Today on The Ask Prof Noakes Podcast we look at salt. Salt has often been attributed to high blood pressure and has also been blamed for many other health issues over the years. Professor Tim Noakes tells us what role salt plays on the LCHF diet.

Transcription:

Salt or Sodium serves a vital purpose in the human body: it helps nerves and muscles to function correctly, and it is one of the factors involved in the regulation of water content. This is where the associate with high blood pressure or hypertension comes from.
Your kidneys play a key role when it comes to controlling blood pressure. Your body removes unwanted fluid by filtering your blood through your kidneys. The process to do this requires a delicate balance of sodium and potassium.

Excessive Salt can cause high blood pressure

Excessive salt in your diet means more sodium in your bloodstream and this wrecks the balance, reducing the kidneys ability to remove water. The result is higher blood pressure due to the extra fluid in your bloodstream; this puts strain on your kidneys, arteries, heart and brain.

Salt though is only one of the potential causes of primary or essential hypertension. Other factors include obesity; diabetes; stress; insufficient intake of potassium, calcium, and magnesium; lack of physical activity; and chronic alcohol consumption.
The LCHF diet in general is a great way to lower your blood pressure, due to the foods you are cutting out of your diet. Namely processed foods, which are the highest contributor to the average person’s daily salt intake. It is recommended that you don’t consume more than a teaspoon (5 grams) of salt a day.

Salt and the LCHF Diet

The LCHF diet almost always sees blood pressure benefits, as the reduction of carbohydrates lends itself to not eating excessive salt by cutting out the processed foods.

When it comes to table salt versus sea salt and sodium content, there is no difference between the duo. The two salt types both contain around 40 % sodium, no matter their source.