[LifeStyle] Excess salt is a silent enemy to your heart

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The WHO recommends less than 5 grams of salt (less than a teaspoon) a day for adults. For children it should be less than half a teaspoon.

Fats, fried and processed have earned a reputation as heart-damaging foods. However, there is a silent, unpo[CENSORED]r, but just as deadly enemy for this vital organ: salt.

Given the social ignorance of this problem and within the framework of the "World Week of awareness against salt" (March 9 to 15) we tell you, with the help of experts, the reality about this ingredient that is usually in the food of everybody.

It is a fact, salt is a necessary substance for life.

However, its excessive consumption can affect your body to take root fatal consequences, the experts of the medicine portal Health Topics explain it:

Salt as a stimulant
This element falls into the category of stress foods because it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal glands, to the point of arousal.

• High blood pressure

Its excessive consumption causes water retention in the body, in addition to an increase in blood volume and a greater cardiac effort caused by the rise in blood pressure.

The reduction in salt consumption allows us to observe a considerable decrease in blood pressure, resulting from the diet for hypertension.

• Weakening of the bones

Calcium from bones can be eliminated, making them weaker due to excessive consumption of salt.

Calcium is also eliminated in the urine from excessive consumption of refined table salt.

• Attentive to your kidneys

Excessive salt intake unbalances this natural process and disrupts functions throughout the body. “First, the kidney must make an extra effort to expel excess salt, which causes an imbalance of fluids and electrolytes; this, in turn, generates fluid retention in the body, ultimately causing high blood pressure and hormonal alterations ”.

Excess salt overloads the kidneys, having to work harder to eliminate that excess. Depending on the time and as long as this situation persists, they can be weakened.

Remember that the kidneys cannot eliminate more than 4-5 grams of salt per day. The rest of the salt, not being eliminated, gives rise to undesirable situations in the body.

• Weight gain

The kidneys remove some of the excess salt from the body by filtering sodium, which is one of the compounds that make up salt.

As the functioning of the kidneys has been weakened, either due to excess load or due to a poor blood supply (due to weakness of the heart), the kidneys eliminate less sodium. Increasing the amount of sodium retained by the body.

Because the kidneys must maintain a fixed sodium-water-blood ratio, excess salt in the body also means excess water and therefore excess body weight.

 

How to consume salt correctly?
“Salt contains sodium and chlorine, chemical elements necessary for the proper functioning of the cells of the body and of the heart. To maintain these functions, the body needs exact amounts of sodium outside the cells and potassium inside them, to create a perfect balance called homeostasis ”, explains Dr. Gregory Celis, medical director of Laboratorios Bagó.

You have to keep some points in mind:

• Most people consume 9 to 10 grams of salt daily. This amount exceeds by 200% the amount recommended by the WHO, which is less than 5 grams (less than a teaspoon) per day for adults.
• In children, the amount should be less than two grams (less than half a teaspoon) daily.

When you get over the salt in your food dishes, don't throw them away, there is a solution for it.

If you are preparing lentils or a broth, just add a handful of rice, a potato peeled and cut in half or a piece of pumpkin or bread - better if it is hard. The absorptive power of these foods will help eliminate excess salt.

To rectify the dressings and vinaigrettes, you can use aromatic herbs, honey or orange juice.

If it's rice, try sprinkling it with a little lemon juice. Its acidity will help compensate for excess salt, as well as giving it an interesting touch.

In any case, you always have to be careful when using salt in the kitchen. Sodium intake from processed foods and beverages often exceeds the limits recommended by the World Health Organization.