Salt needs

[MaryPlain]

I've been wondering about the need for salt. All the guidelines are about reducing salt intake, but in hot weather don't we need more? I know salt tablets were issued to soldiers working in the dessert.

I wonder whether it is possible to have a diet which is too low in salt?

I know that most processed foods, including bread, contain a lot of salt and that is why most people are said to eat too much. However a lot of us avoid processed food, don't eat bread, and don't add salt to vegetables.

Has anyone ever been told to increase their salt intake?

 

[Copepod]

It's not hot temperatures per se that mean a person needs to take in more salt - it's how much they sweat. That may sound like the same thing, but if you saw the state of my partner and me after walking up the same steep hill in full sun, you'd see salt crystalised from his sweat all over his shirt, eyebrows etc - and thus, he needs more salt than me.

While it's generally considered important to drink before you feel thirsty, as by the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. For salt, it's a bit more difficult to judge, but I find that if I crave salty foods such as chips, crisps or peanuts, it's usually after I've been exercising / doing physical work in hot conditions.

Unless you're getting cramps, particularly in calves, you are probably taking in enough salt, even without processed foods.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

I take medication to retain salt.

 

[MaryPlain]

It's not hot temperatures per se that mean a person needs to take in more salt - it's how much they sweat. That may sound like the same thing, but if you saw the state of my partner and me after walking up the same steep hill in full sun, you'd see salt crystalised from his sweat all over his shirt, eyebrows etc - and thus, he needs more salt than me.

While it's generally considered important to drink before you feel thirsty, as by the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. For salt, it's a bit more difficult to judge, but I find that if I crave salty foods such as chips, crisps or peanuts, it's usually after I've been exercising / doing physical work in hot conditions.

Unless you're getting cramps, particularly in calves, you are probably taking in enough salt, even without processed foods.

Thanks for your post, I do realise that it's sweating that causes salt loss, and I feel I've been doing a lot of that with all this hot weather, and trying to exercise as well. I mentioned it because I do crave salt but I've got into the habit of denying such cravings. I also suffer from cramp quite a lot, but the two don't seem to coincide. Is cramp the first/only symptom of a shortage of salt?

I've been inputting my daily food intake into Fitday.com and it regularly shows that my sodium intake is below recommendations but as far as I know there is only a maximum and not a minimum RDA - someone might correct me on that?

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Hi Mary,
if you are craving salt, please go and have some blood tests done to check all is OK.
This was one of the first signs I had of Addison's disease. It's not normal to crave salt.

 

[MaryPlain]

Hi Mary,
if you are craving salt, please go and have some blood tests done to check all is OK.
This was one of the first signs I had of Addison's disease. It's not normal to crave salt.

I'm very surprised to read this as I thought craving salt was quite a common thing - my OH always seems to crave salty snacks in the same way that I crave sweet ones.

Thanks for the information from your own experience though. What were the other symptoms, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[DeusXM]

Craving salt can be a normal symptom of dehydration as it helps retain moisture within the body. Anyone who's ever woken up with a hangover probably finds they crave salt because a hangover is essentially just dehydration.