Your Body Needs Some Salt

There is this notion that salt is deadly to our health. However, this is a big misconception about the most common additive in the world that gives meaning to the taste of food. Recent research findings have indicated that this notion should not be embraced at face value as the additive is necessary for our good health. We need salt for balancing the chemical composition of our body.

Salt is often blamed for every other ailment including aggravating high blood pressure and heart disease. In fact, some people are even not as abrasive about sugar as they are about salt. It has gone to a point where we are teaching kids at school and home not to add raw salt to their food.

Exercise and weight loss

Experts have established that exercising with a view to control or lose weight must go along with reasonable amounts of salt intake. As it turns out, salt assists in effective metabolism and maintaining a healthy weight. Studies have shown that salt excretes excess amounts of cortisol from the body - and an excess amount of cortisol has been proved to contribute to unhealthy weight gain.

Managing your stress

Salt plays a role in managing stress levels. In addition to the fact that salt improves metabolism, it has been also established that the additive has a positive influence on digestion and quality of sleep, in turn, helping to moderate the levels of stress.

Salt mitigates insulin resistance

Salt enables the body to balance and control sugar in blood. It also improves the ability of the body to properly interact with insulin in the system. On the other hand, inadequate amounts of salt in the body lead to insensitivity to insulin and, eventually, insulin resistance.

Retaining essential minerals

Salt enables the body to metabolize and retain essential minerals like magnesium, potassium and calcium.

Body sweat

It is common knowledge that when we sweat much, the second biggest thing after water that we lose through sweat is salt. All sportsmen know that dehydration and salt loss during intense exercise can be harmful and even dangerous if you don’t refill your body on these two elements.

Conclusion

All in all, even though the benefits of salt are well articulated, like all other dietary indulgences, salt has to be taken in moderation because high intakes can raise the body’s blood pressure and exacerbate other ailments like diabetes and kidney disease.

It is also important to note that 75 percent of the sodium intake in America is not from the salt shaker; it is from processed foods. And that is why it is important to read the label on the foods you buy to know how much sodium they contain. To maintain good health, the American Heart Association recommends that an adult should consume an average of 1,500 mg of sodium per day.