Did You Know These Facts About Salt?

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How many times have you curled up your nose after tasting your food, go-ing, “The salt is not enough”? Or spat it out because it was too salty? It is that on ingredient that needs to be just right. So, even if you think you know everything you need to know about salt, think again. Kavita Devgan, Nutri-tionist, Tata Salt SuperLite offers a primer.

Why is salt important?

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The importance of salt in our diet is often misunderstood. Salt is essential for a healthy, balanced diet as it activates our brain cells and keeps our di-gestion humming, regulates the water balance in the body, keeps muscles functioning and is needed to conduct nerve impulses too.

Why you need to regulate its intake?

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It is often noticed that cutting off excess sodium from the diet can be very effective in getting blood pressure under control. People who have been ad-vised to reduce sodium in their diets to simply switch to low sodium salt which has been specifically formulated to provide 15% - 30% less sodium.

Secondly, high BP is a critical risk factor, so it is imperative to keep sodium intake low.

So, how much do we need?

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Experts have unanimously recommended that the daily allowance of sodium intake should be around 2,400 mg which equals to 5 grams of salt (one tea-spoon). People living in coastal belts, in hot and humid climates, and those sweating it out in gyms might need more to compensate for excessive sweating. However, it is imperative to adhere to the recommended daily al-lowance of sodium intake.

Note: people suffering from blood pressure, oedema (swelling in body parts), liver failure, kidney failure, congestive heart failure, nephrotic syn-drome with kidney dysfunction and cirrhosis of the liver might be advised a low sodium diet.

How can you trim sodium?

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Drink more water, eat more potassium-rich foods (to balance out sodium), adequately add salt to any dish and have cut fruits and salads without add on salt.

Read labels carefully; salt is present in almost every food right from canned foods to papads and ketchup to bread. Avoid foods that include more than 0.6 grams of sodium per 100 grams of food.

Also read: This Monsoon, Follow Ayurvedic Dietary Changes For Better Health

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