Salt: How much is enough?

If each person reduces salt intake to less than 6g/day, each year 70,000 cases of stroke and heart attack can be reduced.

Fish that don't eat salt will rot/People that don't eat salt will also rot. I apologize to the ancients who arbitrarily changed the old proverb because they only wanted to talk about the role of salt. In the body, salt will control the amount of water and maintain the balance of fluid between cells and body fluids. Salt also participates in muscle activities, salt is also the main component of blood plasma and digestive juices.

Salt is very important to cells.

Our body is made up of cells. In the adult body there are about 200 trillion cells. On each cell there is a very small electric current with an intensity of -70 MV (negative) running through. On the surface of the cell there are "pumps" to pump positive or negative ions in or out of the cell wall so that the cell always maintains a potential of -70 MV. Table salt is a combination of positive sodium ions (Na+) and negative chloride ions (Cl-). Because the cell is negatively charged, it attracts positive ions, that is, Na+, while the negative ions Cl-, because they are "in the same system", are excreted in the urine.

Now we understand that without salt, cells cannot maintain a potential of -70 MV, so people without salt are just as... stale as usual.

Illustration: KHEU

Don't give your child too much salt.

If you eat too much salt, your body will retain water and your total body fluid volume will increase significantly. Scientists believe that this is one of the causes of high blood pressure, which will eventually lead to heart disease, stroke, etc. Moreover, with a large volume of body fluid lingering around the brain, the brain's blood vessels will gradually deteriorate. If excess body fluid lingers in the heart, it will sooner or later lead to coronary artery disease.

Adults have the ability to “dissolve” some of the excess salt through their kidneys, while infants have underdeveloped kidneys and cannot eliminate excess salt. If the child is under 4 months old, the excess salt will accumulate in the body, causing kidney and liver diseases, brain damage and in some cases, death. Therefore, it is important to not let children eat foods containing too much salt.

When there is an excess of salt, it enters the body fluids, including the blood. When the salt level in the blood is too high, water in the cells must be mobilized into the blood to dilute the salt. The cells gradually lose water and require water supply. This also explains why eating salty food makes you thirsty.

Beware of diabetes

Eating too much salt for a long time will damage cells, causing their function to decline. Then diabetes will come uninvited. To simplify, imagine that there are "keyholes" on the cells and only the right "key" can open them to bring nutrients into the cells. If you eat too much salt, the "keyholes" on the cell membrane will no longer be the same, so the key cannot be inserted. When you eat, food will break down into sugar molecules as an energy source to nourish the cells. These sugar molecules want to enter the cells, so insulin must act as the "key". Unfortunately, due to eating too much salt, the "keyholes" are deformed, so the insulin "key" cannot open them. At this point, the body still has sugar but the cells are still starving. The amount of sugar in the blood is not absorbed into the cells, leading to diabetes.

As mentioned above, people with salt deficiency are also "sick". Although this case is rare, it still happens and the level of danger is not less than excess salt. Salt deficiency will cause disturbances in the body. The most obvious symptoms are muscle cramps, muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, etc. Salt deficiency often occurs in people who sweat a lot or do heavy sports, do heavy manual labor or people who live in unsuitable climates. In these cases, it is necessary to supplement salt to compensate for the amount of salt lost through sweat.

According to NLĐ - PC