Understand if sodium consumption is bad, what is the recommended amount per day and what precautions you should take.
Sodium exists naturally in some foods, but is added to others during the manufacturing process and is used as a flavoring and preservative agent in the most diverse recipes, the most known form being table salt.
However, sodium is highly associated with high blood pressure, as it causes damage to blood vessels and arteries when their levels are chronically high. This in turn increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, heart failure and kidney disease.
In addition, several people still wonder if salt makes them fat and causes fluid retention. For all these reasons, several health authorities have established guidelines to limit sodium intake.
It is worth knowing which foods are high in sodium to be careful and understanding if sodium is bad for you.
Index of this article:
What is sodium?
As we said, sodium naturally exists in foods like celery, beets and milk. However, processed and industrialized foods can be the big culprits of why sodium is bad.
One of the main sources of sodium in most diets is the addition of salt in the form of sodium chloride. More precisely, salt is a combination of about 40% sodium and 60% chloride.
In addition to seasoning, it also acts as a preservative, binder and stabilizer. More than 75% of this mineral we eat comes from processed foods, such as processed meats and frozen meals, for example.
Need for health – Is sodium really bad?
Sodium is necessary, and in fact, an important nutrient for health, since it is one of the electrolytes in your body, which are the minerals that create electrically charged ions.
Most of your body’s sodium resides in the blood and the fluid around the cells, where it helps keep these fluids in balance. In other words, it balances the amount of water in the body.
At the same time, sodium plays a key role in the normal function of nerves and muscles.
The kidneys help to regulate your body’s sodium levels by adjusting the amount and eliminating the excess through the urine. In addition, we also lose sodium through sweating.
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The problem is that, as mentioned above, salt is widely used in food processing and manufacturing, and with this processed foods represent about 75% of the total sodium consumed.
It is important to note that dietary deficiencies of sodium are very rare under normal conditions – even with very low sodium diets. So it is the consumption of excess sodium that is the big problem.
Recommended amount of sodium
As we can see, the human body requires a small amount of sodium to conduct nerve impulses, contract and relax muscles and maintain the proper balance of water and minerals.
It is estimated that the required amount of sodium is about 500 mg daily for these vital functions.
It turns out that many people end up exaggerating consumption, and this is how sodium is bad.
In Brazil, the average salt consumption is 12 grams per capita per day. However, the daily consumption recommended by the WHO – World Health Organization is 5 grams of salt per day.
According to the SBC – Brazilian Society of Cardiology, if Brazilians followed the consumption recommended by WHO, there would be a decrease of about 10% of deaths from infarction and 15% in deaths from stroke – cerebrovascular accident.
Following the WHO guidelines, in addition to the deaths, the decrease in sodium consumption would cause 1.5 million people to stop taking medication for hypertension and increase the life expectancy of hypertensive patients for another four years.
Sodium and high blood pressure
It has been known for a long time that sodium is bad because it causes an increase in blood pressure – especially in people who already have high levels.
One of the biggest studies on this topic is the Prospective Study of Urban Rural Epidemiology, or PURE, from English Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology .
By analyzing the levels of sodium present in the urine of more than 100,000 people in 18 countries on five continents, the researchers found that those who consumed more sodium had significantly higher blood pressure than those with lower consumption.
Other scientists have shown that people who consumed more than 7 grams of sodium per day were at a greater risk of suffering from heart disease and early death than those who consumed 3 to 6 grams per day.
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However, not everyone responds to sodium in the same way.
Stephanie Dunbar, nutritionist, director of Nutrition and Medical Affairs at the American Diabetes Association, explains that some populations are very sensitive to sodium, meaning that when they ingest sodium, they retain fluids and blood pressure increases.
According to research, people with high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic kidney failure , as well as older adults and African Americans, tend to be more sensitive to the effects of sodium on elevating blood pressure.
Care to reduce sodium
As you can see, it is important to reduce your consumption of the mineral, as excess sodium is bad. So here are some simple precautions you can take:
- In restaurants, ask for food preparation without added or excess salt.
- Read the nutrition labels of the foods you buy to see how much sodium they contain.
- Use herbs, citrus fruits and unsalted spices to season your recipes.
- Reduce the amount of sodium in canned foods by draining and rinsing them completely.
- Eat more fresh, unprocessed foods, such as fruits and vegetables, which are naturally low in sodium.
- Go slow with high-sodium condiments such as soy sauce, ketchup and mustard.
Sodium is an essential nutrient that your body needs to perform many important functions.
If you are concerned about your blood pressure, there are several other things you can do, such as exercising, optimizing your diet or losing weight.
Finally, sodium is bad when we consume in excess, so the most important thing is to pay attention to what we are consuming.
If you are healthy, the amount of sodium you are consuming is probably safe.
