Aunt Wu is 59 years old this year, and after getting older, she found that her body was not as good as day by day. For this reason, she began to delve into various health preservation methods, some time ago I saw an article on the Internet saying that eating salt is more healthy, since that day, there are many more pickled foods on the table, and more salt will be added when cooking.
After eating for nearly a month, Aunt Wu found that she didn't see the health effect, and she often felt dizzy, nauseous and wanted to vomit, and went to the hospital to check and found that her blood pressure soared to 170/110mmHg, and she was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
This result makes her unacceptable, she is in good health when she is not healthy, how can this health still have problems?
1. Subverted cognitive findings: the saltier you eat, the longer you live?
When we eat, we can not only satisfy our appetites, but also get great psychological satisfaction when we eat what we want to eat. Studies have found that people who are deficient in potassium, calcium, iron, stress, and fatigue prefer to eat salt! And maintaining a heavy eating pattern for a long time will also make people eat more and more salty and fall into a vicious circle.
We all know that eating too salty is not good for health and can easily induce cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension. But studies have found that people who eat more salty food live longer, so what's going on?
In a study published in the European Heart Journal, researchers surveyed salt intake, life expectancy and mortality among people in 181 countries and territories. It was found that as salt intake increased, so did the life expectancy of the participants.
The graph comes from the network
Specifically, an increase in daily salt intake of 2.5 g was associated with an increase in life expectancy of 2.6 years, which increased by 0.3 years at age 60. In addition, the study also found that increasing sodium intake by 1g per day reduced deaths by 131 per 100,000 people.
In fact, this study is not credible, the researchers did not correct for factors such as GDP and average weight in different countries, and did not clearly indicate the causal relationship between increased salt intake and life expectancy, so it is not of reference value.
Second, "a lot of salt must be obsessed", the harm of heavy taste is not only high blood pressure
A low-salt diet has become a health consensus among people, but there are different voices on whether salt restriction is beneficial or harmful to the human body.
First of all, we need to understand, is salt really that scary? Not really.
The chemical composition of salt is sodium chloride, which plays a very important role in the body's metabolism. Sodium mainly exists in the form of ions in the extracellular fluid, and has physiological functions such as maintaining osmotic pressure, regulating acid-base balance, and composing gastric acid.
However, this does not mean that more sodium is better, and excessive sodium intake will increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Some data show that excessive sodium intake is the "culprit" that leads to the world's largest mortality rate of cardiovascular disease and cancer in mainland China.
The study of the Journal of the American Heart Association found that the salt intake of children aged 3~6 years old in mainland China has reached the maximum salt intake recommended by the WHO for adults, and the daily salt intake of slightly older children is close to 9g.
There are many harms associated with excessive salt consumption:
1. It is not conducive to cardiovascular health
A diet high in salt can increase blood pressure and promote the aging of blood vessels, which in turn increases the risk of high blood pressure. Studies have found that if the daily salt intake is reduced from 9.4g to 4.4g, blood pressure will drop by 4.18/2.06mmHg. In addition, a high-salt diet can also increase the risk of stroke, and increasing salt intake by 1.15g per day will increase the risk of stroke by 6%.
2. Increased risk of gastric cancer and colon cancer
The osmotic pressure of table salt is very high, and excessive salt intake will cause damage to the gastric mucosa, and will reduce the secretion of gastric acid, reduce the protective power of the gastric mucosa, and further increase the risk of gastric ulcer and gastric cancer.
In addition, excessive salt intake can disrupt the balance of intestinal flora, leading to dysfunction and an increased risk of colon cancer.
3. Affect cognitive ability
Studies have found that a high-salt diet will have an impact on the cognitive function of the brain, and a long-term high-salt diet will strengthen the oxidative stress and intestinal inflammatory response of the hippocampus, which is easy to cause memory impairment, and has a greater impact on the elderly.
4. Osteoporosis
The sodium ions in table salt are related to the body's calcium metabolism, and sodium also carries some calcium ions when it is excreted. Every 1000mg of sodium excreted will deplete about 26mg of calcium, and long-term intake of a large amount of salt will lead to a large loss of calcium, which is easy to induce osteoporosis.
3. Eat less salt ≠ consume less! Be wary of "invisible salt" in life!
The mainland dietary guidelines recommend that residents should not consume more than 5g of salt per day, and many people feel that as long as they do not feel salty, their diet will not exceed the standard. In fact, there are many seemingly salty foods in life that contain salt, and these foods must be eaten as little as possible.
1. Honey Rice
Candied fruit tastes sweet and makes many people feel that it does not contain salt. In fact, a lot of salt is added to the candied fruit during the production process, and eating 10 plums a day basically exceeds the salt requirement of a day.
2. Dried noodles
The reason why somen noodles taste so chewy is because salt is added during the production process, and there are about 3g of salt in 100g of somen noodles, which accounts for more than half of the salt required by the human body in a day. When eating somen noodles, be sure to put less salt.
3. Condiments
The salt content in monosodium glutamate, oyster sauce, chicken essence, soybean paste, bean paste and other condiments is not low, and the amount of salt must be reduced when adding.
4. Processed meat
Such as bacon, ham, roast chicken, canned meat, etc., a large amount of salt will be added during the production process, and the amount of daily intake must be controlled.
Salt is indispensable for health, but the more you consume, the better, and you must control the amount of salt you consume every day to avoid excessive intake and affect your health.
Resources:
[1] EHJ: The Saltier You Eat, The Longer You Live? The data of 181 countries in Europe subverts cognition! 》. Puppy Literature 2021-01-23
[2] "Too Much "Salt" Must Be Lost? How much damage will the body suffer if you eat too much salt? 》. Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen Hospital, 2024-06-14
[3] "Small habits, big hidden dangers, be wary of these "invisible salts" in food! 》. China Medical Tribune 2023-06-12
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