How much salt do we eat per day. Sea salt in treatment. Where did the habit of adding salt to food come from?

Why our body needs sodium, how much it can be consumed per day for children, adults and the elderly - we answer the main questions about salt.

Why does the body need sodium?

Life itself on Earth once originated not just from water, as they say, but from the salty water of the oceans with a significant concentration of sodium. Even in ancient times, people knew not only about palatability ah and preservative abilities, but also about the important role of salt for the body. That is why it was so highly valued in previous centuries.

Everything is vital important processes in the human body at the cellular level are provided by sodium ions. We do not know how to produce it ourselves or store it for future use, and if we completely stop the supply of sodium from the outside, then all human organs and systems will gradually stop functioning, and after a maximum of 12 days, life will stop.

One of the first to respond to sodium deficiency is the brain. Thought processes slow down, cognitive abilities worsen.

Since man is the only living creature that sweats, we lose sodium catastrophically rapidly. Therefore, with active physical activity our needs for it are increasing, and physical abilities are directly dependent on the concentration of this chemical element in the body.

In 2015, in Spain, scientists conducted a curious experiment in which professional triathletes took part in order to find out how much salt athletes need. It has been proven that by taking about 7 grams of salt before the start, athletes were able to significantly increase endurance and improve performance.

In Copenhagen, a group of scientists conducted a meta-analysis of 167 studies, examining data from over 40,000 volunteers, and concluded that a lack of sodium is associated with an increase in the level of "bad" cholesterol in the blood and accelerates blood clots.

Today, it has been scientifically proven that its deficiency in the diet leads to cardio disorders. Eating less than 2 grams table salt per day, you increase the risk of cardiopathology by 40%.

However, if you regularly consume about 4 grams of this product, the effect will be about the same. Sodium provokes fluid retention in the body, which will begin to increase arterial hypertension, edema will appear and weight will increase. That is why it is so important to find and observe the "golden mean".

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How much salt does an adult need

In prehistoric times, when a person obtained food by gathering and hunting, salty food was practically excluded from his diet. About 150 mg sodium primitive people taken daily with plant foods. About 540 mg more - with animal meat.

In the middle of the last century, salt consumption in Europe and America reached 5-6 grams per day. And among the inhabitants of the northern regions, it was even higher, since their diet included pickles, fermented meat and fish. The Japanese beat all records, eating an average of about 20 grams per day.

In subsequent years, there was a quantitative leap. It led to the fact that people began to consume 15 grams of salt or more only thanks to fast food, convenience foods and prepared food, which began to occupy an increasing share in the human diet. And today, about 70% of salt enters the human body through the fault of processed foods.

The recommendations of doctors and nutritionists regarding the amount of salt in the diet have changed throughout the late XX - early XXI century. Last years experts said that optimal dose salt in daily diet human - 10 grams.

Today ordinary person older than 14 years old, without serious systemic pathologies and special contraindications, it is advised to reduce the dose of salt in the diet to 2.3 grams per day, which corresponds to one teaspoon. For children under 14 years of age, this dose of salt must be significantly reduced.

How much salt can children eat

Why is it important to limit the amount of sodium in children's diets? Research has shown that a large number of this metal provokes obesity in childhood.

Positive changes in the child's diet, reducing salt while increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables helps prevent hypertension and other cardiopathies in childhood and may reduce risks in the long term.

Taste preferences, habits for salty and sweet are laid down in early childhood. If you train your child to undersalt food, his cravings will be healthier throughout his life, which is important for good health.
In addition, cow's milk contains five times more sodium than mother's.Therefore, infant formulas based on cow's milk initially violate metabolic processes babies. The European Parliament passed a law in 2005 that banned the addition of sodium to children food and obligated manufacturers to indicate on the packaging large print its quantity.

How much salt per day can you eat?

    AT recent times more and more often they write about the dangers of excess salt for humans. Especially cardiologists. It is believed that the average healthy person enough to consume about 10 gr. salt per day.

    But how to calculate how much salt we consume with regular products: bread, sausage, sausages, canned food, etc. It is believed that salt should be excluded from the diet for cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease, obesity, cancer. I almost stopped adding salt to food, sometimes I use soy sauce. Nothing, I'm used to it.

    Pure salt can be consumed per day in the amount of one teaspoon, or if in grams, then no more than 5 grams per day. But keep in mind that we salt all foods and it is quite difficult to calculate how much salt we add to food every day and how much we get into the body. The fact is that if we throw a tablespoon of salt into the pasta water, this does not mean that all this salt is absorbed into the pasta. So it's very difficult to calculate.

    Salt plays in our body important role. Its absence leads to various ailments, and the food taken becomes tasteless. But you can not use it in unlimited quantities. It is necessary to consume up to 15 g of salt per day. But, it should be limited to patients suffering from high blood pressure or joint diseases. And, conversely, increase during exercise and physical exertion, accompanied by profuse sweating.

    We need salt only to emphasize the taste of food. Salt is the main source of sodium, which is indispensable for our body. Absolutely no salt. The norm of salt per day for a person is 0.5 grams of salt per 10 kilograms of body weight. For children under 10 months of age, 0.2 grams of salt per day is needed; at 10-12 months this norm is already up to 0.35 grams of salt, and after a year the child already needs 0.5 grams of salt per day.

    It is believed that a day you can eat no more than 6 grams of salt. This is about one teaspoon. An excess of salt in the body can lead to a violation salt balance in the body and lead to heart disease.

    The norm of salt consumption per day is a teaspoon without a slide. This should include the salt that we consume with food (a lot of salt in canned food, in sausages,

    enough in ketchup) It is better not to exceed the norm, because salt retains fluid in the body.

