August 17, 2025 • 15 mins
Grab Sodii’s Every Day Hydration Salts here: https://healthcoachkait.com/sodiielectrolytes Use code HCK15 for 15% off worldwide!
Salt has been demonized for decades, blamed for high blood pressure and heart disease, but is the science really that simple? In this episode, I break down the real truth about sodium, why it’s an essential electrolyte your body can’t function without, and why many people eating whole foods (especially low carb) might actually need more salt, not less.
We’ll cover the history of how salt got its bad reputation, the difference between short-term blood pressure spikes and long-term effects (hint: exercise does the same thing), and Dr. James DiNicolantonio’s research on why sodium is crucial for health. You’ll learn the signs of low sodium, how to choose the best type of salt, and when supplementing with electrolytes can help you perform and feel your best.
Whether you’re an athlete, someone who eats low carb, or just curious about your health, this deep dive into sodium will change how you think about this misunderstood mineral.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:21 Why salt was demonised
04:24 Short and long-term effects of salt
05:46 Sodium is an essential electrolyte
06:43 Sodium in the Standard American Diet
09:11 What happens if you have too much salt?
11:59 The different types of salt (sea salt vs table salt)
12:58 Who should limit salt?
14:24 Keto flu explained
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello guys, and welcome back to the Healthy Not Complicated
podcast. I do have a special guest here
behind me. Oh, I'm sure he will be back,
but thank you for tuning in today.
The topic we are going to be going over in today's episode is
salt and sodium. Whether it's something you
should be limiting or not, we'regoing to go over all of the
(00:21):
evidence for and against salt consumption.
We're going to talk about if it raises blood pressure, who needs
more salt in their diet, who might need less?
We'll cover it all today becausethere really is a lot of
misinformation out there when itcomes to salt and sodium.
I'm sure we've all been told a million times that consuming too
much salt increases our blood pressure, and that's bad.
(00:43):
That's not something that we want.
But is there more to the story? Because honestly, a lot of the
advice we get surrounding salt is completely outdated and not
supported by the latest research.
It's really important for musclefunction, brain function, nerve
function. There's a reason why when you're
dehydrated, you get muscle cramps.
(01:04):
It's because that dehydration isn't just a loss of water, it's
a loss of sodium. So clearly sodium has some role
in the body, and just like we once demonised things like fat
and the cholesterol in eggs, I think it's time for salt to have
a bit of a rebrand. Let's start by talking about the
history of why salt was demonised originally, because it
(01:26):
wasn't always the villain. For most of human history, it
actually was a little bit of a hero.
There were entire trade routes dedicated just to salt.
There were wars fought over salt.
The word salary actually comes from the Latin words salt
because Romans used to actually make payments in salt.
So how did we go from being treasured to basically being
(01:48):
treated like poison and something that we should be
limiting at all costs? Well, in the 1970s, researchers
actually started to notice a connection between salt
consumption, sodium consumption and an increase in blood
pressure. Early studies showed that when
certain groups of people reduce their salt consumption, their
blood pressure came down as well.
(02:09):
So basically the thinking was ifyou eat less salt, your blood
pressure is going to come down and that automatically makes you
healthy. But does it?
The main problem with these studies was that a lot of them
were short term and they only showed this reduction in blood
pressure in certain groups. None of them actually looked at
the long term impact that reducing sodium had and they
(02:30):
also targeted salt as the bad guy.
They didn't look at the rest of the diet.
And this is the reason why it isso hard to do research involving
nutrition because you can't really do any long term
controlled studies. You can't get people to eat
exclusively whatever food you'retrying to study for a long
(02:53):
period of time. First off, it's hard to keep
them in a controlled environment.
And yeah, because it's ethicallywrong to completely control them
and control what they're consuming.
There's always going to be a little bit of variance.
People are never going to stick to the diet plan 100%.
It's hard enough to get them to stick to it short term, let
(03:15):
alone long term. But I mean, these people that
were studying, they need to livetheir lives.
