While munching on my brie and cranberry panini the other day – a staple of my diet during the winter months – I found myself wondering about how much salt I was regularly pumping into my system. However, as I am a particular fan of the panini, I then started to wonder if it really mattered… I mean ignoring all the hype, is salt really all that bad for you?
Too much salt is usually seen as a bad thing, high levels are known to lead to high blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart disease. Nevertheless,it is often forgotten that salt is an essential component of our diet. In fact a recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that increased sodium intake may actually increase cardiovascular health.
The consensus I found was that moderation is the key. A healthy adult should consume no more than 6g of salt per day, or 2.5g of sodium (Sodium is often written on packaged foods these days instead of salt – probably to try and put
any savvy people off the scent). However, whilst checking how valid this extremely accurate figure of 6g per day is, I discovered evidence that the human body is actually very good at monitoring itself and removing excess salt from its system when it’s not needed. So why worry?
It turns out that although the body can remove excess salt when it doesn’t need it, if you consume too much salt the body can’t manage to get rid of it all. This means salt accumulates in the bloodstream and retains water, so the heart is forced to work harder to pump the extra volume around the body.
On the other hand, salt is essential for life. It contains charged atoms – which basically means that it conducts electricity. This electricity allows the muscles and brain to communicate through electrical signals. So if you ditch salt from cells, you ditch their ability to communicate and more importantly your body’s ability to co-ordinate! Salt therefore can’t be all bad!
With all the conflicting evidence out there I found very quickly the question I kept asking was how much salt is too much? Not being particularly hung up on counting calories, salt contents or whatever else the latest fad is, I tend to just eat a healthy variety of good quality foods and think that should be enough. Fortunately it seems that for healthy adults that seems to be the answer. There are some foods with hidden salt to look out for though, such as crisps, baked beans and pizza – in fact the average portion of deep and crisp supermarket pizza adds a staggering 4.1g of salt to your daily intake! (Professor Graham MacGregor, Consensus Action on Salt and Health)
In conclusion, it seems as long as you don’t live out of pre-packed ready meals, most of which might as well be marinated in salt for a week, and eat a varied diet with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat (all of which have hardly any salt in them), you can afford to gobble down the odd vinegar soaked packet of chips or kebab after a night out, without feeling too guilty.