sodium intake
 

all i hear nowadays is about how sodium is just about the most evil thing you can put in your body.
i was eating a quarter pounder from mcd's one day for lunch, and i rarely eat fast food, and a coworker comes over and just HAS to comment on how much sodium is in my food.

"thats a whole days worth of sodium in there"

fucking ass.

is sodium the new cool thing to blame for everything health related?
i used to see "fat free" on every label, then "sugar free", then "lowers your cholesterol"....
now i see "reduced sodium"

whats your take on this matter? are sodium intake fears way overblown? how off are the recommended daily intakes?

Yup, as more info reaches the mainstream on how fat is not actually bad for you, the freakouts have to be directed elsewhere. Salt is the next target, despite the fact that it is the most abundant electrolyte in our body.

Pay no mind to it; as long as you don't have kidney failure, any amount of salt you can take in any sort of realistic diet (including eating fast food every day) will do no harm.

I always thought that if your sodium intake is high, just drink more water?

it still has to pass through your system. i duno, ive had a pretty high sodium diet my entire fucking life. i love salt. maybe i'll die when im 40 of a heart attack.

Sodium tends to cause a need for more water being retained within our body. To combat and prevent this, we should take in less sodium and/or drink an adequate supply of water throughout the day, around 8 glasses a day, to clean your body from any sort of water retention.
If you don't drink ennuff water throughout day, your body's will tend to hold water and store it because you are not getting enough from outside sources, therefore, this will cause your muscles to obscure and you look softer and weaker than you really are. Then this could be mistakened for fat, and it adds unnecessary weight to your body as well. So I guess, just drink more water (enough water) and u dont have to worry about water retention and all that stuff.

Japanese diet contains a shit load of sodium and just look at how long they live.

High sodium intake can screw up your body in chemical ways. Sodium draws water to it and with it various other things that are required for optimum firing of all your neurons. But it's also important to have SOME so that we stay hydrated, and maintain our blood volume.

That said, I would be more worried about the corn syrup in the bun and patty of your big mac or what ever you washed it down with then the salt in it.

The patty is pretty much the only good thing in the big mac. :facepalm:

http://eater.com/archives/2011/05/04...dium-diets.php

Eat salt at a moderate level and don't worry about it. i.e. don't actively bother trying to avoid salt, but don't go eating a whole bag of salt & vinegar chips.

But will the salt put more work load on the kidney?

Hey a lot of places put crap in their meat that you wouldn't expect.
I admit, I was wrong about McD's they use 100% meat patties. So yeah. It is the only good part of it.

Nothing a normal kidney can't handle

Everything in moderation is key. That way you don't have to worry about salt or fat or carbs etc.

Don't put extra salt on your McDonalds fries or eat 2 Big Macs in one sitting and you should be ok.

Kidney stones are something to consider with having a high sodium intake.
Salt will crystalize in your kidneys and will eventually cause hard stones which will block the ureters (tubes emptying your kidneys to your bladder) and cause hydronephrosis and difficulty urinating.
By drinking enough water, you will not let the salt crystalize. So if you find yourself eating a lot of salt, increase your water intake. Generally salty foods make you thirsty anyways, so it should be easy to increase your fluid intake if needed.

Kidney stones aren't made of salt (they're made of calcium), and have nothing to do with salt intake :facepalm:

Sure is a lot of :facepalm:ing going on here :lol

^ black tea also contribute to kidney stones as well :D

Im not saying they are not made of calcium.
Im trying to give ways to prevent stones, by lowering the stress load of the kidneys.
If you hydrate the kidneys and allow them to work properly, you will have a better chance of the crystals (calcium) not to lump together and form.
Salt is considered a crystal forming substance and if you have a greater number of these substances which is more than your body and dilute, stones form.
Take it from someone who works in the field :facepalm:

i drink about a gallon of water a day, can i eat as much salt as i want?

wow... a gallon is a fuckin lot.

i drink about 2-2.5L a day

You can get sick from drinking TOO much water too. Be careful.

I fall in the 2-3L most day group and I think that's more then enough.

how much should i be drinking if i am doing intense workouts 6 days a week

i prolyl drink 2-3L should that be enough?

Well your kidneys can handle about 1 liter an hour if they're healthy (if your body is under stress of any kind though it will be much less). But that's total liquid intake including liquids from food and other beverages.

If you exceed that (unless you're sweating heavily or in a very hot environment, there for getting rid of liquids via other means) you're at risk of hyperhydrosis. If you exceed it by a lot you can give yourself a stroke. (There used to be a hydrophelic ward at Riverview when I worked there, with people who deliberately downed huge doses of water to get a high. Don't to it. You can kill yourself or damage your brain since that's exactly where the "high" comes from, it shifts the electrolyte balance in your body and starts sending miss fires in the neurons in your brain. It was the oddest thing I'd ever seen but really gave me an appreciation for how important the balance between H2O and Electrolytes in your body is).

This is all also a risk if you don't get enough salt and electrolytes with your liquids in any quantity (so water is great, but you do need some salts and sugars with it if you're taking in a lot at a time).

I dont' think it's that simple.. soemthing about fluid pressure with Na / K balance. Sorry I forgot exactly :fullofwin:

Skinny, any sources/research for your info? I'd like to do some reading on it as well

Look at the daily nutritional value on a package of instant noodles, scary amount of sodium!