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Trigger Warning: this post contains talk about blood and the process of dialysis. It also contains a picture of actual person's arm during dialysis.
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One of the core reasons I started doing this was to avoid salt in my cooking.
And I promise, it's about way more than weight management.
Growing up, my mom rarely cooked with salt.
My grandmother on my dad's side lost a kidney to cancer in the 70s, so she was on a low-sodium diet for the rest of her life. She lived with us from when I was about 2 until she went into a nursing home when I was 24.
So the low-salt cooking style started with that, but then my dad developed chronic kidney disease and he also required a low-sodium diet. At that time, I was becoming the main cook of the house, and finding so many seasoning blends had massive amounts of salt. And even worse, just about anything packaged is filled with even more salt.
I get it. It's a preservative.
The ancient peoples of just about every culture used salt for their everyday lives. They used it for preserving food, curing hides, healing wounds, religious ceremonies, and as a trading commodity.
And I get it. It's useful.
In our modern society, salt not only preserves the food to stay on the shelf longer and not spoil, but it also adds flavor to food.
Our bodies do need salt.
Your kidney uses salt to balance the water in your body. Think of the salt as a sponge and the kidney determines when it needs to absorbs some extra water to get rid of. Super cool.
Your body also uses the salt in our body to conduct electricity! Your brain runs on electricity and it uses the nerves as highways to talk to the muscles, but they can't send the signal down the highway without the salt as the conductor. Also super cool.
But our diet has too much salt.
We as a society (not just America, really its a worldwide thing) are so addicted to the taste of salt. It's in everything. And if it doesn't have massive salt, it has massive sugar. And if a food tastes bland, what do you automatically reach for? It's either the salt or pepper shaker sitting at your table. But we'll talk about sugar and black pepper in another post.
In order for our bodies to do the super cool things that it does - remember the kidney sponge and the electricity to the muscles - we only need 2,000 mg of sodium / 5 g of salt per day. You know that's only 1 teaspoon!
Realistically, how much salt am I putting in?
I can easily say "that's too much". So lets see if we can break this down.
All of these numbers come from basic google search for sodium content. Ex: (2 eggs scrambled sodium content)
Meal | Day A | Sodium A | Day B | Sodium B |
Breakfast | 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 1 toast, hash browns | 1340 mg | cereal, 1 toast, milk, fruit | 446 mg |
Lunch | 2 slices bread, 2 slices turkey, 1 slice provolone, mayo, 16 oz soda | 676 mg | garden salad with chicken, 16 oz diet soda | 830 mg |
Dinner | spaghetti, meatballs, jarred sauce, parmesan | 896 mg | frozen breaded chicken, boxed rice, microwave veggies | 1697 mg |
Total | 2912 mg | 2973 mg |
I promise I didn't plan the numbers to come out so close. I did the calculations after I picked the food.
What did you pick for your meals? How much sodium did you end up with?
Did you consider snacks? Did you add salt while you were cooking anything? Did you add salt to your plate after it was cooked?
Y'all it adds up fast!
So what does your body do with all the extra salt in your body?
Starting with the kidney sponge - When sodium is low, the kidneys hold on to it to use it later. When sodium is high, the kidneys release some in urine.
If the kidneys can't remove enough sodium, it builds up in the blood. Sodium attracts and holds water, so the blood volume rises. The heart must work harder to pump blood, and that increases pressure in the arteries. Over time, this can raise the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
Next with the electric highway - if the signals from your brain to your muscles are being over-conducted, this leads to uncontrollable muscles contractions, cramps, and spasms. And even though it sounds counter-intuitive, this also leads to muscle weakness.
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Trigger Warning: This begins the medical conversation with image including blood.
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What does this look like for people who have heart disease or kidney disease?
For some, it's no fault of the individual. Genetics also plays a role in whether someone has one of these diseases. It's not purely from too much salt. Just like genetics plays a huge role in whether someone has/develops diabetes or not (again, that will be with the sugar post)
When someone has heart disease, the heart itself and the veins and arteries are weaker. So when the volume of blood is too high, then it can cause ruptures and heart attacks.
When someone has kidney disease, the kidney isn't very good at knowing when to use the salt as a sponge anymore. And sometimes it's not as efficient. When kidney disease advances, it's called kidney failure. The kidney completes stops working and your body is not able to filter things out anymore. Once this happens, a person either needs a kidney transplant or dialysis - where a machine filters out the extra minerals from your body for you. I asked my dad and he describes it as "Very exhausting during the procedure. The needle prevents you from moving your arm for 4 hours. For me it was the anxiety of waiting for when I would cramp in my calves. Then crying when thinking is this my retirement? Then once you were happy with a technician the center would rotate the techs. I always would get the trainers. They never could find a vein. Then there were the patients who would moan and cry for 4 hours. The prayers of patience knowing a transplant would end all of this. The sight of my own blood cycling through the tubing. Trying to stay warm. I became a good clock watcher."
