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Ketogenic diet, it works..

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cdev:
So if you own cows you can give them lettuce instead of salt?

(Cows have to be given extraneous salt)

Zero999:

--- Quote from: MultiMike on September 19, 2021, 04:56:31 pm ---
--- Quote from: Miyuki on September 02, 2021, 07:28:05 am ---Mammals cannot live without salt, they need it either from food or add pure salt if not enough salt is in food.

--- End quote ---

True, but the amount required is ridiculously easy to get even from lettuce. 
--- End quote ---
That's nonsense. Lettuce is such a poor source of sodium, so one would have to eat a lot of it in order to fulfil their minimum daily requirements, which are specific to the individual.


--- Quote ---There is no physical health requirement for salting food - it's about flavour, enjoyment and thereby in a roundabout way mental health.

Mike

--- End quote ---
That depends. When I went cycling a lot on holiday, I got cramps and migraines, which were fixed by consciously increasing my sodium intake.

It's true that the risks of excessive consumption of sodium are greatly exaggerated. If someone eats too much salt, it's excreted in the urine and little harm is done. The problem is, salt is generally added to processed foods, which are also high in fat and often sugar. Diet is notoriously hard to study because it's impossible to have a double-blind, randomised, placebo controlled trial.

One thing which is important to note is that figures such as BMI are only rules of thumb. It's body composition and more importantly, where fat is, which is a better indicator of health risk. Someone my have a BMI of under 25, yet have a little too much fat around the middle, whilst someone else might have a BMI of over 30 and not have much abdominal fat.

The point I've being trying to make is we need to consider health wholistically. Quite often it seems as though we focus on something like weight alone and neglecting other aspects of health.

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: MultiMike on September 19, 2021, 04:56:31 pm ---
--- Quote from: Miyuki on September 02, 2021, 07:28:05 am ---Mammals cannot live without salt, they need it either from food or add pure salt if not enough salt is in food.

--- End quote ---

True, but the amount required is ridiculously easy to get even from lettuce.  There is no physical health requirement for salting food - it's about flavour, enjoyment and thereby in a roundabout way mental health.

Mike

--- End quote ---

The UK sets the lower reference nutrient intake (LRNI) for sodium at 25 mmol/day (0.575 g/day). That is the minimum acceptable level (on a population level), lower would within a few days cause hyponatraemia which is a serious medical emergency. McCance and Widdowson has the sodium content of raw lettuce (average of 22 samples, autumn and winter, UK grown and imported, including shredded, Iceberg, Romaine and Little Gem) at 2mg/100g. So an LRNI's worth of lettuce would be a mere 28.75 kg/day.

Staples you might think make a contribution to your sodium requirements are lower in sodium than you might think - potatoes around 2mg/100g, rice 4mg/100g, pasta 16mg/100g, bulgar wheat 5mg/100gm, wholemeal wheat 2mg/100gm, onions 3mg/100g, carrots 27mg/100g, peas 1mg/100g. See where we're going here in the grains/vegetables world? It's only when you start looking at meat, fish and animal products that the levels begin to look like you might meet your LRNI on a no-salt-added diet: Milk 42mg/100gm, beef mince 80mg/100g, chicken breast 55mg/100g, eggs 155mg/100gm, cod 91mg/100gm.

It looks very much as if a vegan would need to supplement their salt intake beyond the intrinsic salt content of their diet's raw ingredients, vegetarians probably also depending on their dairy intake.

cdev:
The reason I brought the salt up is that in the past I spent a lot of time in the US Southwest which has a lot of desert and high altitude parkland and hiking, where it seems I need more sodium. I actually took salt pills. They actually have signs on some trails reminding people to take them. (The famously step hike up to the falls in Yosemite is one I remember)

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