And This is why we can have two studies that show completely
opposite things. One study will show that eggs
are bad for your health, that they raise your cholesterol, and
another one will show that they don't have a negative impact.
So what we need to do is look atthe totality of evidence, put
all of these studies together and draw conclusions from the
(03:38):
overall result. And even still, this isn't
perfect. But my point is, the
demonization of salt came from afew short term studies, at least
when it comes to raising blood pressure.
And the reason that it's stuck is because when things are
simple like this, when instructions are simple like
this, eat less salt and you're going to be healthy, it's easier
(04:00):
for people to understand and to follow.
When you start introducing big diet changes for people and
telling people they need to eat in a certain way and make all
these changes and cut all of these things out, people are
less likely to do it. But when it's one isolated thing
that you more or less can control, it's a little bit
easier. And that's one of the reasons
(04:21):
why this stuck on for as long asit did.
But it's really important to understand the acute impacts of
salt or the immediate impacts versus the long term ones.
Because yes, when you eat salt, your blood pressure does go up
acutely. And this is a normal response by
your body. It's not actually a bad thing.
Another example of this happening is when you exercise,
(04:44):
your blood pressure goes up. But we all know that that's not
a bad thing. It's happening in isolation.
It's when your blood pressure stays elevated for long periods
of time, AKA hypertension, that's where you're going to
start to run into problems. And with exercise, we know that
even though in the moment it raises your blood pressure, long
term it brings your blood pressure down.
(05:05):
So what I'm getting at here is that it's not black and white.
Just because something happens acutely doesn't mean the same
thing is happening long term. Doctor James D Nicola Antonio, a
cardiovascular research scientist and the author of The
Salt Fix, explains that sodium works in a similar way.
Over time, your body adjusts to your sodium intake.
For most healthy individuals, higher sodium intake doesn't
(05:28):
cause chronic high blood pressure.
He also points out that low sodium intake can actually
increase hormones that raise your blood pressure long term,
hormones like renin and adrenaline.
So the relationship between saltand blood pressure isn't always
going to be less salt, lower blood pressure.
There's more nuance to it. OK, let's strip away the
controversy for a second and focus on biology.
(05:51):
Like I said at the start of thisepisode, sodium is actually an
essential electrolyte, similar to magnesium, potassium,
calcium, These all fall under the same category.
Electrolytes are literally needed to keep you alive, to
keep your body working. Your muscles contract because of
sodium. Your nerves send signals because
of sodium. Your body wouldn't be able to
maintain proper fluid balance without sodium.
(06:13):
Now, I'm sure we've all experienced the signs and
symptoms of low sodium intake. You can get dizzy, you can get
headaches, fatigue, muscle cramps.
We're more likely to experience these things if it's hot
outside, if we're sweating a lot, or if we're exercising.
Because when we're doing these things, if we're sweating, we're
losing fluid, but we're also losing electrolytes in that
(06:35):
fluid. In extreme cases, low sodium can
actually lead to seizures and even death.
I'm telling you, it really is animportant nutrient.
Now here's where things get a little bit more tricky because
for someone who is eating the standard American diet with a
lot of processed food, they're eating just a lot of packaged
things can be fast food, but even just anything that's
(06:56):
packaged, ready made meals, frozen dinners, that sort of
thing. These foods are loaded with
sodium. So the average person who is
eating the average diet doesn't really have to worry that
they're not consuming enough sodium.
For the average American, 70 to 80% of sodium intake comes from
processed food. And that's why for people who
(07:17):
are eating this way, if they do focus on lowering their sodium
intake, this can, I mean, they just are eating less processed
food. And so when they see their
hypertension improve, when they see their blood pressure come
down, it's not so much to do with the lower sodium intake,
but rather that they're just eating less processed food.
And that's another reason why nutrition is so hard to study
(07:40):
because there are so many factors, so many different foods
that are involved, and it's hardto pinpoint exactly which one is
the cause of which symptom. Now, I know a lot of you
listening to my podcast, a lot of people in my community are
not eating the standard Americandiet.
They have cut down significantlyon processed food.
