The Love-Hate Relationship Between Salt And Your Body

Salt! It seems so essential to good cooking. Salted food just has more flavor because part of what salt does is enhance flavor. It is also a great preservative and has been used by mankind throughout history.

Yes, some salt is essential for our bodies, For example, it helps regulate body functions, including renal function. A lack of salt can even contribute to osteoporosis. Here is a list I found of the many activities that salt helps with:

http://curezone.com/foods/salt/vital_functions_of_salt_in_the_b.htm

Of course salt has major down sides too. It increases your blood pressure, makes you retain fluids or can dehydrate your body. Have you every gone out to a restaurant for a meal, and later in the middle of the night, your mouth is dry and you are seriously thirsty? Processed and prepared foods can go way overboard on salt. I don’t eat popcorn at the movies any more, much as I want to because the salt always affects me later no matter how much water I drink afterward.

You may be doing very well on a diet, and weighing yourself regularly, and one day you weight more than you think you should. It could be too much salt from the day before, making you retain fluids, and fluids are heavy!

The message here? Try to stay away from too much salt. If you eat mostly unprocessed foods, you would probably have enough, the few processed foods you eat will have more than enough.