Pinch Of Salt

“If you are aiming for a healthy life, reducing salt in your food intake is must” say our Health experts.

Especially people who are suffering from high blood pressure, Heart related problems have to lessen their salt consumption. Small amounts of salt are essential for our health and we have to take salt on a regular basis as there is no mechanism in our body which can store salt. This is the reason, we have to take ½ tea spoon of salt which is sufficient for our body, but here, we are taking more than the recommended salt which is putting us at risk of all of these health problems. The good news is that reducing your salt intake can lower your blood pressure and the risk of diseases. In fact cutting down your salt intake to ½ teaspoon per day, you will see improvement in health. The lower the salt intake, the lower the blood pressure.

A high salt diet increases the risk of stomach cancer; taking excess salt can damage the lining of the stomach and risk of ulcers also very high in these cases. Excess salt intake can cause Osteoporosis, this is a condition which causes thinning of bones, making them brittle and prone to breaking. Most calcium in the body is stored in bones. A high salt diet can cause calcium to be lost from bones and excreted in the urine, making bones weak and easily broken. High blood pressure caused by a high salt diet can speed up the loss of calcium from bones, worsening the problem. Older people are most at risk of osteoporosis because bones naturally become thinner as we get older.

Women are particularly at risk of bone thinning, during their menopause time, due to the drop in the hormone estrogen which normally protects bone health. However, men, women and children of all ages need to look after their bone health to avoid osteoporosis later on. Avoiding salty foods, reducing salt in regular cooking is advisable for all the age groups in the family.

Doctors and health experts also advise People who are Obese to reduce their salt intake. Salt does not cause weight gain but it does make you thirsty, this leads you to drink more fluids, if the fluids are sugary drinks they can cause weight gain because they contain a lot of energy. This is a major problem for children and teenagers as a third of the fluids they drink are sugary soft drinks. So whenever you are diagnosed with these above said problems you have to cut down salt in the food.

- Bhavana