They're eating manly whole food.They're focusing their meals
(08:02):
around protein. They are eating lots of healthy
fat. Maybe they're reducing their
carbohydrates or at the very least being smart about them for
better blood sugar control. And for this group of people,
because they're not consuming a lot of processed food or any
processed food, they're probablynot getting a lot of sodium
because Whole Foods and especially modern day Whole
(08:24):
Foods don't have a lot. And that's partly to do with the
fact that our soil nowadays is depleted of nutrients.
So the food, the fruits and vegetables that we grow in it
has less nutrients as a result. And one of the nutrients, it's
lower in sodium, magnesium, thatsort of thing.
Now, if you are one of the people who has reduced their
carbohydrate intake, this actually increases your risk of
(08:47):
not consuming enough sodium because when you reduce carbs in
your diet, your body retains less water.
And with less water that also means fewer electrolytes.
So you actually it's really important to supplement them.
And if you add exercise, sauna, use hot weather into the mix,
then your sodium need increases even more.
And This is why it is so important that we are
(09:09):
replenishing our electrolytes. Now I know I'm going to get the
question, how much salt, how much sodium should we be
consuming? Can you consume too much?
What are the risks? Now, sodium is a nutrient that
if you do consume too much, yourbody has mechanisms in place to
excrete it, and it can excrete it pretty easily.
So if you consume more sodium than your body needs, your body
(09:32):
excretes it through your urine. With things like potassium,
which is another electrolyte, your body can't excrete it as
easily. And that's why I don't really
recommend supplementing with a electrolyte supplement that's
higher in potassium because we can get quite a bit of potassium
through our food. Avocados, salmon, excellent
sources. And because we can pretty easily
(09:53):
meet our potassium needs throughfood, we shouldn't really be
supplementing it unless we're doing an extended fast.
Zeus. I was like, what is he doing?
OK, you're going to attack my plan.
That's fine. Are you trying to steal the
show? OK, where was I?
(10:14):
Completely lost my train of thought.
So potassium is one that you really only want to supplement
in large doses, like I said, if you're doing an extended fast.
But with sodium, because we're not getting a lot of it through
our food and because if we're not eating a lot of processed
food, if we're eating fewer carbohydrates, if we're
exercising, if we live in a hot climate, we need more sodium.
(10:35):
It's really important to replenish it through an
electrolyte supplement. Now, you can also just use salt
to salt your food to taste. But even still, it can be a
little bit difficult to get enough in.
And that's why I personally use and recommend Sodis Everyday
Hydration Salts. They are an electrolyte company
and their product has no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners,
(10:58):
no weird stuff in it. They are high in sodium.
They have 1000 milligrammes per serve.
Which is a good thing because ifyou're someone who is just
drinking plain water all day, this can actually deplete.
Or I guess throw your electrolyte balance off because
if you're consuming more water without replenishing your
electrolytes, then your ratio offluid to electrolytes, it gets
(11:23):
thrown off like I said. But if you drink your water with
electrolytes, then you keep thisbalance in check.
And I really like sodium becausetheir formula has the right
ratio of potassium, magnesium, and sodium that is ideal for
everyday use. Like I said, it does have a bit
of potassium, but not too much because you will be getting a
(11:44):
lot through food if you're usingit for everyday use.
If you want to check them out, you can head to
healthcoachkate.com/sodie Electrolytes.
I will put that link in the description box down below and
make sure to use code HCK 15 at checkout because that's going to
save you 15% off your order. All right, another question that
I know I'm going to be asked is what about the different types
of salt? Because it can be a little bit
(12:05):
confusing. A lot of people get caught up in
which one is best. So table salt.
This is a refined version of salt.
A lot of times it also has an anti caking agent added to it.
Which I mean debatable whether that's a problem or not.
Probably not the worst thing in the world but just something to
(12:25):
consider. Sea salt is great because it is
minimally processed. It still contains a lot of trace
minerals. Same goes for Himalayan pink
salt. It actually contains a little
bit more magnesium and calcium and less sodium.
