Where do you get your sodium?

[sula58]

Quick question, concerning adding salt to the diet (i.e. not the sample diet):

I remember Wai saying that if we eat a lot of salt, our bodies can deal with it by absorbing only a small amount, and vice versa.
So if I suddenly added a LOT of salt to my diet, after a week or so (?), my body would have adjusted to the increase, absorbing only a little. So it would be as if I was only eating a little salt! Right?
So if I'm willing to kind of "shock" my body for a short amount of time with a new amount of salt, after a while, it would stablize. Am I right with this theory?

Thanks so much for your time and effort, anyone who can reply:
sula58

[RRM]

If you are susceptible to acne, or cellulite, you better don't use salt. But if not, you can try.
But, do you know that your taste adapts to the amount of salt?
If you take salt regularly, after a while it doesnt taste like that anymore, so that you need to increase intakes to get the same effects.
So, why would you want the salt?

[sula58]

Good point! Thanks!

[Wintran]

I've been wondering this for some time now:

Is salt needed to make sweat effective, and if so, will the absence of salt in this diet affect our temperature regulation system negatively?

[avo]

Good question. I get very little salt/sodium a day, where I used to eat tons when just a raw fooder. I have noticed that if I am too bundled up during the night, I am completely drenched in sweat by morning. Also, I have been sweating a lot when exercising, more than I used to. I can't tell if these are good signs, or bad or neither.

[RRM]

Is salt needed to make sweat effective, and if so, will the absence of salt in this diet affect our temperature regulation system negatively?

Its not absent at all. All foods contain sodium (and chloride).
There is no ADDED salt in this diet.

I have noticed that if I am too bundled up during the night, I am completely drenched in sweat by morning. Also, I have been sweating a lot when exercising, more than I used to. I can't tell if these are good signs, or bad or neither.

Good. Now your body is much better in regulating your body temp via sweating, as it used to be more problematic due to higher salt and protein levels (retaining water).

[johndela1]

I read this today:


"Salt (sodium chloride) canot by used by the body to meet any of thses
mineral requirements. Salt is an *inorganic* mineral that cannot be
metabolized by the body. Salt enters the body as sodium chloride, it
circulates as sodium chloride, and it leaves the body as sodium
chloride. At no point is it broken down into sodium and chlorine and
used by the body."
"Sodium chloride is a very strong and stable molecule. It cannot be
broken down in the digestive tract or by the liver. The body cannot
used the bonded sodium chloride molecule in any way."

Is this true? If you had no sodium in your diet and all you had was table salt would you suffer a lack of sodium?

If this isn't true, where does the chlorine go?

[RRM]

Well, this:

The body cannot used the bonded sodium chloride molecule in any way."

is not true.

Biological importance
Sodium chloride is essential to life on Earth.

From this article:
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/ ... loride.pdf

sodium salts (such as sodium chloride) account for more than 90% of the osmotically active solute in the plasma, determining extra cellular volume

for the greatest part, what we need sodium for, is what we need sodium chloride for.
Sodium and chloride are absorbed separately, and in combination (sodium chloride)

If you had no sodium in your diet and all you had was table salt would you suffer a lack of sodium?

If this isn't true, where does the chlorine go?

I dont know whether the body can separate sodium and chloride in sodium chloride, but I do know that sodium and chloride are absorbed and excreted separately, as well as in combination, so that chloride can be excreted independently.
In practise, its very hard to lack sodium or chloride, as they are present in nearly all foods (including fruits).

[johndela1]

I don't have acne I do this diet because it think it is the best for health. Would you say if I am trying to eat the best way for health I should cut out table salt? I'm not concerned with cellulite.

[RRM]

Yes. I assume that the system regulating water metabolism
(including various hormones) may get impaired by prolonged salt consumption; thats why most old people have swollen and deformed faces instead of just wrinkled.

[nini]

Fruits in general are very low sodium foods. Egg yolk does not supply much either. Fish does not supply too much because of the low quantities eaten. We don't need sodium chloride from salt, but we do need sodium. The calculator does not provide me more than 45 mg! While the need is about 500 mg I believe. How do you folks solve this?

[Oscar]

I don't think there actually is an official RDA for sodium, only recommendations for maximum intake per day, which varies between 1g and 2.4gr. Sodium deficiency is extremely rare, and can occur during extensive sweating. My daily intake gets me about 95-110mg, and even while running in hot weather I haven't experienced any other symptoms than normally associated with running (like being out of breath).

[johndela1]

nini, you say we don't need sodium chloride, but rather sodium. Where do you get sodium that isn't sodium chloride?

If you look in our bodies (intercellular fluid) the sodium is sodium chloride. I think sodium chloride is what you find in foods. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[nini]

I just meant that we don't need table salt, but we do need sodium from the food in whatever way it comes.

[RRM]

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