Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.
Speaker 1: That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you
Speaker 1: better understand what's going on inside your body so that
Speaker 1: you can take the targeted action needed. With a functional
Speaker 1: health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to
Speaker 1: uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed up
Speaker 1: with Doctyesmina, an incredible integrative GP, and together we will
Speaker 1: help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like
Speaker 1: why am I always exhausted? What's really causing my stubborn weight?
Speaker 1: Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant? Or maybe missing key nutrients?
Speaker 1: Because when you understand your body better, you can transform
Speaker 1: your health. Visit v three sixty dot health or check
Speaker 1: out the show notes for more. This past summer has
Speaker 1: been a really hot and humid one, and I've been
Speaker 1: training at a decent intensity, and I've lately been noticing
Speaker 1: how much I've.
Speaker 2: Been sweating, and I was thinking about it.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Gosh, I wonder if I might be
Speaker 1: getting a little bit dehydrated and potentially not getting enough electrolytes.
Speaker 1: So I've been experimenting with a few different electrolyte brands
Speaker 1: and powders that you mix in with water and then
Speaker 1: some that come ready to go in a drink bottle.
Speaker 1: And I've also interestingly noticed quite a lot of my
Speaker 1: gym buddies are jumping on the electrolyte bandwagon as well.
Speaker 1: But I have to say I am a little bit
Speaker 1: conflicted about this. You know, Aussie's have such a bad
Speaker 1: track record when it comes to over consumption of salt,
Speaker 1: and salt contains sodium, which is a key electrolyte, so
Speaker 1: I was a little bit nervous about adding more salt
Speaker 1: into my diet and potentially doing more harm than good.
Speaker 1: It's kind of confusing which way to go this is
Speaker 1: healthy her with Amelia Phillips. You might have noticed quite
Speaker 1: a lot in the media about electrolytes at the moment.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a TikTok trend amongst millennials, with some
Speaker 1: really groovy and delicious tasting electrolyte powders springing.
Speaker 2: Up all over the place. But how do you work out.
Speaker 1: If it is a trend that you should be jumping on.
Speaker 1: Certainly the drinks taste really good, but does your body
Speaker 1: really need extra electrolyte support?
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: To help us answer this question, I am joined by
Speaker 1: clinical nutritionists and women's health advocate Jenna Lee mcinness. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3: Such a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2: Are you happy if I call you Jenna for today's chat?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? You can call me whatever you like. I don't
Speaker 3: really mind it.
Speaker 1: Wonderful, wonderful, all right, Jenna. Well, let's dive straight into it.
Speaker 1: It's a topic I'm really really fascinated about and super
Speaker 1: keen to get your expert opinion on. But I think
Speaker 1: before we really dive into that, we should be having
Speaker 1: electrolytes or more electrolytes supplementing with them. Can you maybe
Speaker 1: explain to us what electrolytes are and what their role
Speaker 1: is in our body?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 3: So, electrolytes, they are essential minerals, and they're called electrolytes
Speaker 3: because they have an electric charge, whether that's a positive
Speaker 3: or negative when they're dissolved in fluids. So these electric
Speaker 3: charges they signal our muscles, they signal our nerves and
Speaker 3: our bodies. They just would not function without them, So
Speaker 3: we're looking at sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium, and
Speaker 3: most women out there will really benefit just from taking
Speaker 3: magnesium alone for all their different health conditions, stress, estrogen modulation,
Speaker 3: and other things that are even related to the way
Speaker 3: that they're working out. But when we exercise a lot
Speaker 3: or we might get really sick, we actually lose these
Speaker 3: minerals through our sweat or we lose them through our
Speaker 3: vomit our diarrhere, so water alone will not replenish the salt.
Speaker 2: That we've lost.
Speaker 3: So electrolytes are necessary to keep your heart pumping normally
Speaker 3: and that helps to keep your energy levels up. They
Speaker 3: support your adrenal health, they maintain fluid balance and thus
Speaker 3: keep you hydrated. So without electrolytes, we actually wouldn't be
Speaker 3: able to benefit from any other nutrient in our body
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: Gosh, it's so interesting, and you know straightaway magnesium. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've all recently jumped on the magnesium bandwagon, and I'm
Speaker 1: constantly telling members in my program about how amazing you
Speaker 1: feel after having magnesium or supplementing with magnesium, and particularly
Speaker 1: how it is involved in over two hundred interactions in
Speaker 1: the body.
Speaker 2: So when you.
Speaker 1: Explain it like you just did, it really brings home
Speaker 1: how important some of these minerals are. So I guess
Speaker 1: whatever signs and symptoms of an imbalance or maybe a
Speaker 1: deficiency in our electrolytes, it.
