Is salt bad for you?
Is salt bad for you? This is what a person might ask himself, after reading this article in which Marco Bianchi, scientific popularizer for the Umberto Veronesi foundation and chef, talks about salt as follows:
“… there are foods that do less good than others, for example salt. Salt, I have seen especially with athletes I know, is the enemy of sport. Furthermore, unlike other foods that give flavor, it does not contain other nutrients “.
Now, this sentence might actually raise doubts: Is salt bad for you? Is it to be avoided? What does it mean that he is the enemy of sport? Don’t sportsmen use salt? Does the salt contain no nutrients other than being salt
Let’s see the first. Is salt bad for you? The answer, of course, is no.
An article on salt by physiologist Ray Peat , translated into Italian by doctor Giorgio Rossi, a bio-nutritionist, states that: “ sodium restriction lowers metabolism, lowers carbon dioxide production, and creates inflammation, stress and degeneration. By reframing the whole, sodium stimulates energy metabolism, increases the production of carbon dioxide, and protects against inflammation and other maladaptation reactions to stress ”. A study last year, which appeared in the journal Cell Metabolism, talked about the anti-inflammatory and antibacterial role of salt, especially in skin infections.
The idea that salt consumption raises blood pressure was also recently revised after this study, not the first on it : it appeared in the American Journal of Hypertension,the study looked at more than eight thousand people in France, correlating their salt consumption with hypertension and heart disease. It turned out that the idea that salt would raise the pressure is definitely overestimated, and the result of a wrong simplification. Undoubtedly, there are studies that claim the opposite, but of one thing we are certain, and we do so in the words of Dr. Brian Strom of the Institute of Medecine “there is no evidence that a consumption of salt of less than 2,300 milligrams a day leads to greater benefits for health ”, in particular for cardiovascular health risks, and not even in subjects at risk. Strom analyzed 34 salt studies to come to this conclusion.
So is salt bad for you? NO. It is clear that one must not simply exaggerate.
Worse, Dr. Strom himself explains that low-sodium diets can harm your health.
So the salt not only doesn’t hurt, but the research has been going on for at least three years, providing evidence contrary to what was believed to know so far. Does the salt contain no nutrients apart from salt? Table salt contains a large part of sodium chloride (99%), and sodium chloride is THE nutrient. There would be no life, without sodium chloride. And as we have seen it is a very important nutrient, because it regulates the metabolism, the immune defenses, and plays an anti-inflammatory role. Sea salt also contains iodine, albeit to a very small extent. And iodine is an important mineral, isn’t it?
Let’s finally see the last story,that of salt and sportsmen.
Don’t sportsmen use salt? Is salt bad for athletes’ diets?
Actually it is quite the opposite, taking into account that even with sweat alone athletes lose a lot of sodium, in addition to other mineral salts.
On the contrary, while it is recommended for most athletes not to follow a low-sodium diet ( here) , a separate chapter in sports nutrition is the integration of mineral salts and sodium with the diet.
An article on salt by physiologist Ray Peat , translated into Italian by doctor Giorgio Rossi, a bio-nutritionist, states that: “ sodium restriction lowers metabolism, lowers carbon dioxide production, and creates inflammation, stress and degeneration. By reframing the whole, sodium stimulates energy metabolism, increases the production of carbon dioxide, and protects against inflammation and other maladaptation reactions to stress ”. A study last year, which appeared in the journal Cell Metabolism, talked about the anti-inflammatory and antibacterial role of salt, especially in skin infections.
The idea that salt consumption raises blood pressure was also recently revised after this study, not the first on it : it appeared in the American Journal of Hypertension,the study looked at more than eight thousand people in France, correlating their salt consumption with hypertension and heart disease. It turned out that the idea that salt would raise the pressure is definitely overestimated, and the result of a wrong simplification. Undoubtedly, there are studies that claim the opposite, but of one thing we are certain, and we do so in the words of Dr. Brian Strom of the Institute of Medecine “there is no evidence that a consumption of salt of less than 2,300 milligrams a day leads to greater benefits for health ”, in particular for cardiovascular health risks, and not even in subjects at risk. Strom analyzed 34 salt studies to come to this conclusion.
So is salt bad for you? NO. It is clear that one must not simply exaggerate.
Worse, Dr. Strom himself explains that low-sodium diets can harm your health.
So the salt not only doesn’t hurt, but the research has been going on for at least three years, providing evidence contrary to what was believed to know so far. Does the salt contain no nutrients apart from salt? Table salt contains a large part of sodium chloride (99%), and sodium chloride is THE nutrient. There would be no life, without sodium chloride. And as we have seen it is a very important nutrient, because it regulates the metabolism, the immune defenses, and plays an anti-inflammatory role. Sea salt also contains iodine, albeit to a very small extent. And iodine is an important mineral, isn’t it?
Let’s finally see the last story,that of salt and sportsmen.
Don’t sportsmen use salt? Is salt bad for athletes’ diets?
Actually it is quite the opposite, taking into account that even with sweat alone athletes lose a lot of sodium, in addition to other mineral salts.
On the contrary, while it is recommended for most athletes not to follow a low-sodium diet ( here) , a separate chapter in sports nutrition is the integration of mineral salts and sodium with the diet.
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