Various Questions - Salt?

Ok, so what is wrong with salt?

That is a question I often hear when someone asks about the way I eat. I even wondered that myself.

This was the one thing that was so difficult for me to give up. Well mostly give up. The types of food I eat; vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes all have salt. In fact, each day I consume about 700-800 grams of salt. I am allowed 300 extra grams of salt per day which is not very much if you compare the amount of salt consumed by the SAD (standard american diet). The DASH study showed that Americans eat anywhere from 5-10 times this amount.

While our bodies do need sodium, they do not need the amount that most Americans consume on a daily basis. I don't know if you've experienced this or not but as I added salt to my food over the years I have continued to add more and more. I guess our taste buds get use to one amount and require more and more until we think it tastes just right.

One of the health issues for too much salt is one that most people have heard of or read and that is hypertension or "high blood pressure". And this in turn will lead to heart disease.

Salt can also contribute to osteoporosis by taking calcium and other minerals, excreting them through our urine.

Just for your own information, maybe one day while grocery shopping you could begin to look at canned goods, frozen items, bread, cereals, etc. and find out how much sodium per serving they contain. You might just be surprised at what you find.

Some might ask about more healthy salt like sea salt but the bottom line is salt is salt and no matter where it comes from it will still do allot of damage if taken in large quanities. If you are a person who likes to salt their foods, it is best to not add it while cooking and just add a tiny bit at the supper table if you must. You could transition by adding less and less each day until you are adding little to none to you food.

Many may think that high blood pressure is the result of old age. But a larger population are now finding themselves in the doctor's office with raised blood pressure at a younger age. For the past 5 or more years my blood pressure has slowly been increasing. This last time it was up to 135/99 and the doctor was ready to put me on medication. I asked her to give me a chance to bring it down myself. This is when I found E2L and after 3 months I went to see the doctor and she took my blood pressure. It was 110/70. What a relief that was! E2L really works!!!