Speaker 3: Can be a little bit complicated for some people. They
Speaker 3: actually present with the signs and symptoms of an overuse
Speaker 3: of electrolytes as they would with a deficiency. So what's
Speaker 3: important to know when these signs and symptoms are presented
Speaker 3: is what actually has been the activity leading up to
Speaker 3: feeling this way. And that's gonna be really obvious. Okay, Well,
Speaker 3: I was exercising or I was sweating profusely, so it
Speaker 3: makes sense that it wouldn't be an overuse but potentially
Speaker 3: a deficiency. And in that deficiency we often see really
Speaker 3: gnarly headaches. This can even turn into a migraine dizziness
Speaker 3: sometimes that's accompanied with some impaired vision. We're seeing a
Speaker 3: little bit of those what we call a floater in
Speaker 3: the peripheral vision. Heart palpitations first, dry mouth, leg cramping,
Speaker 3: that's probably the main one. A lot of people start
Speaker 3: to feel those cramps in their legs, and that's why
Speaker 3: I guess a lot of women in pregnancy will experience
Speaker 3: those leg cramps because it's really common to get an
Speaker 3: electrolyte imbalance in pregnancy.
Speaker 2: Yeah I got that.
Speaker 1: I got really bad leg cramps during all my four pregnancies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got them too. And when I say narally,
Speaker 3: I was punching mine out, not massaging, punching. That's when
Speaker 3: I found even going calcium and magnesium blend was supporting
Speaker 3: those leg cramps. So I didn't even do the.
Speaker 2: Whole five electrolytes.
Speaker 3: Maintaining fluid levels allows you to continue sweating, which cools
Speaker 3: the body. You lose your ability to sweat, and the
Speaker 3: body starts to overheat. This can cause heat exhaustion, This
Speaker 3: even cause heat stroke. And so the electrolytes, they're replenishing
Speaker 3: what's been lost from our kidneys in our sweat or
Speaker 3: however we've been losing those fluids. And if they're not replenished,
Speaker 3: we then get more serious issues. And that's actually low
Speaker 3: sodium and this can actually present with even more symptoms,
Speaker 3: which is nausea, vomiting again, the headache, lethargy, sometimes even
Speaker 3: a seizure.
Speaker 1: And I guess some of those symptoms you just spoke
Speaker 1: about at the end are very serious and a lot
Speaker 1: of us will be sitting there going wow, I don't
Speaker 1: have any of those, so I'm probably fine. But I
Speaker 1: often will say to my beautiful listeners and also my
Speaker 1: members that we're looking for.
Speaker 2: Optimal health here.
Speaker 1: So this is not just about preventing deficiencies, but what
Speaker 1: can we do to make sure that we're bridging any
Speaker 1: gaps and that we're really in an optimal state. And
Speaker 1: so that's I guess probably for today. I imagine most
Speaker 1: of my listeners, unless they've got an acute issue such
Speaker 1: as you know, they've had a big bout of gastro
Speaker 1: or something like that, I really want to physician this
Speaker 1: as if we want to be optimally healthy, we want
Speaker 1: to train hard, we want to function well, we want
Speaker 1: to have good sleep and a clear mind. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the goal. And the question is will electrolytes and
Speaker 1: supplementing with.
Speaker 2: Electrolytes help with that.
Speaker 1: So before we get onto that, let me ask you
Speaker 1: about food sources of electrolytes. And it's a great one
Speaker 1: for my listeners to think about, Well, these foods you're
Speaker 1: about to talk about now, Jenna, how much of these
Speaker 1: are we getting on a regular basis in our diet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's interesting that you did mention gastro there,
Speaker 3: because even as a parent, that's typically when you go
Speaker 3: through the biggest spouts of gastro in your life, when
Speaker 3: you've got small children.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. And it even just does the rounds,
Speaker 2: doesn't it.
Speaker 3: It does, it doesn't rounds. And even children in that
Speaker 3: sense can benefit from replunging their electrolytes because of their
Speaker 3: weight compared to their body surface. You know, there's an
Speaker 3: imbalance there, so they need to replenish their salts. Better
Speaker 3: foods absolutely an excellent source of getting electrolytes. And if
Speaker 3: we're looking at our diet as a whole, that's always
Speaker 3: the most important thing for achieving optimal health, not just what.
Speaker 2: Did you have on Friday? What did you have for
Speaker 2: the entire week?
