Does salt hurt?

If taken in excess it is an enemy of our health, especially in the light of the latest scientific research.
In particular, excessive salt consumption can be responsible for diseases such as:

• HYPERTENSION: is especially harmful for people suffering from high blood pressure. Although an organism is perfectly capable of eliminating excess sodium, taking too much, in the long run, promotes the onset of the disease in the predisposed.
• Osteoporosis: the excess favours the renal excretion of calcium, of which the diet is often poor. Calcium is an essential mineral for bones and its deficiency significantly increases the risk of osteoporosis.
• OBESITY: those who regularly consume salty foods run an increased risk of becoming obese. Salt, you know, does not have calories but it stimulates thirst that can be satisfied with sugary or alcoholic drinks. In this case it is easy to take extra calories (about 50-150 kcal per 330 ml can), which are unsatisfying and often not realized.

Salt intake in the diet should also be reduced in the presence of diseases such as kidney failure, heart failure and cirrhosis. These diseases significantly increase sodium retention by altering renal elimination mechanisms.
In a healthy individual, sodium metabolism works perfectly and allows urinary absorption and excretion to be regulated in relation to the amounts of salt introduced with food. For a healthy person, the intake of excessive amounts of it is therefore not a problem even if, in the long run, it predisposes the individual to hypertension and water retention.

HOLIDAY: Sodium is an essential mineral for our body as it regulates the transmission of the nervous impulse, water balance, acid-base balance and membrane permeability. A reduced intake of salt in the diet may, especially during the summer, promote the onset of cramps, decreasing appetite and mental lucidity.

SALE AND DIET: packaged food is one of the main obstacles to the reduction of sodium in the diet. Limiting its intake with food is all in all easy, just take some simple measures:

• Do not salt the dishes.
• Use little during cooking (when preparing pasta, for example, to get used to adding it when it is finished cooking; This considerably reduces the amount absorbed by the dough).
• Limit the consumption of foods stored under salt or processed (encased, cheese, chips, etc.).
• Limit consumption of packaged foods.
• Enhance the flavor of foods with spices, lemon or traditional/balsamic vinegar.
• If the fruit is welcome, it can be consumed as a substitute for savoury snacks as a snack.

The contribution of sodium in the water we drink every day is virtually zero, since in one litre of a common oligomineral water there are usually 5-15 mg sodium.

Different if you use water treated with salt softener where the sodium level can also rise well beyond 200mg per litre of water whether you drink that you use for cooking foods such as soup, pasta, and other foods.

So in this case you need to know how much sodium is injected into the water in order not to miss your diet.

Often eating out of home greatly increases the intake of salt in the diet.

Just think of the widespread habit of restaurateurs to add salt to flavor the dishes or the almost 2 grams of sodium contained in an octave of raw ham.

It would be sufficient for the state to intervene by placing limits on the addition of salt in stored foods to save many lives and several million euros in national health spending each year.

In England and especially Finland, this limitation significantly reduced brain stroke mortality.

In America, where salt consumption has increased by 50% over the last 15 years, the incidence of these diseases has increased markedly.