But I mean, we're talking in such small amounts that it
really isn't that big a difference.
So honestly, at the end of the day, a good quality sea salt, a
(12:49):
good quality pink Himalayan salt, both can be good, but the
mineral differences really are minor.
So it's not worth getting caughtup in which one's best.
Now I will say that there is a small group of people who are
salt sensitive. And for these people, they do
experience a sharp rise in theirblood sugar when they consume
(13:09):
excess sodium. And this can be due to genetics.
This can be due to kidney disease.
There are a few different causesof it.
So if you're in that group, thenyou do need to be a little bit
more mindful of your salt consumption.
But I think that's only something like 5% of the
population. So most people do not fall into
this category. Work with your healthcare
provider and figure out what salt intake works best for you.
(13:31):
All right, so in summary, if you're eating a mostly whole
food diet, here are some tips onhow to make salt and sodium work
for you and not against you. First one is to salt your food
to taste. Your cravings are often a good
indicator of your sodium need. The second is to spread your
intake throughout the day so youcan make sure your sodium levels
are replenished at all times. During heat waves, intense
(13:54):
training, or if you're eating lower carb that day, make sure
to increase your salt intake. If you're only using salt and
you're still experiencing the side effects of low sodium such
as headaches, fatigue, dizziness, then try introducing
an electrolyte supplement like soda.
So should you be eating more or less salt?
Well, if you're eating a lot of processed food in your diet,
(14:14):
then yeah, it is probably something you should look at
reducing. But if you're eating a mainly
whole food diet, if you've reduced your carbohydrates, then
you probably need more salt. Low sodium is actually a big
part of why people experience keto flu symptoms when they
first switch to a low carb diet.These symptoms aren't actually
coming from a reduction in carbohydrates.
(14:36):
They're coming from your electrolyte levels dropping
because you're eating less processed food, you're eating
less sodium, your body is retaining less water, it's
retaining less sodium. So you experience these
symptoms. So if you're someone who has
just recently switched to a whole food, low carb diet and
you're wondering why you don't feel great, electrolytes could
be the key and sodium specifically.
But anyways, guys, I'm going to wrap up this episode here.
(14:58):
I hope you enjoyed it. If you're on Spotify, make sure
to follow my podcast over there.It's called Healthy, Not
Complicated. And if you want to give me a
five star review on Spotify or if you want to give me any
review, I'm not going to force you to give me a five star.
But hopefully if you've made it to the end of this episode, you
did enjoy it. I would really appreciate you
going over there and rating the podcast.
(15:21):
And of course, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure
to give this video a thumbs up and I will see you in the next
one. Bye, guys.
Hello guys, and welcome back to the Healthy Not Complicated
podcast. I do have a special guest here
behind me. Oh, I'm sure he will be back,
but thank you for tuning in today.
The topic we are going to be going over in today's episode is
salt and sodium. Whether it's something you
should be limiting or not, we'regoing to go over all of the
(00:21):
evidence for and against salt consumption.
We're going to talk about if it raises blood pressure, who needs
more salt in their diet, who might need less?
We'll cover it all today becausethere really is a lot of
misinformation out there when itcomes to salt and sodium.
I'm sure we've all been told a million times that consuming too
much salt increases our blood pressure, and that's bad.
(00:43):
That's not something that we want.
But is there more to the story? Because honestly, a lot of the
advice we get surrounding salt is completely outdated and not
supported by the latest research.
It's really important for musclefunction, brain function, nerve
function. There's a reason why when you're
dehydrated, you get muscle cramps.
(01:04):
It's because that dehydration isn't just a loss of water, it's
a loss of sodium. So clearly sodium has some role
in the body, and just like we once demonised things like fat
and the cholesterol in eggs, I think it's time for salt to have
a bit of a rebrand. Let's start by talking about the
history of why salt was demonised originally, because it
(01:26):
wasn't always the villain. For most of human history, it
actually was a little bit of a hero.
There were entire trade routes dedicated just to salt.
There were wars fought over salt.