Speaker 3: In really approaching it with that eighty twenty approach of
Speaker 3: eighty percent of the time, actually I'm eating whole foods,
Speaker 3: and through those whole foods, I'm getting exactly what my
Speaker 3: body needs. So if you're looking at sodium for the
Speaker 3: first electrolyte, we'd be looking at foods that not just
Speaker 3: from our salt shaker, but misso, sun dried tomatoes if
Speaker 3: they've been cured with salt, beef, jerky, pork rines, my
Speaker 3: favorite parmesan cheese. Another few little good ones in their olives, pickles,
Speaker 3: and other lack permented foods like your sour kraut, your kimchi.
Speaker 3: These are really good concentrated sources of sodium. And when
Speaker 3: we hear of saur kraut and kim chi, we expected, well,
Speaker 3: maybe I need to start fermenting. But you can actually
Speaker 3: just pick these up from woolies and coals quite easily.
Speaker 3: And you got calcium which is helping to regulate your
Speaker 3: blood clonting factors, your heart rhythm, and how blood vessels
Speaker 3: dilate and contract.
Speaker 2: You can get that.
Speaker 3: Through our ferm tofu dairy products and some plant based milks.
Speaker 3: So we want to see on the back of the
Speaker 3: ingredients that it has been fortified with calcium. Not all
Speaker 3: plant based milks are treated equally for that.
Speaker 2: Magnesium.
Speaker 3: Back to magnesium, very very very important electrolyte which helps
Speaker 3: many enzymes function in our body, and it's found in
Speaker 3: foods that contain fiber, including leafy greens, beans, nuts, whole grains,
Speaker 3: and the beauty of having a magnesium rich diet is
Speaker 3: you're going to be upping a potassium at the same time.
Speaker 3: You know, nature never gets it wrong. Hand in hand,
Speaker 3: most of your magnesium foods are also potassium rich foods.
Speaker 3: So even foods like sweet potato, avocado, oranges, spinach, lentils, almonds,
Speaker 3: yogurt to name a few.
Speaker 2: Coconut water as well.
Speaker 1: I always remember coconut water can be a great source
Speaker 1: of potassium too.
Speaker 3: Cocona water is a really good source of potassium. The
Speaker 3: issue for using that after exercise though, is it doesn't
Speaker 3: contain the sodium, and the sodium is one that is
Speaker 3: the most in.
Speaker 2: A high Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember working with athletes and discovering that that.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, you wouldn't be.
Speaker 1: Great to say, oh, this is you know, Nature's perfect electrolyte,
Speaker 1: but it's not balanced. So it actually can have an
Speaker 1: opposite effect because then you're getting that imbalance between sodium
Speaker 1: and potassium.
Speaker 3: But in the same breath. I think a lot of
Speaker 3: people are lacking potassium in their diet. So if the
Speaker 3: thinking maybe my diet isn't rich enough in whole foods
Speaker 3: and having the coconut water every few days could be
Speaker 3: really beneficial.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Okay, good, So did you have some other foods
Speaker 1: or is that pretty much because you've listed so many.
Speaker 3: Go eat tofu, goat to malmons, goat some spinach.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So basically, if you've got a really healthy, varied, whole
Speaker 1: food diet, you'll be getting a lot of those electrolytes
Speaker 1: through your diet naturally as well. But look, there has
Speaker 1: been this burst of electrolyte.
Speaker 2: Supplements on the market.
Speaker 1: I'm trialing one at the moment, and Assie trial quite
Speaker 1: a few, but the one I'm trialing at the moment
Speaker 1: is called Sodi and it's really really yummy. It's delicious.
Speaker 1: I've actually I'm drinking right now the passion fruit, salty
Speaker 1: passion fruit.
Speaker 2: It's cold.
Speaker 1: And then they've got a citri one as well. They're
Speaker 1: great because I'm drinking more water or more fluid because
Speaker 1: it tastes so good. But it can be confusing to know,
Speaker 1: you know, should I be having one?
Speaker 2: Which one should I be having?
Speaker 1: I guess let's start with who do you think could
Speaker 1: really benefit the most from electrolyte supplements, Like, what's the
Speaker 1: list of people?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's definitely been a boom in the market over
Speaker 3: the past I didn't say five years with electrolyte supplements.
Speaker 3: And this is definitely something I've enjoyed seeing clinic because
Speaker 3: I find I work with a lot of women who
Speaker 3: present I'm so dizzy.
Speaker 2: I actually was so dizzy.
Speaker 3: I took myself to ED and they're like, oh, maybe
Speaker 3: just drink some more water for me. I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: hang on, it could be a water thing. But are
Speaker 3: you also getting enough salt in the diet or are
Speaker 3: you running on fumes like a lot of mothers do.
