To Eat Salt Or Not

Since ancient times human beings have highly valued salt.But now medical opinion says we could be better off to give it up completely.

The chemical name of common salt is sodium chloride.It is an important constituent of our blood(0.9gm%).Sodium helps in the conduction of nerve impulses,contraction of muscles and maintening the water balance in the body.It also plays an important role in the regulation of acid-base balance in the body fluids including blood,lymph,tears and gastrointestinal secretions.Chloride is an important component of blood plasma and also helps in the formation of hydrochloric acid in the stomach for digestion.But all this requires only a total intake of 5gm salt in a day.

Under normal circumstances,there is some salt present in every natural food we eat,which is enough to meet our body's daily requirement.However during summer or while exerting,the requirement of salt increases,which if not fulfilled,might result in muscle cramps,irritability and general apathy.We must also remember here that in addition to natural foods we are consuming salt(especially sodium as preservative) in various processed foods such as soft drinks, sauces, confectionary, pasta, tinned/canned foods, butter, cheese, pickles, cornflakes etc.

Soviet specialists prescribe "no salt" for people who have diseases of heart and kidney.They have found that even some common ailments like bronchitis and skin eruptions are helped,by giving up salt.The theory seems that,giving up salt relieves the kidneys,heart and even certain glands,from the chemical work of forever removing excess salts out of the body via urine.

Excess of salt is also found to interfere with the elimination of certain wastes from the body like uric acid and therefore contributing indirectly to diseases like gout.Japanese use salt very heavily and their death rate from strokes(due to high blood pressure)is extremely high.Natives of South Pacific,who eat no salt ever,almost never have high blood pressure or strokes.Negroes in the USA,are heavy salt takers,and have three times more blood pressure problems than Whites in the same areas.So the doctors have concluded that if every one went on a low salt diet,blood pressure diseases would fall by 50%.This is very important since these diseases kill far more people even today than does cancer.

Are some people free from blood pressure problems because they do not eat salt,or because they lead quet,stress-free lives?Though it is true that if you have certain heart or kidney diseases,salt can be harmful,but does salt cause high blood pressure?Or,is the main cause stress.Doctors claim that only a small section of the population is harmed by surplus salt.In their view,individual human beings differ greatly in their"response" to salt.Physical exercise (labour,sports)profoundly affects the average person's response to salt.Perhaps inactive people do not "handle" it well.There is a theory that says that the overweight people can bring down their blood pressure by only reducing weight.Now there is yet another theory,which says,that reducing salt intake helps in weight reduction.

Now in this confusion of whether salt is good or bad,the best would be to go off salt for two weeks.If you feel better,keep it up.The minute you feel weak,go back to your salt cellar,but dont overdo it.It might be a good idea to use rock salt(saindha namak)and black salt(kala namak) instead of table salt.For people with a history of high blood pressure,it is strongly advised to use potassium salt instead of the normal salt(sodium chloride).