The word salary actually comes from the Latin words salt
because Romans used to actually make payments in salt.
So how did we go from being treasured to basically being
(01:48):
treated like poison and something that we should be
limiting at all costs? Well, in the 1970s, researchers
actually started to notice a connection between salt
consumption, sodium consumption and an increase in blood
pressure. Early studies showed that when
certain groups of people reduce their salt consumption, their
blood pressure came down as well.
(02:09):
So basically the thinking was ifyou eat less salt, your blood
pressure is going to come down and that automatically makes you
healthy. But does it?
The main problem with these studies was that a lot of them
were short term and they only showed this reduction in blood
pressure in certain groups. None of them actually looked at
the long term impact that reducing sodium had and they
(02:30):
also targeted salt as the bad guy.
They didn't look at the rest of the diet.
And this is the reason why it isso hard to do research involving
nutrition because you can't really do any long term
controlled studies. You can't get people to eat
exclusively whatever food you'retrying to study for a long
(02:53):
period of time. First off, it's hard to keep
them in a controlled environment.
And yeah, because it's ethicallywrong to completely control them
and control what they're consuming.
There's always going to be a little bit of variance.
People are never going to stick to the diet plan 100%.
It's hard enough to get them to stick to it short term, let
(03:15):
alone long term. But I mean, these people that
were studying, they need to livetheir lives.
And This is why we can have two studies that show completely
opposite things. One study will show that eggs
are bad for your health, that they raise your cholesterol, and
another one will show that they don't have a negative impact.
So what we need to do is look atthe totality of evidence, put
all of these studies together and draw conclusions from the
(03:38):
overall result. And even still, this isn't
perfect. But my point is, the
demonization of salt came from afew short term studies, at least
when it comes to raising blood pressure.
And the reason that it's stuck is because when things are
simple like this, when instructions are simple like
this, eat less salt and you're going to be healthy, it's easier
(04:00):
for people to understand and to follow.
When you start introducing big diet changes for people and
telling people they need to eat in a certain way and make all
these changes and cut all of these things out, people are
less likely to do it. But when it's one isolated thing
that you more or less can control, it's a little bit
easier. And that's one of the reasons
(04:21):
why this stuck on for as long asit did.
But it's really important to understand the acute impacts of
salt or the immediate impacts versus the long term ones.
Because yes, when you eat salt, your blood pressure does go up
acutely. And this is a normal response by
your body. It's not actually a bad thing.
Another example of this happening is when you exercise,
(04:44):
your blood pressure goes up. But we all know that that's not
a bad thing. It's happening in isolation.
It's when your blood pressure stays elevated for long periods
of time, AKA hypertension, that's where you're going to
start to run into problems. And with exercise, we know that
even though in the moment it raises your blood pressure, long
term it brings your blood pressure down.
(05:05):
So what I'm getting at here is that it's not black and white.
Just because something happens acutely doesn't mean the same
thing is happening long term. Doctor James D Nicola Antonio, a
cardiovascular research scientist and the author of The
Salt Fix, explains that sodium works in a similar way.
Over time, your body adjusts to your sodium intake.
For most healthy individuals, higher sodium intake doesn't
(05:28):
cause chronic high blood pressure.
He also points out that low sodium intake can actually
increase hormones that raise your blood pressure long term,
hormones like renin and adrenaline.
So the relationship between saltand blood pressure isn't always
going to be less salt, lower blood pressure.
There's more nuance to it. OK, let's strip away the
controversy for a second and focus on biology.
(05:51):
Like I said at the start of thisepisode, sodium is actually an
essential electrolyte, similar to magnesium, potassium,
calcium, These all fall under the same category.
Electrolytes are literally needed to keep you alive, to
keep your body working. Your muscles contract because of
sodium. Your nerves send signals because
of sodium. Your body wouldn't be able to
maintain proper fluid balance without sodium.
(06:13):
Now, I'm sure we've all experienced the signs and
symptoms of low sodium intake. You can get dizzy, you can get
headaches, fatigue, muscle cramps.