Speaker 3: SODI it is a great choice. The salt that they
Speaker 3: use is sauced here in Australia. But also, like you said,
Speaker 3: they taste really really good personally. I really like the
Speaker 3: pineapple and the raspberry. They're my absolute favorite. But they
Speaker 3: also use a magnesium glucinate, which is really ideal for
Speaker 3: treating low blood magnesium. So anyone experiencing high blood pressure.
Speaker 3: Now athletes definitely benefit from using supplements such as SODI,
Speaker 3: which is quite evident because these are the people who
Speaker 3: have really sweaty pursuits. But I also find that we
Speaker 3: need to consider people who are losing body fluids other ways.
Speaker 3: For instance, women who experience hypomesis gravidara or HG which
Speaker 3: is Narali morning sickness if you haven't heard of it before,
Speaker 3: when you're pretty much vomiting all day long through most
Speaker 3: of the pregnancy, if not the entire pregnancy. That was
Speaker 3: me both pregnancies, and I don't think I could have
Speaker 3: survived if I didn't take an electrolyte replacement throughout those pregnancies.
Speaker 3: It's so hard to get hydrated when you're vomiting that much. Definitely,
Speaker 3: anyone living or just going to visiting a humid and
Speaker 3: hot climate. Maybe they're going to Bali or Thailand is
Speaker 3: going on a holiday, and to be honest, different climates
Speaker 3: can really affect how you feel regulated in your body.
Speaker 3: And maybe you're getting a headache really easily from that
Speaker 3: heat and helping just to balance your fluid, adding a
Speaker 3: little bit of salt. But anyone, maybe they're doing some
Speaker 3: gardening on a hot day, they're doing some hot yogat
Speaker 3: and sweating a lot, using a sauna, doing hot pilarates.
Speaker 3: That's also a thing now, isn't it not just hot
Speaker 3: yoga hot pilates, So anything that's really generating a lot
Speaker 3: of sweat, whether it's over sixty seventy five minutes. I'm fine,
Speaker 3: they're not really going to benefit from taking a supplement
Speaker 3: such as SODI. But also we can't rule out again
Speaker 3: the family gastro or getting really unwell and just losing
Speaker 3: body fluids from that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So basically, if you're a pretty intense exerciser and
Speaker 1: you're training at a high level, whether it be for
Speaker 1: a long duration or for high intensity, you're noticing you're
Speaker 1: sweating more than normal because you're in a hot climate,
Speaker 1: or because you have been doing extra work, or like
Speaker 1: you say, you could be doing some of that, you know,
Speaker 1: hot therapy, be it through a class or through a sauna.
Speaker 1: So why does it go hand in hand with fluid loss?
Speaker 1: Is it always this thing that if you're losing fluid
Speaker 1: and at risk of dehydration, then you're losing those electrolytes.
Speaker 2: That's why the two kind of go in hand.
Speaker 3: I think we can't expect it to go absolutely hand
Speaker 3: in hand because every person that's gender, age, weight, be
Speaker 3: am I there's a few considerations they're pregnant versus non pregnant,
Speaker 3: breastfeeding vesus not breastfeeding, or going to lose their electrolytes differently.
Speaker 3: So Some people sweat profusely. Some people don't sweat at all.
Speaker 3: You go to a seventy five minute CrossFit class and
Speaker 3: maybe you're there pouring and sweat by the person next
Speaker 3: to you is just dripping a little bit, you know.
Speaker 3: So maybe they don't actually need that electrolyte, but you would.
Speaker 3: So I think it comes down to the level of
Speaker 3: sweat for that person. If you're just having a day
Speaker 3: that where you quite said entry and maybe you did
Speaker 3: go for a gentle walk, I wouldn't say that gentle
Speaker 3: walk was necessary to add electrolytes to your diet that
Speaker 3: day outside of what you're eating.
Speaker 1: Now, this is such an easy one for me because
Speaker 1: in summer, I have to wash my gym clothes absolutely
Speaker 1: after every workout. I get home from the gym and
Speaker 1: I peel them off me. They're heavy, they're saturated. There's
Speaker 1: no way I can get away with wearing them the
Speaker 1: next day. But in winter, I'll well, you know, take
Speaker 1: it off, give it a quick sniff. Oh, you'll be
Speaker 1: right for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I know I might be giving too much away here, but.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about this now and I'm thinking, wow, that,
Speaker 1: like it really is chalk and cheese. How much more
Speaker 1: I sweat in summer versus winter, and yet I don't
Speaker 1: really change the amount of fluids that I drink in summer.
