Losing Weight? You’ve Been Assaulted by Salt?
How much salt did you consume yesterday? Have you any idea? Do you think it’s important? Actually, it’s very important indeed, and for the sake of your health you should always be aware of the amount of salt you consume.
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) of salt is 4g and a maximum of 6g. Most of us consume in excess of 12g, and we don’t know we’re doing it. So where does it all come from? The main culprit is processed food and in particular fast foods and ready meals. They do the most damage.
Why do manufacturers add so much salt to their products in the first place? Because it helps to increase the shelf life of the product and enhance the taste. Salt is everywhere, from baked beans to cereals and candy, hardly anything escapes. Alarmingly we get over 25% of our salt intake from white bread – and that includes burger buns and bagels sandwiches and rolls.
Far too many of us start the day by eating too much salt. A good cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages and hash browns is very likely to contain more than half your recommended daily allowance. Even if you decide to skip breakfast and have a cup of coffee and an American muffin you will have consumed nearly a quarter of your RDA.
So what’s all the fuss? Is salt bad for us? In the right amounts it is fine, in fact it’s essential that we eat a certain amount of salt. The right amount of salt helps to maintain the concentration of body fluids at the right levels and in the transmission of electrical impulses in the body as well as helping our cells to take up nutrients.
Eat too much salt and it becomes public enemy number one! Why? Because too much salt causes your body to retain too much water and your volume of bodily fluid increases. It makes you feel bloated. The increased amount of fluid in your system also increases your blood pressure. This can lead to heart attack and stroke.
Too much salt also helps you to put on weight. It makes you feel thirsty and makes you want to drink more – which just compounds the problem. It’s easy to see why it is important to know how much salt you consume. There’s another problem. The signal our body sends to our brain when we are thirsty is very similar to the one it sends when we are hungry. Most of us mistake the signals. We answer the thirst signal with food – usually high-calorie food containing sugar and salt. The result? Weight gain.
We all need to become much more aware of how much salt we consume. It’s important for our health and for our weight. We need to develop the habit – the slim habit – of eating less salt.
