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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hi, brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bomb here. Salt, the word itself makes our

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Speaker 1: salivary gland standard attention, and our taste buds burst to life.

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Speaker 1: But what's in a word in salts case, it's sodium

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Speaker 1: and six chloride. Common table salt, also known as halite,

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Speaker 1: from the only family of rocks commonly eaten by humans

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Speaker 1: etymologically derived from salice, the Roman goddess of health and

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Speaker 1: well being. Salt by any other name would be just

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Speaker 1: as irresistibly delicious. We spoke with Sharon H. Bergquist, m d,

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Speaker 1: Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emery University School of Medicine.

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Speaker 1: They said, we are hardwired to crave salt. In ancestral times,

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Speaker 1: the availability of this essential mineral was scarce. To motivate

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Speaker 1: us to seek salt, our bodies became designed to get

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Speaker 1: reward and pleasure from it. From pikeant pizzas and pasta sauces,

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Speaker 1: sliferous soups, pungent meats and fizzy sodas, to popcorn, chips

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Speaker 1: and nuts. We love our salting, nausches and beverages. The

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Speaker 1: bad news is that these snacky processed foods which make

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Speaker 1: up the bulk of the average American diet, are packed

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Speaker 1: with excess salt, and it's shaking up our health. As

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Speaker 1: burg Quist explained, the sodium it's salt causes most of

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Speaker 1: the damage in our organs. When faced with excess salt,

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Speaker 1: our kidneys try to excrete as much as possible. Some sodium, however,

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Speaker 1: accumulates the body holds onto water to dilute the sodium.

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Speaker 1: This increases the volume of blood and pressure on blood vessels.

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Speaker 1: The resulting high blood pressure can damage many organs, including

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Speaker 1: the heart, kidneys, and brain. Sodium is a vital electrolyte.

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Speaker 1: Electrolytes are not what plants crave, but rather minerals dissolved

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Speaker 1: in the body's fluids to help balance our cells and

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Speaker 1: regulate bodily functions like hydration signals to and from the brain,

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Speaker 1: blood pressure, and the proper functioning of our nerves and muscles,

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Speaker 1: especially our most important and hardest working muscle, the heart.

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Speaker 1: Too much sodium can lead to hypertension or high blood pressure.

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Speaker 1: Not enough sodium can lead to hypernutrema, which can salt.

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Speaker 1: In Shock asked which is more of a health risk.

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Speaker 1: A diet too low or too high end sodium. Burg

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Speaker 1: Quist replied. While a few studies have raised concern that

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Speaker 1: a very low sodium diet may be harmful in certain

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Speaker 1: sick groups of people, the bigger problem is that we

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Speaker 1: are consuming too much salt. The current average consumption of

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Speaker 1: thirty four hundred milligrams a day roughly one point five teaspoons,

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Speaker 1: raises blood pressure, which can increase the risk of heart

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Speaker 1: attacks and stroke. So just how much salt is necessary

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Speaker 1: to survive? Is there a minimum and a maximum amount?

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Speaker 1: Burg Quist said, we can't live without salt. We need

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Speaker 1: a minimum amount for our nerves and muscles to function

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Speaker 1: and to maintain our fluid balance. There isn't a clear minimum,

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Speaker 1: but it's likely around two hundred milligrams, which is many

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Speaker 1: fold below the average daily intake. The CDC suggests consuming

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Speaker 1: no more than twenty milligrams of sodium per day, and

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Speaker 1: the American Heart Association recommends an ideal limit of no

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Speaker 1: more than fifteen hundred milligrams per day. Burg Quist said,

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Speaker 1: of the salt we eat comes from processed food, so

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Speaker 1: reducing or avoiding processed and fast food is a good

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Speaker 1: place to start for lowering sodium intake. And given these numbers.

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Speaker 1: People with hypertension will be heartened to know that it

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Speaker 1: is possible to lower blood pressure by consuming less salt.

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Speaker 1: To that end, burg Quist reveals that results from the

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Speaker 1: dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH trials, were foundational

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Speaker 1: in linking lower sodium intake with lower blood pressure. The

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Speaker 1: first part of the DASH trial found that a diet

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Speaker 1: emphasizing fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy foods, and limited red meat,

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Speaker 1: saturated fats and sweets, called the DASH diet, lowered blood

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Speaker 1: pressure compared to the standard American diet. The second trial

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Speaker 1: looked at three levels of sodium intake, high, medium, or

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Speaker 1: low in people who follow the DASH diet or the

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Speaker 1: standard American diet. It concluded that the less sodium a

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Speaker 1: person consumes, the lower their blood pressure. The recommendation is

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Speaker 1: that we eat more whole foods like fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts,

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Speaker 1: and seeds. Burg Quist said, not only are they naturally

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Speaker 1: low and sodium, but they're high and potassium, which opposes

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Speaker 1: the effect of sodium by relaxing blood vessels and lowering

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Speaker 1: blood pressure. As for runners and others who work up

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Speaker 1: a healthy sweat exercising burg Quist recommends Electrolite, Laddin sports drinks,

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Speaker 1: and foods instead of salt pills. It'll take a lot

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Speaker 1: of self discipline and likely a period of moody withdrawal

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Speaker 1: before we're able to give that briny siren sodium the

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Speaker 1: final shake. But for the sake of our health, we

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Speaker 1: owe it to ourselves to try just take it, one

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Speaker 1: snack at a time. Today's episode was written by Carrie

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Speaker 1: Tato and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this

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Speaker 1: and lots of other savory topics, visit our home planet,

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com.