The Salt Fix. Rethinking Sodium: Why You Need More, Not Less

Today we’re tackling one of the biggest myths in modern nutrition: the idea that we need to restrict our daily sodium intake.

For years, we’ve been led to believe that salt is the bad guy—linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, and a shorter lifespan. But that’s just not the case.

Today, we’re diving into why salt isn’t the villain it’s made out to be—in fact, it’s essential, especially if you follow a low-carb, ketogenic, or Paleo diet, or if you’re using popular GLP-1 medications like semaglutide.

We’ll also spotlight a product that’s getting it right: LMNT, an electrolyte drink mix that skips the sugar and delivers the salt your body actually needs. Stick around—this episode might just change how you think about hydration for good.

The Salt Myth

Let’s start with where the myth came from.

Americans average around 3,400 mg (3.4 grams) of sodium a day, but the FDA is doubling down, pushing us to cut back to under 2,300 mg (2.4 grams).  It’s the same old anti-salt message—but is less really always better?

They claim this will save hundreds of thousands of lives by reducing heart disease risk. Sounds noble—until you actually look at the data.

Turns out, their case is built on:

• Cherry-picked epidemiology
  
  

• Exaggerated assumptions
  
  

• And some serious logical leaps
  
  

Let’s start with one of the largest global studies we have: The Intersalt Study, which looked at over 10,000 people across 48 populations. This study showed that there is no correlation between salt intake and blood pressure. In fact, the population with the highest salt intake had lower average blood pressure than the population with the least.

Or take the Framingham Offspring Study, which found that people consuming under 2.5 grams of sodium per day actually had higher blood pressure than those consuming more.

Still not convinced? A systematic review of the 2020 Cochrane Collaboration found that sodium restriction had virtually no meaningful impact on blood pressure in healthy people—and more consistent negative side effects than benefits.

And here’s the kicker: when the FDA says cutting sodium could save “500,000 lives,” that estimate is based not on sodium studies, but on data from hypertension drug trials. They essentially said: “Hey, these blood pressure meds work. So sodium restriction must work too.” That’s not science.

Now, does salt affect everyone the same? Of course not. People with chronic kidney disease or extreme hypertension might benefit from some restriction. But for the average person eating real food, staying active, or following a low-carb or GLP-1-supported lifestyle, salt is not the issue. You know what is? Sugar. A whole other podcast discussion we can have at a later date.

*Salt and Heart Health

If low-sodium diets were actually good for your heart, we’d expect to see that show up clearly in the research, right? But... we don’t. 

There was a major study published in JAMA back in 2011. Researchers looked at nearly 29,000 people with high risk for heart disease and tracked how much sodium they were consuming. And get this—the lowest risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular death wasn’t in the low-sodium group. It was in the moderate sodium group—those eating between 4 to 6 grams per day. People eating less than that? They actually had a 19% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular causes.

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