Thread: What will excess salt do.

It can raise your blood pressure.

if u dont eat it n then have a day when u eat junk w your 8 yr old like doritos n such or u have a salt craving n eat ramen noodles you will get sore boobs.

i think it will harden arteries n so on. it is really easy to get so u don't miss it. avoid it as much as possible.

Are You Eating Too Much Salt?

BY GAIL HULNICK


Everyday foods may contain alarmingly high amounts FRANK LE CLAIR, a 58-year-old provincial government employee living in Winnipeg, had no idea that his blood pressure was too high. While out of town last winter, he came down with a cold and a sore throat and decided to see a local doctor.

After checking his cold symptoms, she measured his blood pressure. "It was higher than 160 over 110," Le Clair recalls. The doctor advised him to see his regular physician as soon as he got home.

Le Clair's GP referred him to the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre, where dietitians told him that he might be able to control his blood pressure by changing his lifestyle rather than by taking drugs. People with high blood pressure, he learned, have to control or eliminate four elements: smoking, drinking, food quantities and salt.

Le Clair doesn't smoke or drink, but there were some changes he could make in the other two categories. "Salt is my downfall. Even on salad -- salt, then salad dressing, then more salt. I ate it unconsciously."

A typical snack for Le Clair consisted of potato chips or cheesies. Frequently at dinnertime he and his wife would skip cooking and have a sandwich with processed meat. And he liked to eat at fast-food restaurants. He wasn't aware of just how high his daily salt intake was.


MOST PEOPLE in Canada know that too much salt is bad for them. But, like Frank Le Clair, few realize how easy it is to eat too much. Health Canada says we generally consume more salt than is required.

To moderate our intake, it suggests we eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and choose highly salted snack foods less often. Health Canada also recommends that people check labels when shopping to choose foods that are unsalted or low in salt, and cut down on processed food. About 75 percent of the sodium chloride -- common salt -- Canadians consume daily comes from processed and packaged foods.

Dietitian Patricia Chuey of Eating for Energy, a nutrition consulting firm in Vancouver, says the recommended allowance is about 2,400 milligrams of sodium daily, which works out to about one teaspoon or six grams of salt. "Canadians today eat two to three times what they need," Chuey says.

However, it can be difficult to determine the quantity of salt in processed foods in Canada. Unlike the United States, we don't have mandatory labelling of the quantities of ingredients in food -- even when there is a claim made on the label, such as "low sodium" or "low fat." Labels do rank the ingredients from highest to lowest percentage, but if a tomato sauce label simply reads "tomatoes, salt," it is impossible to figure out how much salt was added.

Which everyday foods are high in salt? Foods such as processed meats, butter, margarine and baked beans are generally big salt providers. Canned and packaged soups have very high sodium counts, as well. In fact, some processed foods have a salt concentration equal to or greater than that of seawater.

Some manufacturers have made a start in reducing the salt content in canned food, but nutritionists warn that monosodium glutamate, flavouring and preservatives may contain "hidden" sodium; consumers should look for these ingredients on the labels.


Why is salt bad for you?

The most conclusive evidence so far that a high-salt diet is bad for you is the "Intersalt" study, involving 10,000 people in 32 countries. It measured the relationship between urinary sodium excretion -- a direct measure of salt consumption -- and blood pressure. The study found that populations with the lowest sodium excretion also have the lowest blood pressures.

Recent studies have shown that "salt sensitivity" is a major factor in the relationship between a high-salt diet and hypertension. And hypertension is a risk factor for two of the biggest killers in this country: coronary heart disease and stroke. Frank Le Clair's high blood pressure was discovered by chance. There are no warning symptoms -- high blood pressure is known as the silent killer.

Although medical experts do not understand why some people are salt sensitive, they do know that in these people high salt intake increases their total body fluid. This forces the heart to pump harder, increasing the pressure on blood vessels, which can contract and expand like rubber tubing.

The excess fluid also boosts weight. "A high-salt diet causes water retention. If you go low salt, you may lose some weight," says Dr. David Jenkins, professor of nutritional sciences and medicine at the University of Toronto.

A high-salt intake triggers a vicious cycle. Those who are used to a lot of salt in their food find they need increasing amounts to be able to continue to taste its flavour -- the more salt they eat, the more they want. It is also an aggravating factor in osteoporosis and is closely linked to stomach cancer. A high salt intake can be dangerous for people with conditions that are aggravated by fluid retention, such as hepatitis, liver or kidney problems.


If not salt, then...

Although most people are aware of the importance of a low-sodium diet for healthy eating, many people find there is not as much information available as there is for low-fat diets. Marianne Long, a 54-year-old construction project planner whose blood pressure was abnormally high, says that at first she had trouble finding recipes. "You have to gather information about the sodium content of foods and be creative," Long says. "When I started restricting salt, everything tasted bland. But eventually I learned to cook with seasonings and herbs."

Most people have the same experience. "Salt is an acquired taste," says dietitian Dayna Weiten of the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre. "It may take one to three months for the taste buds to adjust to less salt, but after that, people tell me they can't stand canned soup, for example, because it tastes too salty."

Glyn Gibbs, 64, began eating a wider variety of foods when he cut back on salt. "I add pepper for flavouring," says the retired millwright from Stoney Creek, Ont. "I also use herbs and spices like oregano and basil; I just add them till it tastes right."

A low-salt diet benefits all age groups. Research has shown that a group of babies in the Netherlands on reduced salt intake had lower blood pressure compared to a control group. Their blood pressures remained lower than the control group's even by the age of 15.

To help reduce your family's salt intake, Janice Macdonald, British Columbia regional director for Dietitians of Canada, recommends using fewer packaged and canned foods. "Use fresh and frozen vegetables and fruit, and add less salt while cooking," she advises. "But watch out for the frozen vegetables that come with a sauce. There may be added salt." Keeping salt off the table at mealtimes is also a good habit.

When Frank Le Clair began to reduce his salt intake, his eating habits and lifestyle changed. "I had to become conscious of what I was eating," he says. "No more grabbing the salt and just shaking it on. The potato chips and the processed meat had to go. My overall health is improving, and I have more energy."

just google "salt bad for you" you will find tons of reasons to cut down or eliminate it.