Healthy Salt Consumption Guide

Healthy Salt Consumption Guide . Taste the salt! How harmful can it be?  This article is a ‘Guide to Healthy Salt Consumption’ to support a healthy lifestyle. It aims to guide you in maintaining the salt balance, which is important for health, and managing salt consumption consciously.”

Salt, which we often use in our daily lives, is a substance made up of a combination of 60% chlorine and 40% sodium, which makes our food tasty.

The mineral sodium is a necessary substance that ensures the proper functioning of the muscle and nerve structure, while the mineral chlorine, in combination with the mineral chloride, ensures the balance of the mineral and water composition of the human body. Although salt has many benefits for our body, it can cause problems if consumed in excess.

Damage in a short time as a result of excessive salt consumption . Some parts of your body may feel more swollen than normal. The main reason for this is that despite the amount of sodium in your body, your kidneys cannot find enough water.

The body needs water. If our kidneys cannot get enough water into the body, it stores the remaining water and tries to tolerate the large amount of sodium it receives. This situation, as we said at the beginning, causes oedema and bloating in the body.

Stroke As a Result of Salt and High Blood Pressure

When we eat salty foods, it can speed up the flow of blood in the vessels and cause problems with high blood pressure.

If we eat too much salt in our food, we feel a dry mouth and constant thirst. The reason for this is that the thirst is caused by our body trying to maintain the sodium/water balance it needs.

On the other hand, if you do not drink fluids after eating a lot of salt, you may develop hypernatremia, which means that your body’s sodium mineral levels increase too much.

Hypernatremia is a condition in which water leaks out of your cells in an attempt to dilute the excess sodium in your blood and can lead to confusion, seizures, coma and even death.

Other symptoms of hypernatremia syndrome include fatigue, restlessness, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, difficulty breathing, straining and needing to go to the toilet more often.

Long-term salt intake and its consequences

If you use salt excessively and for a long time, stop! If you eat too much salt over a long period of time, you run the risk of developing high blood pressure, stomach cancer, heart disease, arteriosclerosis, cerebral haemorrhage and sudden stroke.
Most people today have high blood pressure because they do not pay attention to their salt intake. Unfortunately, the majority of these people are unaware of their condition.

However, sudden high blood pressure leads to cerebral haemorrhage and then stroke.

How Much Salt Should We Eat?

People should not exceed a dose of 0.2 grams per kilogram. The lethal dose is 70-35 grams (70 tablespoons) for a person weighing 35-70 kg.

People with heart disease or kidney problems will experience fatal effects if they consistently consume excessive doses, such as 25 grams per day.

Researchers estimate that a person consumes an average of 9-12 grams of salt per day.

The processed foods consumed on the market account for a large proportion of this consumption.

However, people usually consume about 3 to 5 grams of salt per day. Unfortunately, we are faced with many health problems because we want to enjoy it.

İs There a Way Back From Eating Too Much Salt?

Once you have eaten a high-salt food, there are several ways to manage it.

Firstly, eat plenty of vegetables. Focus on potassium-rich foods such as plenty of fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts and dairy products. Exercise is a must.

Prefer foods that contain potassium. It plays a key role in maintaining your body’s fluid balance. You can find potassium in apricot, avocado, banana, kiwi, milk, orange, potato, plum, pumpkin and hazelnut-peanut varieties.
Most of the salt we consume comes from processed foods in supermarkets or fast food ready meals.

Of course, when trying to apply what we have described above, you need to minimise your salt consumption.

However, recent studies have also revealed that pure salt, ie rock salt, is not as dangerous as market salt.

We should not forget that it is always said that salt is more valuable than gold. Salt is worth more than gold. Do you agree? …….