Food that contains too much salt tastes nice, but you need to read this post.
Did you know that eating too much salt can do a lot of damage to your body?
Table salt is a good source of sodium but when taking over long period, the harmful effects of salt begins to show up.
Eating food that has a high salt content can cause damage to your eyes, brain, kidney, and heart.
What is Salt?
Salt is a seasoning used to flavor food and as a preservative. It contains about 60% chloride and about 40% sodium.
Most unprocessed foods, such as vegetables fruits, nuts, meats, whole grains, and dairy foods are low in sodium.
Your body needs sodium to balance fluids and maintain your nervous system.
Effects of salt on your blood circulation
A study showed that eating food that has a high salt content reduces the ability of your blood vessels to expand within 30 minutes of eating such a diet.
This is not good for you if you have high blood pressure. It can further worsen your blood pressure.
Effects of salt on blood pressure.
One of the major causes of high blood pressure is eating too much salt.
The more salt you eat regularly, the higher the chances of you developing hypertension.
When you eat Salt, it causes the body to retain water, thereby increasing the volume of water in your body.
This increase in the volume of water in your body will cause your blood pressure to rise.
Read also 10 Surprisingly simple ways to lower blood pressure naturally.
Effects of salt on your kidney
One of the major functions of the kidney is to remove excess water and waste from your body.
When the level of salt in your body is too high, the kidney will not be able to function properly.
Over time, this will cause a build-up of fluid and waste in your body.
Eventually, it can cause kidney failure, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
Effects of Salt on your eyes
The damage high salt intake does to your eyes is due to hypertension caused by taking a high salt diet over a long period.
In case you don’t know, hypertension damages different parts of the body, including the eyes.
The only treatment for hypertensive retinopathy is to treat hypertension.
Over a long time, hypertension leads to the following damage.
- Damages the blood vessels in the retina. The retina is the part of the eyes where images are focused. This damage is called hypertensive retinopathy.
- Build up of fluid under the retina (choroidopathy): which will lead to distorted vision or, in some cases, scarring that impairs vision.
- Nerve damage (optic neuropathy): The result of blocked blood flow that damages the optic nerve, it can kill nerve cells in your eyes, which may cause temporary or permanent vision loss.
To reduce the quantity of salt you must cut down on some of the food you eat regularly.
Foods that contain salt
Some foods such as bread and breakfast cereals can contribute a lot of salt to your diet because of the way they are made.
So, to cut down on the quantity of salt you eat, you need to cut down on some high-salt foods.
High-salt foods
The following foods are always high in salt. To cut down on salt, eat them less often and have smaller amounts:
- anchovies
- bacon
- cheese
- gravy granules
- ham
- olives
- pickles
- prawns
- salami
- salted and dry-roasted nuts
- salt fish
- smoked meat and fish
- soy sauce
- stock cubes
- yeast extract
The recommended amount of salt you should take.
According to WHO, reducing the amount of salt intake to less than 5 grams per day for adults helps to reduce blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart attack.
The principal benefit of reducing salt intake is a corresponding reduction in high blood pressure.
According to World Health Organization, the recommended daily sodium intake should not exceed 1,500 mg, or 1.5 g a day, or just over half a teaspoon of table salt.