This article has good explanation. And it basically seems to say that extra sodium in the body can hurt the kidney function which in turn will hurt blood pressure and then negative spiral. I am not sure how reliable this link is or how scientific the observations are but the website claims some legitimacy.
So two questions
- what level of salt in body is ok? i am sure there is precise answer but i wonder if there is a range.
- and the gratis salt in processed food - salt that is used for preservation and not for taste is so useless to eat. just like sugar that is used for preservation and not for the sweet taste. in general, this last comment of mine is a big strike against processed food.
From the above site
An adult should eat no more than 6g of salt a day, but most of us eat much more than this.
Most of the salt we eat every day is "hidden". Roughly 80% of the salt we eat is hiding in processed foods like bread, biscuits and breakfast cereals, and prepared ready meals or takeaways. Only 20% comes from the salt we add while cooking or at the table.
Link - High blood pressure: Sodium may not be the culprit
Shows once again that our bodies are too complex and that nutrition science is still evolving. Makes sense to eat moderately (ideally similar to how people ate before factory made food and less preserved food) and avoid factory made food and be active and be happy :)
“Consumers are sometimes wary of low-sodium products, thinking they will lack flavor,” Ms. Liebman observed. But when sodium is reduced gradually and without fanfare, they hardly notice it.
That, in fact, is the key to cutting back on salt generally: do it a little at a time to give taste buds a chance to adjust. While I still like some salt, highly salted foods I once enjoyed, like corned beef, cured olives and smoked fish, are now unpleasantly salty to me.
A culinary trick worth trying is to prepare foods without adding salt, then sprinkle some on at serving time. You’ll get a bigger bang for that salt buck while consuming less sodium. Some producers of chips rely on this tactic — consumers taste only the salt on the surface, which to my taste is more than enough on chips labeled “low sodium.”
Likewise, when buying canned or packaged soups, select ones labeled low-sodium and, if desired, add some salt at the table. Better yet, enhance the flavors of low-sodium soups with herbs, peppers, garlic and other salt-free seasonings. Also helpful, for reasons beyond sodium reduction, is to eat more fruits and fresh vegetables. They are naturally low in sodium and many are high in potassium, which helps to lower blood pressure.
Often, most of the salt in a restaurant dish comes from the sauce or dressing; ask for it served on the side and use only a small amount on the food. For dishes cooked to order, ask for them prepared without salt; you can always add some at the table, if desired.
Common High Blood Pressure Myths | American Heart Association
Myth: I use kosher or sea salt when I cook instead of regular table salt. They are low-sodium alternatives.
Chemically, kosher salt and sea salt are the same as table salt — 40 percent sodium— and count the same toward total sodium consumption. Table salt is a combination of the two minerals sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl).
In some people, sodium can increase blood pressure. But controlling sodium means more than just putting down the salt shaker. It also means checking labels, because up to 75 percent of the sodium we consume is hidden in processed foods like tomato sauce, soups, condiments, canned foods and prepared mixes. When buying prepared and prepackaged foods, read the labels. Watch for the words “soda” and “sodium” and the symbol “Na” on labels. These words show that sodium compounds are present.
This article has a non-scientific study that says high sodium seems to be cause of high blood pressure but higher potassium intake helps somewhat
Extra sodium in the bloodstream can pull water into the blood vessels and boost blood pressure by increasing the amount of fluid the heart needs to pump through the body. Potassium can help remove excess sodium from the body.
In the current study, researchers examined data on sodium and potassium levels in urine, as well as blood pressure, height, weight and eating habits from adults aged 40 to 59 in Japan, China, the UK and the U.S.
Higher sodium levels were associated with elevated blood pressure for both men and women at all ages in the study, regardless of race and ethnicity or socioeconomic status.
The connection between sodium and blood pressure was similarly strong for both normal weight and obese people in the study, although the connection was weaker for overweight individuals who weren’t obese.
Potassium appeared to weaken the connection between dietary salt and elevated blood pressure only for people who had low sodium levels in their urine, the researchers also found.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how dietary salt or other things people eat might directly alter blood pressure. Another limitation is that surveys used to assess eating habits can be unreliable snapshots of what people actually consume.