Speaker 1: And I've been really knacked lately. So okay, good, I'm
Speaker 1: drawing some connections there. But here's the catch, Jenner, and
Speaker 1: this is what I really want.
Speaker 2: To chat to you about and get to the bottom of.
Speaker 1: It. Can be really confusing for us because one of
Speaker 1: the main electrolytes, sodium, we consume in abundance or a
Speaker 1: Western diety in general. In fact, Ozzie's consume way too
Speaker 1: much sodium or salt, around nine grams a day. Yet
Speaker 1: the RDI, the recommended daily intake is six grams, and
Speaker 1: yet we're not consuming enough of some of the other electrolytes,
Speaker 1: such as potassium and magnesium.
Speaker 2: So one thing I'm.
Speaker 1: Not nervous about is recommending electrolytes to somebody. One that
Speaker 1: I'm taking at the moment has a thousand milligrams of
Speaker 1: sodium in it, and I think our RDI, I think
Speaker 1: it's six thousand milligrams, right, So it's like one six
Speaker 1: in one drink. And so my question to you is
Speaker 1: how do we strike that balance and know which side
Speaker 1: of the fence we sit on.
Speaker 3: I think it's a little bit of reiteration here too
Speaker 3: that if you're going to be putting an extra one
Speaker 3: thousand milligrams of sodium back into your diet that day,
Speaker 3: what warranted that? Right Again, if you're just going for
Speaker 3: that gentle walk, you didn't need to. But it's important
Speaker 3: that we consume salt in the context of a whole
Speaker 3: food diet regardless, and this way the sodium is balanced
Speaker 3: with other complementary nutrients like the potassium, as well as
Speaker 3: sufficient fluid intake. But I recommend that we switched to
Speaker 3: unrefined sea salt and get the additional trace elements that
Speaker 3: we typeically wouldn't find in a table salt as well.
Speaker 3: So we're looking at also those foods we spoke about earlier,
Speaker 3: the parmesan cheese, the olivement. These are going to be
Speaker 3: foods that are quite in our diet. So if we're
Speaker 3: branching outside of that and we're adding ultra processed foods
Speaker 3: into our diet, which is really typical in the standard
Speaker 3: Australian diet, the sad we're seeing high levels of sodium
Speaker 3: that would definitely, like say, exceed the six grams up
Speaker 3: to nine grams per day. There has to be a
Speaker 3: balance at these electrolytes. They do work hand in hand.
Speaker 3: So if we're having an ultra process foods in our diet,
Speaker 3: how are we mitigating that? Do we have that coconut water?
Speaker 3: Are we actually going? Hang on, I'm having too many
Speaker 3: refined foods, peeling that back a little bit. But the
Speaker 3: issue is we cannot treat anything in health as a
Speaker 3: one size fits all because some people in particular demographics
Speaker 3: or this isn't achievable from have fresh fruit and veggies
Speaker 3: every single day. So it's about going, if I can't
Speaker 3: do this every day, where am I week? Can I
Speaker 3: do this? Where can I reduce ultra processed foods because
Speaker 3: that is where these extra extra sodiums are coming from,
Speaker 3: and very little amounts of potassium, very little amounts of magnesium.
Speaker 3: Instead of you know, having this meal that I typically
Speaker 3: would go to for lunch, I'm going to have something
Speaker 3: a bit more basic, some green vegetables with some protein
Speaker 3: and some whole grains. And the more we work that
Speaker 3: into the diet, we're going to see that balance and
Speaker 3: that nine grams are going to come down drastically, and
Speaker 3: so if we can bring the nine grams down, them
Speaker 3: are laughing. If we can add more veggies, in more fruits,
Speaker 3: then we're going to be getting in more of those
Speaker 3: potassiums and magnesiums. But it has to be a work
Speaker 3: in progress and we have to be really mindful of that.
Speaker 3: That can't just go switch your diet tomorrow, but you
Speaker 3: can start making baby steps to get that extra fruit
Speaker 3: and veggies, extra electrolytes through the diet, and that can
Speaker 3: even make up about twenty percent of our hydration as
Speaker 3: well through our foods.
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, well, you're not
Speaker 1: imagining it. That's why I created Vitality three point sixty
Speaker 1: to help you better understand what's going on inside your
Speaker 1: body so that you can take the targeted action needed.
Speaker 1: With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond
Speaker 1: the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.
Speaker 1: I've teamed up with dot Diasmina, an incredible integrative GP
Speaker 1: and together we will help you decode your body's signals
Speaker 1: and answer questions like why am I always exhausted. What's
Speaker 1: really causing my stubborn weight? Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant?
