SHOULD LEMONADE BE SWEET OR SALTED?

Most people believe that salt raises blood pressure.  This does happen in patients with kidney failure. Effective treatment of hypertension and heart failure often requires diuretic medicines to get rid of salt from body. Population research has shown that salt intake and high blood pressure are linked. Salt is therefore constantly blamed for health problems.

Despite common beliefs, our salt intake need not worry us. Like water, salt is essential for life. The body has strong systems in place for maintaining optimum levels. Our kidneys  glomeruli filter one and one half kilos of salt every day, and the kidney tubules reabsorb over 99%. The amounts filtered and absorbed vary with body s requirements. Depending on body levels, around three grams is excreted by urine daily. Keeping salt levels perfect is one of the things that our body does very well. Diet salt is approximately 5 grams per day. About 2 grams above or below this is blamed for health problems, but this is confused thinking. If we double or triple our salt intake, or reduce it to half or quarter, kidney s filteration and re-absorption mechanisms can adjust and handle them very easily. In addition, thirst and sweat can help in regulating body salt levels.

So the problem is not really the amount of salt in our food, but how much salt the body wishes to retain. The body retains salt when there is an increase in substances that have to be kept in solution. Chemists call this the osmotic load. After eating, our bodies are full of glucose and glycogen (glycogen and starch are packaged forms of glucose). This causes sodium and water retention.

A much easier way of keeping our glucose solute load low is to take a balanced diet. Society s present emphasis on cheaper foods like grains and sugar along with a restriction of fat and cholesterol leads to an excess of glucose in our diets. Glucose, more than tobacco, is a big contributor to modern diseases. Glucose is a reactive aldehyde. Before agriculture, it was practically absent in diet, and was manufactured by the liver for emergencies. Table sugar contains fructose, and milk contains lactose. These are even more reactive, and our liver never allows them to enter the blood stream. It converts all sugars into fat before allowing them to circulate. Both fatty liver and  liver failure are therefore very common when diet is high in sugar or starch. Glucose causes weight gain, obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Decreasing the sugar and starch in our food allows the body to easily get rid of the retained salt. All the research that links salt with blood pressure actually misses the real culprits, sugar and starch.

If we try to decrease the salt in our food, the body reduces the salt thrown out by the kidney, because as long as excess glucose is present in the body, extra salt has to be retained to keep the glucose in solution. Decreasing the sugar and starch in our food allows the body to easily get rid of the retained salt.

So, it is sensible to reduce our sugar, jaggery and starch intake, and not to get confused by misinformation about salt.

Posted by Dr. Rajiv Bajaj

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