We're more likely to experience these things if it's hot
outside, if we're sweating a lot, or if we're exercising.
Because when we're doing these things, if we're sweating, we're
losing fluid, but we're also losing electrolytes in that
(06:35):
fluid. In extreme cases, low sodium can
actually lead to seizures and even death.
I'm telling you, it really is animportant nutrient.
Now here's where things get a little bit more tricky because
for someone who is eating the standard American diet with a
lot of processed food, they're eating just a lot of packaged
things can be fast food, but even just anything that's
(06:56):
packaged, ready made meals, frozen dinners, that sort of
thing. These foods are loaded with
sodium. So the average person who is
eating the average diet doesn't really have to worry that
they're not consuming enough sodium.
For the average American, 70 to 80% of sodium intake comes from
processed food. And that's why for people who
(07:17):
are eating this way, if they do focus on lowering their sodium
intake, this can, I mean, they just are eating less processed
food. And so when they see their
hypertension improve, when they see their blood pressure come
down, it's not so much to do with the lower sodium intake,
but rather that they're just eating less processed food.
And that's another reason why nutrition is so hard to study
(07:40):
because there are so many factors, so many different foods
that are involved, and it's hardto pinpoint exactly which one is
the cause of which symptom. Now, I know a lot of you
listening to my podcast, a lot of people in my community are
not eating the standard Americandiet.
They have cut down significantlyon processed food.
They're eating manly whole food.They're focusing their meals
(08:02):
around protein. They are eating lots of healthy
fat. Maybe they're reducing their
carbohydrates or at the very least being smart about them for
better blood sugar control. And for this group of people,
because they're not consuming a lot of processed food or any
processed food, they're probablynot getting a lot of sodium
because Whole Foods and especially modern day Whole
(08:24):
Foods don't have a lot. And that's partly to do with the
fact that our soil nowadays is depleted of nutrients.
So the food, the fruits and vegetables that we grow in it
has less nutrients as a result. And one of the nutrients, it's
lower in sodium, magnesium, thatsort of thing.
Now, if you are one of the people who has reduced their
carbohydrate intake, this actually increases your risk of
(08:47):
not consuming enough sodium because when you reduce carbs in
your diet, your body retains less water.
And with less water that also means fewer electrolytes.
So you actually it's really important to supplement them.
And if you add exercise, sauna, use hot weather into the mix,
then your sodium need increases even more.
And This is why it is so important that we are
(09:09):
replenishing our electrolytes. Now I know I'm going to get the
question, how much salt, how much sodium should we be
consuming? Can you consume too much?
What are the risks? Now, sodium is a nutrient that
if you do consume too much, yourbody has mechanisms in place to
excrete it, and it can excrete it pretty easily.
So if you consume more sodium than your body needs, your body
(09:32):
excretes it through your urine. With things like potassium,
which is another electrolyte, your body can't excrete it as
easily. And that's why I don't really
recommend supplementing with a electrolyte supplement that's
higher in potassium because we can get quite a bit of potassium
through our food. Avocados, salmon, excellent
sources. And because we can pretty easily
(09:53):
meet our potassium needs throughfood, we shouldn't really be
supplementing it unless we're doing an extended fast.
Zeus. I was like, what is he doing?
OK, you're going to attack my plan.
That's fine. Are you trying to steal the
show? OK, where was I?
(10:14):
Completely lost my train of thought.
So potassium is one that you really only want to supplement
in large doses, like I said, if you're doing an extended fast.
But with sodium, because we're not getting a lot of it through
our food and because if we're not eating a lot of processed
food, if we're eating fewer carbohydrates, if we're
exercising, if we live in a hot climate, we need more sodium.
(10:35):
It's really important to replenish it through an
electrolyte supplement. Now, you can also just use salt
to salt your food to taste. But even still, it can be a
little bit difficult to get enough in.
And that's why I personally use and recommend Sodis Everyday
Hydration Salts. They are an electrolyte company
and their product has no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners,
(10:58):
no weird stuff in it. They are high in sodium.
