life of me I can't remember the reasoning behind it.

I'm getting a little paranoid here. Is there any evidence that you must eat salt?

[viscapes]

I'm not an expert on the issue by any means but certainly our bodies do need a certain amount of salt.

I recall during the London marathon a while back a fit, healthy, runner in his 20's collapsed and died from over-hydration. He'd sweated so much that his body had lost a lot of salt and then the more water he drank the more he diluted what little salt was in his body. Clearly this is an extreme case and as I said, I'm not an expert so don't let my words bother you too much.

But the point is we do need some salt. I'm not sure if our bodies produce enough salt naturally without having it in our diet, it would be good to know.

[Joeschmoe]

Our bodies need some Sodium. You can get that sodium in salt, but you also get quite a bit from plant sources.

1 Stalk of celery has 51 mg.

[PianoManGidley]

Originally Posted by Joeschmoe

Our bodies need some Sodium. You can get that sodium in salt, but you also get quite a bit from plant sources.

1 Stalk of celery has 51 mg.

Yes, but the recommended daily dosage is somewhere around 2400mg, is it not?

[pianoperformer]

No, the recommended (minimum) dosage is 1500 MG. At maximum maybe 2000 (it used to be 2400-2500). if you eat any processed food at all, I guarantee you are getting more than enough sodium. Most Americans I think get around 4000 MG if I remember correctly.

[Joeschmoe]

That is the recommended maximum. The figure i saw was 500 mg of sodium per day.

[Scipio]

Originally Posted by The Chodeminator

I haven't been eating salt for about 8 months now. I feel great, but my mom is giving me a hard time saying how I'm going to get sick soon. I remember reading about it in Paul Bragg's book ''The Miracle of Fasting'' but for the life of me I can't remember the reasoning behind it.

I'm getting a little paranoid here. Is there any evidence that you must eat salt?

I guarantee you that you are, in fact, eating salt. You're just not putting table salt onto your food. Correct?

[pianoperformer]

No, 500 is too low...

Source: http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/20/004/0.pdf as linked from DRI Tables : Dietary Guidance : Food and Nutrition Information Center

It varies by age, but it looked like the minimum was largely 1500, and certainly never less than 1000. Note I think the units in the table are grams, so divide by 1000. The maximums were between 2-2.5 G.

[Joeschmoe]

http://vric.ucdavis.edu/veginfo/comm...les/table8.pdf

[pianoperformer]

I must admit, I have never seen such low numbers for sodium. The link I provided was from the USDA, though, so are the current recommendations according to them.

[PianoManGidley]

Well, perhaps if you just eat low-sodium or sodium-free foods and take a sodium pill? Do they make those?

[Keith]

As others have said, your body needs salt, but it's nigh-impossible to not get enough salt in a modern diet. It's added to just about everything, and it occurs naturally in a lot of foods.

If you're really concerned about it, keep a log of what you eat for a few days and add up your sodium intake. That'd serve as good evidence to your mum that you're fine.

One thing to watch out for, though: In a modern diet there's very little iodine so some countries add it to table salt. If this is the case in your country, you may want to ensure that you're getting enough iodine from other sources (some seaweeds are good).

[bdp]

Not getting enough sodium? That's a good one!

You don't need to worry about getting enough--you need to worry about getting too much.

To Salt or Not to Salt?

[cheech]

While it's certainly the case that most people are in far greater danger of getting too much salt than too little, and that salt is added to so many foods that almost everyone will get over the minimum salt requirement without having to think about it, i believe it is possible to suffer from a salt deficiency.

A friend of my parents, who is suffering from cancer and trying to eat only healthy and natural foods, never goes out to eat, and him and his wife cook all their own food (using many ingredients they've grown themselves), to which they did not add salt. He was told by a doctor that he was suffering from a salt deficiency, and needed to start adding some salt to his cooking. This is the only case I've ever heard of of someone being told to eat more salt (I know of many people who have been told to eat less).