I have to say that I am learning a lot about eating. A lot about my body and about what I need to do to make it happy. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but I was diagnosed with hypothryoidism basically my thyroid is sluggish and does not produce enough thyroid hormone making me tired, depressed, moody and gain weight. I went on a syn-thyroid hormone for about 6 months. Now the issue with that is that it may balance out my thyroid but it also makes my body stop trying to produce the hormones it needs relying on the synthedic to function. I was scared of creating this within my body so I went to a holistic doctor and he got me to start taking Iodine. It was a miracle and I can say I'm off of the synthetic hormones now and my thyroid is balanced naturally. What does this have to do with salt? As a society we do not get enough iodine in our diets as to why you will notice that all table salt is Iodized. The issue with that is you need to consume a lot of that salt for your body to get enough. So really we should be supplementing iodine and cutting back the salt. As you will read in these articles I am going to post here to much salt is not a good thing.
http://www.theultimateweightlossplans.com/losing-weight-can-salt-make-you-overweight/
http://thecravingscoach.com/blog/salt-cravings-weight-gain/
This article explains that it is very important to keep a watch on how much salt that you are consuming when losing weight. This is the missing piece that many are overlooking making it harder for them to lose weight.
Salt has no calories. So it will not create fat. But there are other things that can make you overweight. If the problem is fat, then all you have to do is burn more calories than you consume making losing weight simple.
Salt and Sodium
Here is an explanation of concentration. Say you have a pool that has salt water in it and you need to keep the concentration at a teaspoon of salt per gallon of water. You have a device to measure salt concentration. If someone adds a gallon of water to it, then when you measure the concentration, you will find that you need to add teaspoon of salt to it.
If someone adds a teaspoon of salt to it, then you will find that you need to add a gallon of water to it to maintain the right concentration. Your body needs to always maintain a proper concentration of sodium (and other minerals) or you will die.
But foods contain very tiny amounts of minerals like under 1%. But salt is not a food and it contains 40% sodium. So the more salt or sodium you consume, the more water needs to be in the body to keep the concentration constant. The body tries to get rid of salt but it can only do it at a certain rate. This is why sweat and urine is salty. This is not the case with people who do not consume salt. Almost all foodscontain all the sodium that you need.
Excess Weight
So consuming salt causes your body to hold on to extra amounts of water (water weight) giving you excess weight. This is also called water retention or retaining water. This makes you heavy and look fat. But no matter how little you eat and how much you exercise, it will have no affect on this extra weight. So if your problem is excess fat, then eat less and exercise more.
But if that does not help, then it may be excess water weight that you need to lose. For example Beyonce lost 20 pounds in 10 days on the lemonade diet. Now if that was 20 pounds of fat then she would have needed to burn 70,000 (20 x 3,5000) more calories than she consumed in 10 days. That is burning 7,000 more calories than she consumed each day to lose weight.
She would have needed to exercise all day long to do that. But the lemonade diet has no salt in it. So it is easy for her body to lose most of that 20 pounds by losing water weight. Now if you look at labels you will see that many foods, including diet foods, have huge amounts of sodium in them due to added salt.
Losing Weight
There is a problem in plans on losing weight. People lose the weight then reach a plateau where they cannot lose any more weight. That may be because it is not fat but water weight. And exercise and eating less calories has no effect on water weight (water retention).
Any person that is overweight could probably quickly lose 20 pounds of weight by reducing salt intake. One lady wrote to me and said that she had tried everything to lose weight but nothing worked. She was frustrated. Then she learned the above and quickly lost the weight.
Also salt is bad for cardiovascular health even if you do not have high blood pressure. There has never been salt detected in human skeletons over 10,000 years old. So that is probably when man started consuming salt on a large scale. Almost all foods have some sodium in them.
Instead of adding salt, you can add granulated kelp (seaweed) to foods (found in health food stores). It has plenty of iodine and is loaded with trace minerals that you need and will also help metabolism. Also use other spices. They are foods and great for health. Salt is a mineral or rock and not a food.
Salt - Remove Excess Sodium to Stop Water Weight Gain
If you are a woman, you know all too well that bloated feeling every month during your menstrual cycle. It’s unfathomable how a pair of jeans that fit yesterday won’t fit today. It’s a curse, but water weight gain affects everyone. The main culprit is sodium.
We are talking about salt. The chemical name of the salt compound is sodium chloride. It is used as a preservative in many foods. Salt increases shelf life. Derivatives like monosodium glutamate (MSG) are used to tenderize meat and add flavor to our food, but it is also ruining our health.
Low Fat and Diet Options May have Lots of Salt
Even when you opt for low-fat chips, fat free cookies, light soups and low fat cheeses there is still that sneaky ingredient that keeps you feeling bloated. It is caused by the sodium and it is everywhere. Learning to avoid sodium in excess can save your life.
Body Needs 2 Teaspoons of Salt at most daily
Your body only needs about 2,400 milligrams of salt per day. That is about the equivalent of two teaspoons. A bowl of canned soup can provide that much and more. You don’t think about the foods that contain sodium because you have been programmed to be worried about and concentrate on things like fat and calorie counting when it comes to weight loss or healthier eating habits. These are not the only things you should be cautious about. Beware of the amount of sodium in your foods as well.
Even some dishes you normally wouldn’t think contain salt have a measure of sodium in it. Pasta mixes, hot dogs, deli meat, and pizza all contain sodium, even the diet varieties.
Your Body Does Need Salt
Your body needs sodium to help it maintain water balance, but not in the amounts that are typically consumed. We need more potassium to counter-balance the sodium in our diet. Our bodies are 90 percent water so the amount of sodium we take in is very important. Sodium also assists in absorption of nutrients within the body and the function of muscle fibers and nerves. While you lose weight you are also working to build muscle and get stronger and leaner. As your body reaches age 40 and beyond, you begin to actually lose muscle.
Excess Sodium Bloating and Puffy Weight Gain
Excess sodium causes fluid to collect in the tissues. You feel puffy and bloated all the time. More water is drawn into the blood leading to increased blood volume and high blood pressure. Everyone’s heard of high blood pressure. You exercise to lose weight so you won’t become afflicted with such conditions as high blood pressure (hypertension), heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease, but your food choices are making it a possible reality, regardless of your physical activities.
Your taste buds are so used to the high content of sodium in foods that they may not even taste salt anymore. Think about that. Even when sodium has already been added to food, how often do you reach for the salt shaker?
