How much salt can we take every day?

Salt – the most important flavour of every main course dish. No dish becomes tasty if this flavour is absent, except sweet dishes. Why do we people love this flavour a lot? Why can’t we avoid it from our food? Even after knowing that excess salt and pickles are harmful to our health we can’t keep distance from this white crystal or powder. Higher salt content in blood can lead to high blood pressure and thus heart related risks. Do you know how much salt is essential for our body? Also read: How much friendly is salt to our health? and also a few salt tips.

1 teaspoon is sufficient everyday

We need just 1 tsp salt for our body. But have you ever thought how much salt are we consuming every day? When we are young our healthy body is able to remove those excess levels through sweat and urine. But when our age progresses it loses its efficiency to distill salt from blood resulting in salt deposits and it leads to high blood pressure and many health related problems.

Though sodium is essential for our body, if taken in excess can give health-related problems. American heart association says 2.4 gm salt is sufficient. Above 6 gm is harmful to our body – say experts. And level of salt in our pickles and fried potato chips is much higher than what our body actually requires.

How excess salt affects our body?

Excess of everything is harmful. Over consumption of salt leads to high blood pressure as well as increased water content of our body.

What are the substitutes of salt?

Oregano, ginger, garlic, lemon etc can be used in excess to reduce the usage of salt. Try to use minimal salt in your dish. Avoid adding salt to the prepared dish later. A little bit low salt is ok, though it affects taste. Start this habit early. You will be used up with this new habit very soon. Avoid packet foods and pickles as much as possible. They are high resources of salt.

A small note on salt

Normally salt is obtained by evaporating sea water or through mining process. Sodium is needed for many functions of our body and it is found in abundant in salt. When sodium combines with salt under suitable conditions, sodium chloride commonly known as salt is formed. Salt is found in different varieties – stone salt, sea salt, table salt and black salt are its derivatives. If iodine is added to common salt it is called iodized salt and is good for the healthy functioning of thyroid gland. Now artificial fertilizers give food without iodine and that’s the reason why iodine is to be provided as a supplement along with common salt.

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Also read a few more health articles on eating habits. Click on the images in the gallery to read