Speaker 1: Or maybe missing key nutrients? Because when you understand your
Speaker 1: body better, you can transform your health. Visit V three
Speaker 1: sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more.
Speaker 1: It's funny because a lot of us, when we think
Speaker 1: of consuming too much salt, we think about table salt,
Speaker 1: and we think about, you know, an auntie or an
Speaker 1: uncle with their meat and three vege and just dumping
Speaker 1: all this table salt on and we would assume that
Speaker 1: that's where that extra abundance comes from. But I remember
Speaker 1: eating a I think it was a Ratten Institute report
Speaker 1: showed that eighty percent of our excess sodium intake comes
Speaker 1: from packaged foods. Things like wheatbix, for example, has a
Speaker 1: lot of sodium in it unless you get the salt
Speaker 1: reduced kind you.
Speaker 2: Might we're in Australia, Oh I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 1: And even things like say a pisata, so a tomato
Speaker 1: sauce bace that you either use in your pasta or
Speaker 1: you might use it on your pizza base. A pisata
Speaker 1: compared to tinned tomatoes, for example, has about five times
Speaker 1: more sodium in it. So I guess if you're sitting
Speaker 1: here listening in you're using a lot of jar or
Speaker 1: packet foods in your diet. Maybe you're someone that loves
Speaker 1: those jar sauces for example, whether it's curries or pasta
Speaker 1: sauces and things like that. Just take a look at
Speaker 1: the sodium content. But you would be one of those
Speaker 1: people that's probably unknowingly getting that, you know, eighty percent
Speaker 1: extra sodium coming from.
Speaker 2: Those packaged foods. So I've rattled off a couple.
Speaker 1: Were there any that you want to mark as kind
Speaker 1: of red flags for high sodium content?
Speaker 3: Even the other day, I was I wanted to make
Speaker 3: the kids little bacon and egg kishas to take to
Speaker 3: daycare because, as you know, you're always trying to think
Speaker 3: of something new to make feed kids will actually eat.
Speaker 3: It's like, I have to see what bacon, but the
Speaker 3: bacon selection is here at coals on my way home
Speaker 3: from work. Oh my gosh, they're sodium.
Speaker 2: In the bacon. Up It's like, wow, I'm just a
Speaker 2: found one.
Speaker 3: That said low sodium. But of course I wasn't pleased
Speaker 3: with the final result. But I have seen even in
Speaker 3: the clinical setting, how many people eat bacon as a
Speaker 3: very often food as opposed to sometimes food means a
Speaker 3: really high level of sodium.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Deli meats, so your ham, salami, they're all going
Speaker 1: to be super super high in salt. Obviously, Chips too, pretzels, popcorn.
Speaker 3: People are always craving something really salty, so they go
Speaker 3: for the crunchy things, and it's like you're craving the crunch,
Speaker 3: you're craving the salt.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, because pick up a carrot, you'll get lovely crunch
Speaker 1: with the carrot. Okay, So that's a really good differentiator
Speaker 1: for us. So if we're sitting here going, oh, actually
Speaker 1: some of those high sodium jard or packaged foods that
Speaker 1: Amelia in general are just talking about, I have a
Speaker 1: lot of those in my diet. Well, you might be
Speaker 1: someone that is erring on that higher sodium intake. And
Speaker 1: so unless you're a really heavy sweater and an exerciser,
Speaker 1: then you might want to be careful about supplementing with electrolytes.
Speaker 1: But say you're the opposite, and say you're sitting here
Speaker 1: and you're going, you know what, I have a super
Speaker 1: clean diet. Most of my foods are whole foods and
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm getting a lot, and I am
Speaker 1: a regular exerciser and I'm somewhere hot, then yes, you
Speaker 1: are much more of a candidate for an electrolyte supplement.
Speaker 2: Would you agree with that analogy? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think if you do have a high
Speaker 3: level of sodium in your diet, you'll be thirstier anyway,
Speaker 3: because again, you need to always be finding that balance
Speaker 3: between your hydration and your electrote intake. So that's something
Speaker 3: to be mindful of. Am I am I always thirsty?
Speaker 3: Am I actually hydrated? What's happening here? Is it just
Speaker 3: a constant absorption of sodium in my system?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good point. It's funny.
Speaker 1: I pretty much have to get up every night to
Speaker 1: pee once.
Speaker 2: But on the weekends I'll often partake. I love popcorn.
Speaker 2: I just, you know, love it as a treat.
Speaker 3: If I have popcorn the next I actually feel like
Speaker 3: I've got to hangover. Oh really, it's really bizarre, So
Speaker 3: I have to avoid it.
