For a quality life, we need to naturally provide all the vitamins and minerals that the body needs. However, as in every field, there are some foods that are risk factors for our health in nutrition. One of them is salt. There are 2,400 mg of sodium in 6 grams of salt that we need to consume to provide the sodium that the body needs. However, according to studies, people consume around 7,000 mg of sodium on average, said Beykoz University, Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Faculty Members. Dr. Y. Birol Hürmet said, “When salt is consumed too much, it turns into an enemy. It invites chronic diseases,” he said. The waste of salt, which poses many risks to human health, does not end with counting. Here are the things to be careful about salt consumption on appleelma.com!
How valuable is salt for metabolism? Why are we so fussy about salt consumption? Is salt friend or foe? Salt consists of 40% sodium and 60% chlorine. He said that the precious mineral in salt is sodium. Explaining that sodium from salt is an electrolyte, Hürmet said, “Electrolytes; They provide border muscle excitability, maintain the osmolarity of body fluids, regulate acid-base stability in the body, and take part in the regulation and distribution of water volume in the organism. In the organism, the parts provide fluid distribution in the middle, and they are effective in the function of the cell membrane. “They function in biological processes and are involved in cell functions,” he said.
Salt “Health or taste?”
“Health or taste?” The question is very valuable. When health is lost, it is not easy to fix, but the metabolism is easy to get used to in taste preferences. Taste should never be preferred over health. It is very valuable to eat healthy without forgetting the basic element of sodium intake for metabolism. The metabolism needs to get enough sodium. While daily salt use was at the level of 100 mg 5 thousand years ago, today it is over 15 or even 18 grams in our country. According to the Turkish food codex, the recommended daily salt intake is 6 grams, which means 2,400 mg of sodium intake.
On the other hand, we take 6 thousand – 7 thousand 200 mg sodium daily. That’s more than double what it takes. Mentioning that sodium is very valuable and necessary for metabolism, however, excess of it will cause difficulties in Gibbs-Donnan stability, Hürmet explained that this stability, which should normally be 1, is above 2 in Turkey.
The Sodium Measure of the Body is Quite Important!
Consuming sodium more than needed is the trigger of many chronic diseases in metabolism. Too much sodium and insufficient potassium intake have valuable effects on health. The ‘useful salt’ phenomenon proposed today should be evaluated primarily with its sodium content. In the phrase ‘mineral content is high’, how much sodium we take into metabolism while taking these minerals is valuable. It should not be forgotten that salt is not necessarily a mineral source for our body. Salt, which gives flavor to foods, becomes an artifact with a health risk when the daily usage limit is exceeded. So salt is both friend and foe.
