Salt is similar to fat in several ways.
Most people are afraid of it
It has been wrongly accused of being unhealthy
Most people don’t get enough of it.
So why do people think that salt is unhealthy?
Salt contains sodium, and water follows sodium, like paparazzi follow celebrities. Which means if there is more sodium in your blood, there will also be more water in your blood. The excess fluid in the blood creates high blood pressure. Make sense?
Your body has a built-in mechanism to deal with excessive amount of salt or sodium, which is found in the kidney. Kidneys work as a filter for your blood, and monitor the amount of sodium, sugar, water, etc that is in the bloodstream. What it filters out of the blood is excreted as urine, which is why high blood sugar, for example, can be detected with a urine test.
So why do some people get high blood pressure and others do not when eating similar amounts of salt? If two people are eating the same amount of salt, shouldn’t it have the same effect on their blood pressure? The answer here is “yes”....if their kidneys are also working the same.
Over the last several decades there has been an increase in high blood pressure, as well as cardiovascular disease and obesity. When people started getting fatter and having more heart attacks we blamed fat and cholesterol. When people started getting high blood pressure we blamed salt. Using the power of observation we can see that avoiding these foods have had little to no effect on high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, or obesity. After all, you can buy “fat free”, “low-sodium”, or “diet” versions of about any food, and we are still as unhealthy as ever.
Recent research has begun to point the finger at sugar as the real culprit. Not fat, not cholesterol, and not salt. Regarding high blood pressure and salt, it has been discovered that a high sugar and high salt diet increases blood pressure. Whereas a high salt diet alone, or high sugar diet alone did not increase blood pressure. The exact reason sugar and salt together raise blood pressure is not known, but some researchers think that it may affect the ability of the kidney to get rid of sodium. Remember, if the blood contains too much sodium the kidney will get rid of the extra sodium to create normal blood pressure. Similarly, if there is not enough sodium in the blood the kidney will hold on to the sodium in order to keep blood pressure from getting too low. In the case of a high salt and sugar diet, the kidney loses its ability to get rid of the extra salt, which raises blood pressure. This is called “salt sensitivity”.
Salt sensitivity is a term used to describe how people respond to salt, and those who are “salt sensitive” are more likely to have high blood pressure compared to those who are “salt resistant”. Several studies on mice have demonstrated that a high sugar, specifically fructose (high fructose corn syrup ring a bell? A hot topic discussion for another day), and high salt diet raised blood pressure in mice that were “salt sensitive”, and had no significant effect on mice that were “salt resistant”. However, when those “salt resistant” mice were fed a high sugar and high salt diet for several months their blood pressure began to rise as they became more “salt sensitive”.
So what does this tell us?
Salt-sensitive individuals are more likely to have increased blood pressure, and a diet that is high in salt and high in sugar creates a salt sensitivity.
So is salt really to blame for your high blood pressure?
Probably not directly. It seems more likely that sugar is contributing more to high blood pressure than salt. Again, mice fed a high salt diet alone did not have an increase in blood pressure, but those fed high salt and sugar diets did.
So what should you do with this information?
Stop eating so much sugar! (bread, pasta, cakes, pie, candy, potatoes, etc)
Use sea salt or Himalayan salt (these salts contain less sodium than iodized, processed, and man-made salt. For other benefits, check out this blog post on Himalayan salt.)
- If you’ve got high blood pressure continue to limit the amount of salt you use, but begin to reduce your sugar intake and check your blood pressure semi-regularly over the next several weeks to a month.
Foods that raise blood sugar:
- Bread (any bread or breading, even whole wheat)
- Grains (rice, oats)
- Pasta
- Potatoes
- Juice of any kind
- Sugar (cane sugar, honey, maple syrup)
- Soda (diet or regular)
These are the major offenders, if you would like a more expansive list research ketogenic or paleo foods/diets or the Atkins diet.