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The nutritionist advises to reconsider the quality of salt. Conventional cooking creates an imbalance of sodium and potassium in the diet.
For years, dietary dogma has emphasized the importance of avoiding salt and limiting your daily intake. But research in recent years shows that not everything is so simple. RBC-Ukraine writes about this with reference to the publication of nutritionist Anastasia Goloborodko on Telegram.
What are the dangers of eating salt?
“You should not overuse salt. A person with a tendency to hypertension can give up salt and actually save his life. In the treatment of high blood pressure, there is a point – reducing salt and only then taking medication,” says the expert.
According to her, salt ages the cardiovascular system. It also increases the osmotic pressure of the blood plasma, and this leads to overeating. It has also been proven that it can lead to changes in the mucous membranes and stomach cancer.
The nutritionist also adds that for those who have gastritis ulcers, excessive salt consumption will create an environment for the proliferation of Helicobacter pylori. And with hormonal pathologies, salt will stimulate swelling.
What are the benefits of eating salt?
“On the other hand, completely unsalted food means a decrease in the adequate level of stomach acidity, hypoacidity and insufficient, and often leading to pathogenic putrefactive processes, digestion of protein (meat, fish, eggs) and poor absorption of fats,” explains the nutritionist.
She names five pathologies that a salt-free diet leads to: hypoacidity, increased triglycerides, insulin resistance and electrolyte imbalance.
However, Goloborodko adds that we eat 80% of the salt from food and don’t even notice it.
“A good strategy is if you have already salted a dish, do not add additional salt to it. There is a norm – 2.3 g per day for healthy people, 1 g for those who have a tendency to high blood pressure. Just eat less bread and give up sausages and food from packages. Salty snacks and snacks are not equal to meals,” says Goloborodko.
What kind of salt is best to include in the diet?
The nutritionist advises to reconsider the quality of salt. Conventional cooking creates an imbalance of sodium and potassium in the diet.
“Replace industrial salt with more natural types, which we’ll talk about today,” the expert advises.
She notes that the fewer purification stages salt goes through, the better. According to her, table salt has a poor mineral composition, so she does not recommend it. Sea salt – has a different chemical profile depending on the sea because the minerals enrich the flavor. There is also salt with additives – with iodine, for example, pink and black salt.
- Maldon – salt flakes. It has been mined in Essex in southeast England since the late 19th century.
- Black Himalayan contains iron sulfite and gives the salt crystals a dark brown-purple color, and the sulfur compounds give the smell of hydrogen sulfide.
- Pink salt has the top 3 mining locations in the world: in the Himalayas, Pakistan and India. It is often coarsely ground and contains up to 5% impurities.
- There are also flavored types. The nutritionist advises choosing salt from Nomu, for the summer – with dry rosemary, for the winter – with porcini mushrooms.
- Salt with coal. This type is mined in Spain and Portugal, Japan, and Korea.
- Just sea salt. There is coarse mineral salt, sedimentary salt, and salt from the bottom of the oceans.
“Therefore, remove sausages from your diet and add a little high-quality salt to finish the dish,” advises Goloborodko.