Speaker 2: And my partner loves it, so I do. Guess is
Speaker 2: that right?
Speaker 1: I just love it because it's a whole food in
Speaker 1: the sense that you know, it's a piece of corn.
Speaker 1: That's been popped as opposed to chips or something else
Speaker 1: that's been highly manufactured and highly processed.
Speaker 2: That's why I love it as my kind of chip solution.
Speaker 1: But interestingly, on the nights that I'll hoe into a
Speaker 1: massive bowl of popcorn, I don't get up to pea
Speaker 1: that night.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's retention.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, because I've consumed so much sodium that my
Speaker 1: body is like, hang on to that fluid, honey, hang
Speaker 1: on to it.
Speaker 3: It's a really good pre race food popcorn exactly.
Speaker 1: So the other area I just wanted to touch on
Speaker 1: is the link between blood pressure and salt intake, because
Speaker 1: one of the biggest risks of those people that are
Speaker 1: consuming over consumption of salt. You know, we eat on average,
Speaker 1: as we said, about nine grams a day when the
Speaker 1: RDI is six.
Speaker 2: Can you explain.
Speaker 1: Why salt and elevated salt intake will increase our blood pressure.
Speaker 3: So there are several mechanistical explanations for the association between
Speaker 3: our sodium intake and our blood pressure, and that comes
Speaker 3: down to the enhanced reabsorption and the retention of filtered
Speaker 3: sodium through our renal tubule. So what our kidneys are
Speaker 3: doing essentially, So our heart's job is to pump the
Speaker 3: blood to filter it is the kidney's. So the kidneys
Speaker 3: are filtering all the fluids in the body. And if
Speaker 3: we do have a high sodium diet and that sodium
Speaker 3: is getting refiltered through the body, this is then being
Speaker 3: picked up in our arteries. There's really small arteries, the arterials,
Speaker 3: and there's a hormone there that says, okay, there's a
Speaker 3: high level of sodium here. It's going back through the system,
Speaker 3: and what starts to happen is it starts to constrict.
Speaker 3: And when our arteries are constricting, this is going to
Speaker 3: lead to a high blood pressure. And so if we
Speaker 3: have a really good, good everyone again everything's different, everything's
Speaker 3: really individual. But if we do have a good renal system,
Speaker 3: so our kidneys are working optimally, we actually should see
Speaker 3: that they're excreting sodium really efficiently and causing no issues.
Speaker 3: But unfortunately this isn't the case for some people. Some
Speaker 3: people they have what we call a salt sensitivity, and
Speaker 3: that makes up for about twenty five percent of the population,
Speaker 3: and that to certain subcategories like ethnic backgrounds. So we
Speaker 3: know that African Americans have been studied and it's shown
Speaker 3: that they actually do have AsSalt sensitivity for the most part.
Speaker 3: So we can't treat every individual the same that expecting
Speaker 3: that the high the sodium in their diet is going
Speaker 3: to result in the same discourse. Often sult it really
Speaker 3: does get a bad rap because of this, but it
Speaker 3: is vital for the normal function of our body, and
Speaker 3: the sodium and the chloride that it contains the key
Speaker 3: electrolyte balance to keep ourselves talking to one another. So
Speaker 3: they're helping to maintain the correct plasma lume in our bloodstream,
Speaker 3: which helps to regulate the fluid levels, and by this
Speaker 3: it's facilitating neural signaling.
Speaker 2: So if you want to be able to.
Speaker 3: Think straight or even contract a muscle, then you need
Speaker 3: to have that perfect balance of the sodium with the
Speaker 3: chloride in your system as well as the water. So
Speaker 3: you got to think about those times that perhaps you
Speaker 3: had to have an ivy fluidt hospital. They don't just
Speaker 3: put you in the bed and put distilled water into
Speaker 3: your system. It's typically a saline which is a salt
Speaker 3: water because the body does require sodium alongside fluids to
Speaker 3: be able to rehydrate. There's so many things I could
Speaker 3: jump into here what salt needs if, for instance, even
Speaker 3: with our stomach acid levels, and how this is going
Speaker 3: to benefit our health because it kills off pathogenic bacteria
Speaker 3: inside the stomach as well. So again I think, yes,
Speaker 3: we do have the evidence that that's suggestive that salt
Speaker 3: can increase blood pressure.
Speaker 2: But within that we.
Speaker 3: Look at the people who do have a salt sensitivity
Speaker 3: and how different hormones, enzymes, and proteins are functioning within
Speaker 3: their system to have that end result.
