SALT & HEALTH

Salt is a chemical compound that has been around human’s life since a long time ago. Without it foods would be tasteless. Moreover, it is believed that the balance amount of salt inside the body influences the metabolism. This shows that salt is quite essential for human body.

A definition of salt from wikipedia stated that it is a dietary mineral essential for animal life, composed primarily of sodium chloride. The two major components of salt, sodium and chloride, are necessary for the survival of all living creatures. Sodium, in particular, helps maintaining the concentration of body fluids at the right levels. Another central role it plays is in transmission of electrical impulses in the nerves, and helps cells to take up nutrients.

Salt that contains a compound called iodine (in Indonesia known as “yodium”) is also important in daily diet. The lack of iodine in the body can trigger the enlargement of thyroid gland (in Indonesian called “gondok”) and an abnormal body growth. The lack of iodine consumption during childhood can influence the body growth and the cause late responses. While in middle-age group, the lack of iodine can cause dry skin, fallen hair, and an abnormal characteristic. For women in pregnant condition, if they do not consume the right amount of iodine, the baby in the womb might experience cretinism condition.

However, consuming salt in an amount that is more than what we supposed to can harm our health. For adults, when the levels of sodium in the body are too high, the body retains too much water and the volume of body fluids increases. Many scientists believed that the condition might cause high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and stroke.

An adult has the ability to remove salt from the body through the kidneys into the urine. But, it is a different case with babies and small children. Nowadays, we can easily find children consuming huge amount of salt from their daily diets. Quite high amount of salt can be found in snacks, bread, canned foods, instant foods, and other packaged foods, which children love. If they carry on the habit of consuming high amount of salt, all the way up to their adult life, it definitely can affect their health, probably with several conditions we have mentioned before.

So, how much amount salt should one person consume? In United States of America, the amount of salt recommended consumed by an adult is less than 2400 mg a day while in United Kingdom is less than 1600 mg per day.

And what should be done to reduce the consumption of salt to maintain a good health? It is actually quite easy to do this. One example is, we can look at the information about the contents of nutrient on the food by reading the table of nutritional contents, which usually written on the backside of the packaging. With that, we can learn whether the food contains high amount of salt, and choose the right foods that should be consume daily by us and our children.

Moreover, we should consume foods with less content of salt in our diet, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. We all know how good they are for our health. Or in simpler way, we can lessen the amount salt that we put into our cooking. For example, if usually we put in one tea spoon of salt, we can reduce it into half or even a quarter of it.

Some people also choose salt substitutes to lower their consumption of salt or the sodium intake. However in general, they may not be a healthy choice for everyone. Many contain potassium in place of sodium. People with renal disease or kidney problems may have difficulty eliminating excess potassium from their bodies, and high levels can be dangerous.


* Gathered from many sources.