They have 1000 milligrammes per serve.
Which is a good thing because ifyou're someone who is just
drinking plain water all day, this can actually deplete.
Or I guess throw your electrolyte balance off because
if you're consuming more water without replenishing your
electrolytes, then your ratio offluid to electrolytes, it gets
(11:23):
thrown off like I said. But if you drink your water with
electrolytes, then you keep thisbalance in check.
And I really like sodium becausetheir formula has the right
ratio of potassium, magnesium, and sodium that is ideal for
everyday use. Like I said, it does have a bit
of potassium, but not too much because you will be getting a
(11:44):
lot through food if you're usingit for everyday use.
If you want to check them out, you can head to
healthcoachkate.com/sodie Electrolytes.
I will put that link in the description box down below and
make sure to use code HCK 15 at checkout because that's going to
save you 15% off your order. All right, another question that
I know I'm going to be asked is what about the different types
of salt? Because it can be a little bit
(12:05):
confusing. A lot of people get caught up in
which one is best. So table salt.
This is a refined version of salt.
A lot of times it also has an anti caking agent added to it.
Which I mean debatable whether that's a problem or not.
Probably not the worst thing in the world but just something to
(12:25):
consider. Sea salt is great because it is
minimally processed. It still contains a lot of trace
minerals. Same goes for Himalayan pink
salt. It actually contains a little
bit more magnesium and calcium and less sodium.
But I mean, we're talking in such small amounts that it
really isn't that big a difference.
So honestly, at the end of the day, a good quality sea salt, a
(12:49):
good quality pink Himalayan salt, both can be good, but the
mineral differences really are minor.
So it's not worth getting caughtup in which one's best.
Now I will say that there is a small group of people who are
salt sensitive. And for these people, they do
experience a sharp rise in theirblood sugar when they consume
(13:09):
excess sodium. And this can be due to genetics.
This can be due to kidney disease.
There are a few different causesof it.
So if you're in that group, thenyou do need to be a little bit
more mindful of your salt consumption.
But I think that's only something like 5% of the
population. So most people do not fall into
this category. Work with your healthcare
provider and figure out what salt intake works best for you.
(13:31):
All right, so in summary, if you're eating a mostly whole
food diet, here are some tips onhow to make salt and sodium work
for you and not against you. First one is to salt your food
to taste. Your cravings are often a good
indicator of your sodium need. The second is to spread your
intake throughout the day so youcan make sure your sodium levels
are replenished at all times. During heat waves, intense
(13:54):
training, or if you're eating lower carb that day, make sure
to increase your salt intake. If you're only using salt and
you're still experiencing the side effects of low sodium such
as headaches, fatigue, dizziness, then try introducing
an electrolyte supplement like soda.
So should you be eating more or less salt?
Well, if you're eating a lot of processed food in your diet,
(14:14):
then yeah, it is probably something you should look at
reducing. But if you're eating a mainly
whole food diet, if you've reduced your carbohydrates, then
you probably need more salt. Low sodium is actually a big
part of why people experience keto flu symptoms when they
first switch to a low carb diet.These symptoms aren't actually
coming from a reduction in carbohydrates.
(14:36):
They're coming from your electrolyte levels dropping
because you're eating less processed food, you're eating
less sodium, your body is retaining less water, it's
retaining less sodium. So you experience these
symptoms. So if you're someone who has
just recently switched to a whole food, low carb diet and
you're wondering why you don't feel great, electrolytes could
be the key and sodium specifically.
But anyways, guys, I'm going to wrap up this episode here.
(14:58):
I hope you enjoyed it. If you're on Spotify, make sure
to follow my podcast over there.It's called Healthy, Not
Complicated. And if you want to give me a
five star review on Spotify or if you want to give me any
review, I'm not going to force you to give me a five star.
But hopefully if you've made it to the end of this episode, you
did enjoy it. I would really appreciate you
going over there and rating the podcast.
(15:21):
And of course, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure
to give this video a thumbs up and I will see you in the next
one. Bye, guys.
Host
Kait Malthaner
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