Speaker 1: And I guess for a lot of people who do
Speaker 1: have high blood pressure, let's look at the other factors
Speaker 1: that are contributing to that as well. So let's look
Speaker 1: at your diet to start with, and I use somebody
Speaker 1: that sits in that nine grams a day range or higher.
Speaker 1: I use somebody that is carrying extra body fat, because
Speaker 1: those things alone are going to help drive up blood pressure.
Speaker 1: I do know, though, any heart healthy meal plan that
Speaker 1: is out there and that is designed to lower blood
Speaker 1: pressure will be a low sodium meal plan.
Speaker 2: And I think that's important for people to.
Speaker 1: Know that if you have high blood pressure or somebody
Speaker 1: you know has high blood pressure, usually recognizing your sodium
Speaker 1: intake and understanding whether you are over consuming, either knowingly
Speaker 1: or unknowingly, I think is a key factor.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 3: I agree? And I also think that it's really important
Speaker 3: for people to recognize that if you have a high
Speaker 3: fasted blood glucose, so your body is having a hard
Speaker 3: time tolerating carbohydrates, or you're at risk of pre diabetes,
Speaker 3: or even just before that, a metabolics syndrome, that this
Speaker 3: in itself, even a higher fasting blood glucose towards the
Speaker 3: end of the range there we're looking at, Wow, this
Speaker 3: is actually going to be quite problematic for the cardiovascular
Speaker 3: system and the overall metabolic health. So one of those
Speaker 3: markers that we would be looking at for someone who's
Speaker 3: having issues with maybe dizziness or feeling thirsty, or the time,
Speaker 3: these headaches, these other symptoms we went through earlier. I'm
Speaker 3: also interested to know do you have a high blood
Speaker 3: glucose reading, because if you do, this is also going
Speaker 3: to impact everything that's going on for you, not just
Speaker 3: the salt that's in your.
Speaker 2: Diet, but the glucose.
Speaker 3: What is the sugar and are you having an oultraprocessed
Speaker 3: food diet that we also know has a lot of
Speaker 3: added sugar, not just added salt.
Speaker 1: Yeap, And look, it really does come back to that
Speaker 1: question of how much process food is creeping into my diet. Well, look, Jenny,
Speaker 1: you've opened our eyes and it's never just a simple
Speaker 1: yes or no answer when we're trying to work out
Speaker 1: what our own.
Speaker 2: Unique body needs.
Speaker 1: I think if we want to sum it up a
Speaker 1: little bit, what I'm hearing and tell me correct me
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong is basically, if you are someone who
Speaker 1: sweats a lot, who is under risk of getting dehydrated
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, who is exposed to heat, and who
Speaker 1: has a very healthy diet overall, you might be somebody
Speaker 1: that could benefit from supplementing with electrolytes, and particularly on
Speaker 1: the days when you're exercising or sweating a lot. If
Speaker 1: you are somebody who maybe has high blood pressure, who
Speaker 1: has an ultra.
Speaker 2: Processed food heavy diet.
Speaker 1: And potentially has some signs of metabolic inflexibility such as
Speaker 1: a high fuss in glucose or some pre diabetes insulin resistance,
Speaker 1: and you're not really exercising at a high intensity or
Speaker 1: in that particularly hot climate, then maybe supplementing with electrolytes
Speaker 1: is not so beneficial for you.
Speaker 2: Is that a bit of a summary that you would
Speaker 2: agree with?
Speaker 3: I do agree, and I think it's just important to
Speaker 3: also note that if there's any kidney issues, that this
Speaker 3: is a something you'd need to speak with your healthcare
Speaker 3: provider with as well.
Speaker 1: Yes, very very good point. Absolutely very good point. All right,
Speaker 1: So I guess to wrap up, is there any final
Speaker 1: parting advice you would have for somebody who is trying
Speaker 1: to make that decision about whether they should go out and.
Speaker 2: Jump on this electrolyte bandwagon.
Speaker 3: One thing I always say to my clients is some
Speaker 3: supplements are just good to have in your own personal
Speaker 3: dispensary for when you need it. So maybe you don't
Speaker 3: have it every day, but you have it on hand.
Speaker 3: And having a quality electrolyte supplement is one of these
Speaker 3: handy things to have in the house. I always have
Speaker 3: one in my handbag, so you never really know when
Speaker 3: you're going to have a sweaty time at yoga or
Speaker 3: the gym, or the kids.
Speaker 2: Are getting sick.
Speaker 3: I think it's one of those things that's actually really
Speaker 3: good to have on your person. Doesn't mean you have
Speaker 3: to take it every day, but it is good to have.
Speaker 1: Wonderful Jeneleene mckinness very sage sound advice. Thank you so much,
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