6 Benefits of a Salt Free Diet
I love salt. It is difficult to remember a time when I did not enjoy a meal that had a liberal sprinkling of salt applied. So why would I be interested in the benefits of a salt free diet?
I remember eating entire boxes of Kraft Dinner with a large amount of this delicious spice or with wieners mixed in for some extra saltiness.
Do you remember eating Shreddies cereal as a kid and having to put a new layer of sugar on top every time you finished a layer of cereal? Do you remember scooping the unmelted sugar out of the milk that was left in your bowl? Well, that is how salt has been for me up until now. I say “up until now” because a recent experience has made me decide to take the radical step of adopting a salt free diet.
In addition to loving salt, I also love foods and sauces that already have salt in them. My favourite condiment was hot sauce. My wife prefers hot peppers, but I used to love a good shake of the hot sauce bottle over any part of my plate.
My love affair with salt came to an abrupt end last night after I went through the second of two very painful migraine headaches that were brought on by this seemingly innocuous flavour enhancer. I had a meal of steamed vegetables and eggs last night that I coated with hot sauce, then I spent most of the night holding my head in my hands due to the intense stabbing pain. When I could stand it no longer, I made a trip to the bathroom and proceeded to throw up. Believe it or not, puking is a great way to get rid of a migraine, especially if you are prone to feeling ill when you get a migraine in the first place.
The first time I experienced a migraine was when my wife had prepared a soup with some leftover ground beef taco filling we had sitting around in the fridge. Even I found that the soup tasted really salty, but since I had never experienced any problems when consuming large quantities of salt, I ate a good share of the pot.
The result of my soup feast was identical to my ordeal from last night. I had never been able to make the connection to salt as the cause of my pain until my wife pointed out that salt was known for causing migraine headaches. With this new-found information in hand, I did some investigation into salt free living to see what other benefits I might gain from giving up sodium chloride for good.
Benefits of a Salt Free Diet
- Lower blood pressure
- If you are suffering from high blood pressure, one of the first changes your doctor will tell you to make to your diet is to remove any excess salt intake. People following low sodium diets are generally restricted to 2000 mg (2 grams) of salt per day maximum. One can of soup from the grocery store can contain your entire daily allowance of sodium.
- Healthier kidneys
- Your kidneys are responsible for regulating the salt and water levels in your body. When there is too much salt and water around your cells, the excess water is pushed into your bloodstream which causes your blood to become diluted. This in turn makes your heart work harder and causes increased pressure on your arterial walls, or high blood pressure. Your kidneys have to filter the excess salt and water out in your urine. If your pee is yellow, your kidneys need a break.
- Healthier food choices
- Totally eliminating salt from your diet means never eating fast food or processed food again. If you get used to looking for the sodium content on food labels, you can make a few good low sodium choices, but keep in mind that low sodium diets only allow 2000 mg (2 grams) of salt per day. Choose wisely. With fast food and processed food out of your diet, there is a lot more room for fresh fruit and vegetables.
- An intimate knowledge of spices
- Since you can no longer flavour your food with salt, there is a need for becoming more familiar with your spice cupboard. For most of us, the spice cupboard is a kind of mystery. When cooking, we throw in whatever we think might taste good, but have no real appreciation for individual spices. Their independent flavours and aromas await discovery.
- No addiction to baked goods
- Baked goods and pastries contain a lot more salt than you may think. In addition to using salt in thier recipes, most recipes call for baking soda. Baking soda, my friend, is a salt. Arm & Hammer baking soda contains 273 mg of sodium per gram. One teaspoon of baking soda (5 ml or 5 grams) therefore contains 1365 mg (1.36 grams) of sodium. Say goodbye to those fattening carbs forever!
- Losing a few pounds
- Thanks to you having given your kidneys a break by reducing your salt intake, you can expect to lose a few of those extra pounds you have been carrying around. With no salt in your system to hold the water in, out to the toilet and away from the scale it goes!
All of these benefits sound desirable to me and I am very interested in never having severe headaches again, so I have committed to never picking up the salt shaker again and to paying very close attention to the sodium content of any processed or packaged foods I happen to crave. Note that I am taking personal responsibility for this problem, not blaming it on the food industry, my grandma or anyone else. If I want things to change, it is my responsibility to change them. My goal is to consume no more than 500 mg of sodium on any given day. This should prove to be relatively simple, since my diet already consists mostly of fresh fruit, vegetables and lean meat.
Though I am still weighing in lighter than ever before in my adult life (since about age 20), I am interested in seeing whether or not the near total elimination of sodium from my diet will help me to surpass my lightest weight ever and also get rid of the persistent layer of water I can feel around my abdominal area.
During my bodybuilding days, the elimination of excess water was relatively easy. All I had to do then was take 12 Hydroxycut pills (or some other diuretic) per day and the water retention went away. Since it is innately self-destructive to abuse your body with any man made substance, this is no longer an option for me. The idea of getting the same results from a natural process is intriguing and exciting.
I will be doing more posts on this topic and a summary a month or so down the road to report on my results, especially if I happen to break the 150 lb barrier because I have never been lighter than that. I love being my own little guinea pig and have always been interested in how the human body works and what its ultimate limits are. I am always willing to lead by example, so I will let you all know how the experiment goes.
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