Salt

A place to get your questions answered from McDougall staff dietitian, Jeff Novick, MS, RDN.

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Postby Suebee » Fri May 15, 2009 10:12 am

I don't oversalt (to my mind) and don't eat potato chips, taco chips, etc. BUT I won't give it up either because I suffer horribly when I do. I went to a Furhman health getaway last year and tried to eat his no salt diet. In a very short time, I was having trouble sleeping at night due to horrible leg cramps. It seems my body (and maybe this doesn't happen to anybody else) needs a certain amount of salt. When my kidneys dump excess sodium, it also dumps other minerals and I get leg cramps. Dr. Furhman admitted this happens to some people. Fortunately I had brought a salt shaker with me from home with my own vegetable salt (with also contains sea salt). As soon as I started using it, the cramps went away.
Severe leg spasms also occurred to me when I tried a serious macrobiotic diet many years ago (their healing diet is extremely low in salt contrary to what most people think), and as I was losing weight, I once again experienced this, and this severe cramp lasted over a week! Now this happened at the beginning of the diet. Perhaps in time this would have lessened but these extremely unpleasant circumstances have convinced me not to drop my salt intake.
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Postby Chumly » Fri May 15, 2009 10:43 am

Interesting experience Sue. I will be going to Dr. Fuhrman's health getaway this year in Florida. While I have cut down my salt quite substantially, I think it will be an adjustment when I eat the food at the getaway.

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Salt and Arrhythmia

Postby veithr » Fri May 15, 2009 3:52 pm

Jeff,

Thanks, these articles are very helpful and I have posted them on my blog. I noticed that in the survey article salt has been found to promote Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. Subjects who reduced salt intake had their LVH reduced. If I recall correctly, LVH is linked to cardiac arrhthmia, but I am going to look into those associations more.
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salt

Postby Riva » Fri May 15, 2009 5:39 pm

I haven't been worrying about salt very much because I have very low BP which has gotten even lower with McDougalling. I have been salting my rice and vegetables with a salt shaker. I do eat canned things. Like right now. I was feeling quite healthy in my hotel room eating out of a can of artichoke hearts in water. I glanced at the stats and it has 450 mgs of salt to 35 calories for 1/2 cup. and it doesn't even taste salty.

That is interesting too because I can detect a little bit of oil a MILE away now. You canNOT trick me on oil. Yesterday I was in a vegan/raw foods restauratn in Seattle called Chaco Canyon. I ordered brown rice and steamed vegetables and make a BIG DEAL about no oil. The dish came and was lovely, rice, sliced beets, juliened carrots and zucchini and some sliced pickled something or other but I took one bite of the snow peas that were piled to one side and they tasted so so good I knew something was wrong. I put on my glasses and they were glistening. I was so annoyed.

But the salt thing I am not attuned to because I do eat it.

I think I still won't worry about it for awhile. I am going to get tested for cholesterol etc next week and am very anxious to see what my 100% adherence to (my version I suppose since I eat salt)
vegan
no added fats at all never
no white flour never
2 pieces of whole grain bread a day or less

I am excited and scared to see my results from 3 months of strict adherence. I do eat sugar and salt on top of things and when they come in cans so that could be the next to go. We shall see.
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salt

Postby cass » Sat May 23, 2009 3:04 pm

When I was a kid, I used to pour salt on the meat that was served to me. Later, I figured out that this was because plain broiled meat tasted so horrible to me, that I was trying to cover up the taste. Blah.

In my adulthood, I have avoided most salt. I became adept at using spices, herbs, etc., and I am always amazed when anybody adds salt to things that I cook. The relatively extreme saltiness of restaurant food sometimes causes me to reject a dish. I don't eat in restaurants often, any more.

I find that I enjoy very small amounts of salt on certain foods, especially potatoes and cooked greens. I use the salt sparingly, on the surface of the food, right before I eat it. I use kosher salt or sea salt, and a tiny amount is amazingly satisfying.

I know that there has to be a balance of salt, potassium, etc., and plenty of water, in order to avoid certain problems. I do feel better when I drink plenty of water, and take a small amount of salt each day. My BP is excellent, despite my weight problems and my age.

Now, it's time to go eat my daily banana (unsalted). ;-)
It's never too late to try again and get it right!

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