Salt, the diet killer

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Salt: The Diet KillerBy: Patricia ChurchWe love salt because it brings out the flavor in food.Unfortunately, we have acquired quite a taste for excessive amounts!Many of us shake salt liberally onto our food each day. Worse yet,chips, fries, most restaurant meals and pre-packaged foods alreadycontain very high amounts of salt. With this onslaught, it's nowonder most of us go way over the recommended maximum salt intake ofabout 1,500 mg per day for an adult. Try reading some nutritionallabels to see what the salt content per serving is in many commonpackaged foods, and prepare to be shocked. So what's the problem?Why is excessive salt intake something to be concerned about? Theanswer is that it's not good for your health and it's not good foranother thing a lot of us are trying to do � lose weight!Let's start with your health. The negative consequences stem fromthe fact that our bodies require

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pretty exact concentration ofsalt, known by its chemical name of sodium. There are sensitiveregulating mechanisms that will work hard to keep the concentrationof sodium in the bloodstream just right. Whenever too much sodium enters the bloodstream, the body's firstresponse is to hold on to as much water as possible so theconcentration of sodium in the blood can be diluted to the properlevel.Unfortunately, when the volume of fluid in the bloodstream isincreased, blood pressure is raised, so chronic intake of excesssodium and the fluid retention that accompanies it places excessdemands on the heart and kidneys.In fact, many doctors treat patients with heart and kidney problemsby prescribing a low sodium diet, along with blood pressuremedications that function by releasing excess water from the body.As mentioned, salt can also definitely affect our weight lossefforts.Consider that after a salty meal

or snack it's natural to feelthirsty and drink more water. By drinking fluid, the concentrationof sodium in the bloodstream can be diluted to the proper level. Inthe meantime, however, the body keeps holding onto as much water aspossible.This is important to understand when you go to step on the scale.The reason is that one gallon of water equals 128 ounces, which isexactly eight pounds! If just 16 ounces of excess water is retainedafter eating too much salt, which is entirely possible, the scale islikely to register a gain of one pound, no matter how well youfollowed your eating and exercise plan the previous day! That couldbe quite discouraging, if you didn't understand the cause of thistemporary weight gain.If you are an essentially healthy individual, with no blood pressureor kidney problems, there is a simple tactic to get rid of theexcess retained water weight following a salty meal. It

soundsweird, but the answer is to drink an extra large amount of water.Your healthy kidneys can then flush out the excess sodium, makingthis temporary weight gain short-lived. It doesn't sound like itshould make sense to drink more water to lose excess water weight,but it works!Here's some advice to cut down on your intake of salty foods and theassociated health and weight loss consequences. Try to eat morefoods in their fresh and healthy whole-foods form. Put down thatsalt shaker, both while you are cooking, and at the table! Practicecooking healthy foods at home using herbs, fresh fruit juices,salsas, peppers and spices to jazz up the flavor. After awhile youwill come to enjoy the wonderful taste of foods in their naturalstate � without so much salt.Article Source: http://updateforyou.comPatricia S. Church RN, BSN, author of The Tortoise Diet invites

youto learn more about how she lost 120 pounds. Visit her site atwww.wintheracetolose.com