How much salt is too much
How much salt can you eat to be considered healthy diet?
The Department of Health suggests that the daily consumption of sodium for an average adult should not exceed 2400mg, which equates to roughly 6 grams of salt.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has therefore decreased the adult daily consumption of salt limit from 6 grams down to 5 grams.
The standard for children is even more strict. In England for example, the maximum amount of salt consumption for children between 1 to 3 years of age is 2 grams, and for 4 - 6 years of age is 3 grams, and for 7 - 10 years of age should be enforced to under 5 grams. Only children above the age of 11 should be allowed to eat 6 grams of salt per day.
Salty food consumption poses increasing threat to health risk
In a survey conducted by the Department of Health, the average salt consumption amount for adult males is as much as 9.55 grams, which is 1.6 times over the suggested limit. The statistic for females follows closely behind at 8.92 grams, which is 1.5 times over.
The case for adults are only at the tip of the iceburg; children’s salt consumption levels are much worse. The Department of Health discovered that the high school boys and girls on average intake 12.2 grams and 11.4 grams of salt daily, respectively. That’s already 2 times more than the maximum daily salt intake suggested by the Department of Health. The average daily amounts for specific regions even go as high as 13 to 14 grams.
Another study indicated that the top ranked source of sodium includes salt, soup, spices and various sauces.
Unstoppable urge for the salty taste
For those who are acustomed to eating strong flavoured food cannot easily go back to a light flavoured diet; it will seem tasteless and unfulfilling for the appetite. That’s mainly because after putting strong flavoured food in the mouth, the tongue eventually gets accustomed to the recurring taste and produce no reaction to the same level of flavour. After getting used to eating a strong flavour diet, it is extremely difficult to change.
As people grow older with age, the taste bud cells also experience continual shrinkage, which sometimes causes the mind to unsubconsciously crave for stronger flavours. It is therefore best to develop a light, healthy diet at an early age that can last a lifetime.
Too much salt deteriorates the body function
A high level of sodium can cause the body to retain too much water, causing edema.
Researchers have already proven that the cause of high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and stroke are related to prolonged period of high salt intake. Not only that, long periods of high salt level in the body can damage the gastric mucosa, increasing the chance of cancer.
The Diretor of the John Tung Foundation (董氏基金會) Nutrition Division says when the kidney organ reacts to sodium during metabolism, it damages the calcium in the body, causing bone calcium outflow for children, hindering their normal growth process.
Numbers show decreasing salt increases health
Statistics showed that when patients with high blood pressure eat one less teaspoon of salt per day, their systolic blood pressure on average decreases by 5mm Hg, while their diastolic blood pressure decreases by 2.5mm Hg. Even for people with normal blood pressure, it is still benefitiary. For every 2mm Hg lower levels of systolic blood pressure, the risk of dying from coronary heart disease lowers by 7%, while the risk of dying from stroke lowers by 10%.
Related researches on sodium
Researcher Pan Wen-Harn (潘文涵) of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (生物醫學科學研究所) in Academia Sinica (中央研究院), had previously studied the effects of potassium-enriched salt on lowering blood pressure. The study looked at 2000 elderly veterans, with 800 using potassium-enriched salt while 1,400 is still using regular salt. After monitoring for 3 years, the results found that the elderly veterans who switched to using potassium-enriched salt reduced the rate of dying from cardiovascular disease by one half.
The study also found that reducing the amount of sodium contained in their daily diet can noticeably reduce the risk of dying from stroke and heart diseases for elders.
So can we live without eating salt?
Even though too much salt increases blood pressure, we cannot live without sodium. Sodium is the key ingredient to regulating our physiological functions. If we don’t get enough sodium, we will begin to feel tired, weak, have feelings of nausea, and even cramps and disturbance of consciousness in severe cases. This is also known as hyponatremia.
The Vice President of the Taipei Medical University (台北醫學大學) Hsieh Ming-Jer (謝明哲) notes that besides processed food, a lot of natural foods already contain sodium, including seafood and meat. Therefore, ordinary people can still live healthily even without adding salt to their food, unless they are sweating heavily or suffering from diarrhea/vomiting which needs to refill additional electrolyte to balance their sodium levels.
Salt can turn bad if stored for too long
The active ingredient of salt is sodium chloride, which has stable chemical properties; it does not deteriorate easily. If the package of salt is opened and not stored properly, however, salt can turn into hard lumps due to moisturization.
Besides sodium chloride, salt also contains iodine, and iodized salt can expire faster due to temperature and light. So it is safer to not store salt for too long. Salt containing iodine should be stored in a non-transparent sealed container and placed far away from fire.
