5 Warning Signs You’re Eating Too Much Salt—And What It’s Doing to Your Kidneys

Aunt Chen is 56 years old. She has been a heavy-flavored person since she was a child, so she always gets used to making salty dishes when cooking. Her daughter repeatedly advised her to eat lighter meals, but she always felt that light meals were tasteless and disagreed:

“If your grandfather eats pickles all his life, won’t he live to be over ninety? What’s more, eating more salt will make you strong.”

Last month, her daughter took her to the hospital for a physical examination and found that the amount of albumin in the urine was excessive and the creatinine value was on the high side. She was diagnosed with early-stage salt-sensitive kidney injury. This surprised Aunt Chen. She has been like this for so many years. Why did she suddenly say that she couldn’t eat too much salt?

1. “Eating ‘it’ every day has caused the U.S. mortality rate to rank among the highest in the world”

Salt is an indispensable type of seasoning used in our daily life, and in ancient times salt was even the commander of all dishes “first of all flavors.” Appropriate intake of salt is important for health, the sodium element within the salt plays an indispensable role in maintaining the balance of body fluids and ensuring the proper functioning of nerves/muscles.

However, a study from Europe even pointed out “eating salt can benefit longevity.” Is this statement credible?

The study analyzed the relationship between salt intake, life expectancy, and mortality among the population in 181 countries and regions, and found a correlation between sodium intake and increased life expectancy and decreased all-cause mortality. That is, people who eat more salty food have a longer life expectancy.

However, the study is not highly recognized by the medical community, and some scholars believe that the statistical process excludes factors such as BMI and GDP of various countries, which will affect the accuracy of the results.

On the contrary, eating too much salt is no small harm to the body!

Professor Michael Anderson, head of the Department of Nutrition and Public Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said, the mortality rate of Americans due to excessive salt intake ranks among the highest in the world. Excessive salt intake is one of the important factors threatening the health of the U.S. population.

This is an issue that everyone needs to pay attention to, and the United States ranks near the top in the world in terms of mortality due to dietary structure, as well as in terms of cancer incidence, and the first among them is the high-salt diet.

Many people have no actual concept of salt control. At this stage, everyone’s awareness is still in the sugar control stage. Some surveys show that 68% of consumers are willing to control sugar on a daily basis, and 58.16% of people will ask for less sugar and no sugar when ordering drinks, but only 31.47% of consumers will take the initiative to ask for less salt when ordering.

2. Excessive damage to the body, 5 signs to be wary of!

Excessive salt intake can have a great impact on health. Excessive sodium intake can cause water retention and increased blood volume in the body, leading to increased burden on the heart and blood vessels inducing hypertension; and sodium will damage vascular endothelial function and promote the formation of arteriosclerotic plaques increasing incidence of coronary heart disease, heart failure; at the same time, a large amount of sodium intake will put a greater burden on the kidneys, which may over time cause renal impairment, chronic kidney disease.

In addition, there are studies that have found that excessive salt intake is associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer development. An extra 1 g of sodium per day can increase the risk of stomach cancer by 18%, the greater the intake, the greater the risk.

Salt control is something that everyone needs to pay attention to, but many foods in our lives contain salt, so it is easy to overeat. When you consume too much salt, the body will have these few symptoms, reminding you to reduce salt in time:

1. Slowing reaction
   Long-term salt intake excess will affect cognitive function in the brain, and excessive salt intake will increase inflammatory factors in the body and cause damage to the vascular endothelium, thus affecting blood circulation in the brain. Over time, it can easily lead to unresponsiveness and memory loss, and you will obviously feel that you cannot think clearly.
2. Thirst
   When the concentration of sodium ions in the body rises, a large amount of water inside the cell will penetrate outward, causing the cell to lack water. At this time, in order to maintain water-liquid balance, the body will make the brain send out thirst signals, prompting people to drink a lot of water.
3. Dizziness and headache
   A study in the British Medical Journal pointed out that compared with people who consumed 1,500 mg of sodium per day, people who consumed 3,500 mg of sodium per day were 1/3 more likely to have headaches. Excessive salt intake can lead to increased perivascular resistance, leading to an increased risk of hypertension, which can easily lead to the appearance of uncomfortable symptoms such as dizziness and headache.
4. Want to urinate
   Excessive salt intake can cause frequent urination, as the kidneys excrete excess sodium from the body “overtime.” And when the body consumes too much salt, the body consumes more water, which will further increase the amount of urination.
5. The body is swollen
   Excessive salt intake can affect osmotic balance in the body, and kidney burden can increase accordingly. In this way, the drainage capacity of the kidneys will decrease, and water and sodium retention in the body will cause edema of the body. It will generally appear in the lower limbs in the early stage, and will develop to abnormal edema of the face and upper limbs over time.

3. It is not difficult to control salt correctly. Do these 4 things well

Compared to younger adults, older adults prefer to eat some heavy-flavored foods due to the deterioration of their taste function, which can easily lead to excessive sodium intake. And the elderly consume excessive amounts of salt, which poses great risks to their health. Learn these tricks every day to help you effectively control salt!

1. Use a salt-limiting spoon
   It is recommended that each household buy a salt-limited spoon, it is recommended to use 2 g for cooking, 2~3 spoons a day is enough. If there are more people in the family, you can increase the amount of salt used appropriately.
2. Add salt when it is about to come out of the pot
   When cooking daily, you can add salt when it is almost out of the pot. This can effectively reduce the amount of salt used, and you can clearly feel the salty taste when eating.
3. Use natural seasonings
   If you want to reduce your salt intake when cooking, you can also use more condiments such as lemon and vinegar to taste, and don’t just rely on salt.
4. Reduce the frequency of eating out
   Restaurants outside tend to add a lot of salt for the flavor of food, so we have to eat as little food as possible and eat less takeout.

Salt is indispensable for health, but be sure to control your intake. Excessive intake of salt will pose a threat to your health throughout the body!