Table
salt (NaCl or Sodium Chloride) is a necessity in cooking (especially with
fries!) but what happens to our body when we consume too much salt?
Sodium
helps transmit messages between nerves and helps regulate blood pressure and
blood flow. As well as helping your muscles work properly. The other part of
table salt Chloride is used for helping digestion. The food you eat needs to
have a healthy amount of salt to maintain normal bodily functions.
Although
salt is necessary for out diet having too much of it imposes many health risks.
Most junk food is packed with lots and lots of salt and when you go to a
restaurant they add more salt to make the food taste better. This means that
most people who eat out a lot have a higher sodium diet than those who do not
go out to eat as much. Too much salt holds a lot of health problems.
Having
a high intake of sodium means that the kidneys hold more water in your system. This
is because kidneys (which filters out waste from the blood) maintain a ratio
between sodium to water. This tips the ratio off causing there to be more
sodium than water, therefore this causes swelling in hands, arms, feet, ankles
and legs. This extra fluid means that there is more blood trying to flow around
our blood vessels. This then causes the blood vessels to stiffen and lead to
high blood pressure due to constricted vessels.
Salt
also makes you thirsty, (this is why most food from fast food restaurants are
high in salt so they sell a lot more drinks) this is again just your body
trying to correct the ratio between sodium and water. If you do not drink
enough water after eating a lot of high sodium food this could take the water
out your cells, making you severely dehydrated. This is why we cannot drink
salt water because it dehydrates us and makes our urine turn a darker colour
due to the lack of water in our body.
In conclusion have salt in moderation to allow your body to have a good diet. Don’t go eat too much or too little salt.
SSP
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