I would consider adding salt to something to be making that thing less healthy. If adding salt is essential to making something edible, I think it would be healthier to opt for something that doesn’t require added salt. That’s speaking generally though, someone might not be getting enough sodium, but typically there is adequate sodium in a diet of whole foods.
I’d say it’s too strong a claim that adding salt makes things less healthy. Remember that humans, eating generally mostly plants but some meat as well, developed rather strong craving for sodium salt, just like most herbivorous mammals. If you eat enough meat (not boiled) you don’t need more sodium, if you eat a little meat or a lot but boiled, it’s probably better to add some. If you eat only potatoes, you’ll die without added salt (just kidding, who eats only potatoes).
If you only eat potatoes you wouldn’t die from lack of sodium, the average person would probably become healthier only eating potatoes, it’s been done, though I’m not endorsing that. Potatoes and water already have sodium in them, maybe not quite at the ideal ratio per average calorie but it’s pretty close or maybe in that range depending on the person.
We certainly need some sodium/salt but I think the extent to which most people crave salt is a result of miscalibration due to overexposure and adaptations which aren’t aligned with our current environment.
I minimize added sodium and I don’t really have any cravings for salt anymore, unless you count the cravings I have generally for the food/nutrition I need to sustain myself, which contains roughly enough sodium naturally.
If someone is eating a varied diet of whole foods with no added salt it’s possible that adding a very marginal amount of extra salt would be healthier in some cases, but that’s very far from what is typical.
But then why do medicine portals advise us to be wary of risks associated with too low sodium? It’s claimed to cause insulin resistance, a higher risk of heart disease, hyponatremia, and whatnot. People with any-cause hyponatremia can cure their symptoms with more salt. These people here[1] claim that it’s probably not good for healthy people to artificially (i.e. against their natural desire) restrict their sodium. After reading these claims, what’s the main good side of reducing sodium intake to pretty low?
Generally the hypothesis is that most people will get more sodium in their diet than they crave with their natural desire, if they just eat the food of least resistance (cheapest or easiest, most shelf stable, whatnot). A lot of the sodium that gets into your diet is not so richly activating your taste buds as table salt applied to taste.
What we want overall with salinity is to preserve it at a level that’s correct for us, because we take it in through our diet and excrete it through various processes like sweat. Excessive salt consumption doesn’t directly affect your overall salt and water balance that much, because the body has hormonal regulation of various mechanisms to keep it stable—it’s presumably the overworking of these mechanisms that causes health issues, which is much preferable than it causing issues directly if you’ve seen the effects of the wrong salinity on cells in a petri dish under a microscope.
(The effects on whatever cells I was looking at, which started at a neutral salinity: Raising the salinity (saltier) caused them to shrivel up and dessicate like raisins; lowering the salinity (less salty) caused them to explode.)
It’s my understanding that the controversy is mostly manufactured by industries with large financial interests in selling foods with added sodium. They pay for misleading/inaccurate studies to be done in order to introduce uncertainty and doubt. Whereas it’s my understanding there is a near consensus towards low sodium amongst scientists without direct/indirect industry ties.
I do think there are probably some cases where increasing salt beyond natural levels can be the healthier thing to do given specific health concerns.
I’d say it’s too strong a claim that adding salt makes things less healthy. Remember that humans, eating generally mostly plants but some meat as well, developed rather strong craving for sodium salt, just like most herbivorous mammals. If you eat enough meat (not boiled) you don’t need more sodium, if you eat a little meat or a lot but boiled, it’s probably better to add some. If you eat only potatoes, you’ll die without added salt (just kidding, who eats only potatoes).
If you only eat potatoes you wouldn’t die from lack of sodium, the average person would probably become healthier only eating potatoes, it’s been done, though I’m not endorsing that. Potatoes and water already have sodium in them, maybe not quite at the ideal ratio per average calorie but it’s pretty close or maybe in that range depending on the person.
We certainly need some sodium/salt but I think the extent to which most people crave salt is a result of miscalibration due to overexposure and adaptations which aren’t aligned with our current environment.
I minimize added sodium and I don’t really have any cravings for salt anymore, unless you count the cravings I have generally for the food/nutrition I need to sustain myself, which contains roughly enough sodium naturally.
If someone is eating a varied diet of whole foods with no added salt it’s possible that adding a very marginal amount of extra salt would be healthier in some cases, but that’s very far from what is typical.
But then why do medicine portals advise us to be wary of risks associated with too low sodium? It’s claimed to cause insulin resistance, a higher risk of heart disease, hyponatremia, and whatnot. People with any-cause hyponatremia can cure their symptoms with more salt. These people here[1] claim that it’s probably not good for healthy people to artificially (i.e. against their natural desire) restrict their sodium. After reading these claims, what’s the main good side of reducing sodium intake to pretty low?
https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcr124
Generally the hypothesis is that most people will get more sodium in their diet than they crave with their natural desire, if they just eat the food of least resistance (cheapest or easiest, most shelf stable, whatnot). A lot of the sodium that gets into your diet is not so richly activating your taste buds as table salt applied to taste.
What we want overall with salinity is to preserve it at a level that’s correct for us, because we take it in through our diet and excrete it through various processes like sweat. Excessive salt consumption doesn’t directly affect your overall salt and water balance that much, because the body has hormonal regulation of various mechanisms to keep it stable—it’s presumably the overworking of these mechanisms that causes health issues, which is much preferable than it causing issues directly if you’ve seen the effects of the wrong salinity on cells in a petri dish under a microscope.
(The effects on whatever cells I was looking at, which started at a neutral salinity: Raising the salinity (saltier) caused them to shrivel up and dessicate like raisins; lowering the salinity (less salty) caused them to explode.)
It’s my understanding that the controversy is mostly manufactured by industries with large financial interests in selling foods with added sodium. They pay for misleading/inaccurate studies to be done in order to introduce uncertainty and doubt. Whereas it’s my understanding there is a near consensus towards low sodium amongst scientists without direct/indirect industry ties.
I do think there are probably some cases where increasing salt beyond natural levels can be the healthier thing to do given specific health concerns.