I feel like I over explain things. But then again, I often feel like people have knowledge of point A and point B but if the connection between A and B isn't there, then the meaning is lost.
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Trigger Warning: this ENDS the blood and medical portion.
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But you can't skip out on salt entirely.
Too little salt in the body is called hyponatremia. This happens if you a) consume too little salt b) lose too much salt via urine, sweating, vomiting, or diarrhea C) consume too much water (yes, you can over-hydrate yourself) and it dilutes the salt in your body. In severe cases, this means muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. Eventually, lack of salt can lead to shock, coma and death.
What happens to the kidney sponge - in addition to the effects on blood and the heart that too much salt has, too little has the same effect because both are affecting the balance between the two. When your body is out of balance, it tries to correct the issue by vomiting or diarrhea.
What happens to the electric highway - the symptoms are the same even though the science behind it is a little different. So if your nerves are lacking the conductivity, then the electricity can't travel from your brain to the muscles. This miscommunication causes the cramps and spasms.
I know from personal experience when I tried the keto diet that I would experience dizziness and you could counter that by adding a drink that had extra minerals and electrolytes, including salt. I don't think I was necessarily consuming too little salt, but I was changing the other aspects of my diet that needed salt to balance it.
So what can you do?
Fresh, whole foods.
One of the most life-changing things I learned about practically applying healthy habits is "shopping the perimeter". When you are grocery shopping, the fresh, whole foods are kept in refrigerators and freezers on the perimeter of the store. All the boxed things are on shelves in the middle. The boxes and other things that can be kept in dry storage have higher sodium. The things in the fridge section don't. Freezers are difficult because you can find real vegetables in the freezer with no added salts or sugars, but you can also find vegetables with added sauces that are super convenient because they go in the microwave and the flavors are super tempting.
Skip the soda
That's so hard because once you are used to soda, and who isn't... you crave the sugar and you crave the caffeine. And the added sodium is just the cherry on top.
Drink more water
Aside from staying hydrated no matter the season, water helps your body flush out the extra salt/sodium. Aim for half the amount of ounces that you weigh in pounds. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs, then you should aim to drink 75 oz every day. Drinking a little more than that is ok for things like hot summer days or intense physical activity. You have to replace what you sweat out. Drinking too much is when you get close to the same ounces as you are pounds. For exampleif you weigh 150 pounds, you don't want to drink 150 ounces!
Don't add salt
Just remove the salt shaker from the table. Don't get me wrong, I still collect salt and pepper shakers. I keep 1 by the stove that I use to salt the water when making pasta, but thats it! All my others are either empty or filled with other powdered flavors like herbs and spices.
Read the Labels
It takes practice to learn how to read nutrition labels and ingredients lists.
Look out for these ingredients:
Monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Baking soda, also called sodium bicarbonate.
Baking powder.
Disodium phosphate.
Sodium alginate.
Sodium citrate.
Sodium nitrite.
Look for these labels:
Sodium-free or salt-free. Each serving in this product has less than 5 mg of sodium.
Very low sodium. Each serving has 35 mg of sodium or less.
Low sodium. Each serving contains 140 mg of sodium or less.
Reduced or less sodium. The product contains at least 25% less sodium than does the regular version.
Lite or light in sodium. The sodium content has been reduced by at least 50% from the regular version. But some foods with these labels may still be high in sodium.
Unsalted or no salt added. No salt is added during processing of a food that usually contains salt. But some foods with these labels might not be sodium-free. That's because some of the ingredients still may contain sodium.
Don't forget that many foods naturally have sodium/salt in them - dairy, meats, vegetables, and fruit! But these are the normal amounts without added sodium. Theres is generally more than enough dietary sodium in a natural diet without any added salt.
But I don't want bland food
There is so much more to flavor than salt and pepper! Seriously one of my pet peeves is that cooking shows and restaurants have it in their heads that salt and pepper are just the magic ingredient to make everything better. And it makes home cooks think that salt and pepper are your only options.
Unless you have an allergy or sensitivity to a food (I do know people who are allergic to onions or garlic, and plenty of sensitivity to spicy things) there are so many herbs and spices that you can use to flavor your food that do not add sugar or salt to your daily intake. Some are sweet, some are spicy, some are savory. It's all so fascinating and can be a fun way to experiment with meal flavors.
Garlic
Onion
Mustard
Dill
Parsley
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme
Oregano
Basil
Paprika
Chili Powder
Cumin
Cayenne
And that's just the basics...
Try my Mixes!
What would this be without a little promo?
Some companies do make low-salt or no-salt blends, but they always have some other preservatives or caking agents. I promise that my blends always have been and always will be organic and no fillers - just the herbs and spices. Here are a couple examples for fresh chicken:
Add Erbe Italiane to while you're cooking it
Sprinkle Buffalo Blend after it's cooked for a more intense "dry rub" style.
I got a lot of the medical info from here:
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