    You can consume no more than one teaspoon of salt per day. And here all the salt is taken into account, that is, already contained in the products. Therefore, it is practically not necessary to add salt to food. But who is following this?

    You can and should consume salt per day, but not more than 6 g per day. Since it causes a violation of the water-salt balance, and this can lead to diseases of the vascular systems s. But it is also not worth excluding it, since it is provided for in our body, and if it is excluded, the effect of the sodium-potassium sediment will be disrupted, thereby causing a malfunction in the body.

    A teaspoon is enough. We get salt in other products. Doctors advise not to get involved in white deathquot ;. She, or rather her great use contraindicated in patients with high blood pressure. Now it is fashionable to replace salt with soy sauce. And more useful - iodized.

    Eh, considering our love for pickles and sauerkraut it is difficult to comply with reasonable requirements ...

    In Finland, a few years ago, a campaign was launched for healthy diet, including for a sharp decline salt consumption. The results were encouraging - morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases dropped sharply.

    Table salt is not a harmless remedy, it retains fluid in the body.

    It is better not to add salt to cooked food.


Salt (or otherwise sodium chloride) is white crystalline substance mineral origin. Well soluble in water. Salt is perhaps the only mineral in the world suitable for human consumption., and one of the oldest spices.

The benefits of salt

From a physiological point of view salt is essential for a person: it is included in the composition of the blood, plasma, tears, sweat and bile, is a source of formation of hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice and helps to maintain optimal level electrolytes both around the cell and inside.

If salt is radically excluded from the diet, then this will affect not only the digestive system, but also the state of the entire muscle tissue and also at her work. A person who lacks salt is characterized by the following symptoms:

  • loss of strength;
  • decrease in the speed of reaction;
  • decrease in working capacity;
  • the occurrence of drowsiness;
  • aggravating weakness;
  • absolute loss taste sensations;
  • urges of nausea;
  • the appearance of dizziness;
  • poor coordination.

Wherein pernicious influence due to lack of salt, it can spread to the process of cell renewal, limiting their growth and causing death. This can lead to damage to the brain, muscles and nervous disorders. In general, the human body contains about 150 ... 300 gr. salts and this balance must be maintained, since its loss leads to at least serious consequences than an overabundance.

But it all depends on individual factors and conditions. For example, with the strongest perspiration ( salt comes out with sweat) should increase the intake of salt in the diet. This is usually associated with great physical effort (active and labor-intensive work), sports activities and heat. This principle also applies to some painful conditions- fever, diarrhea, etc.

Each of the elements of salt (and there are two of them - Cl and Na) performs its own function:

      Chlorine is involved in the production gastric juice, therefore, if a person deliberately refuses to use salt, then he is obliged to ensure the supply of this element in another way - for example, through mineral water. Moreover, chlorine is maintained in the human body almost exclusively due to salt. It is his irreplaceable and the only source of, because in all other food products chlorine is present in negligible volume.
  1. Sodium is one of the basic substances in maintaining a healthy acid-base and water balance. He is the main participant in the chain of transmission of muscle contractions and nerve impulses. Therefore, with its deficiency in the body, it is extremely serious condition, manifested in lethargy, poor coordination of movements, muscle weakness and a tendency to sleep, regardless of the time of day and the type of work performed.

The best salt is sea. Not without reason, blood is in some way identical in composition to ocean water, which carries 0.9 percent of dissolved salts and basic chemical elements, as in blood, - in approximately equal proportions in relation to it. Sea salt contains 200 chemical compounds and 84 elements of the periodic table. Thus, if salt enters human body in the uncleaned natural form, then it has a much more beneficial effect on him, being easily absorbed.

In the macrobiotics section salt is generally recognized as the most important component nutrition. It is only necessary to take into account that when cooking, salt should be added to cooked food - so its qualities will be preserved and not lost during heat treatment.

Harm of salt

Eating foods and dishes that contain very a large amount of salt can lead to a number of diseases - the heart, blood vessels, liver, kidneys, pancreas. Researchers have shown that low salt intake excellent tool in the prevention of proteinuria, edema, toxemia and visual impairment.

The main problem of salt is not in itself, but in its immoderate human consumption. Without compromising the taste of foods, salt can be completely reduced by 20 or even 45 percent, which ultimately will save you from frequent surges in blood pressure (the most common "consequence" of the abuse of salty foods). The most dangerous in this sense are finished food products:

  • sausages;
  • cheeses;
  • hamburgers;
  • noodles fast food;
  • pizza;
  • shawarma etc.

In people who often eat them, the taste threshold for salty is sharply shifted, which makes it feel like all the usual homemade food(as well as all useful) insipid, tasteless, undersalted.

Large amounts of salt are fraught poor breeding fluids, edema and salt deposits. It is worth remembering that every third person is sensitive to this product. Therefore, they can be continuously "get" high blood pressure, bags under the eyes and swollen legs. But with a reduction in salt intake of at least 20-30 percent of the usual "norm", these symptoms can disappear.

Diseases that provoke a violation of salt balance:

  1. Urolithiasis disease manifests itself as a consequence of a dysfunction of the normal solubility of the one-sodium salt uric acid. It simply precipitates and begins to work against the body, forming stones in urinary tract.
  2. Diseases of the vascular system and the heart are manifested in the form high pressure and severe headaches.
  3. Nutritional obesity is provoked by the fact that salt retains water in the body and does not allow it to be excreted. Therefore, if an obese person is offered a diet with limited number salt, then it will quickly drop up to 7 kilograms along with the liquid excess weight.
  4. Hypertension occurs due to the accumulation of excess volumes of fluid, which leads to an increase in the amount of blood circulating in the vessels and, accordingly, to upward pressure surges.

Daily salt intake

Daily physiological need of the human body in salt is about 10 ... 15 grams based on occupation, gender, physical activity and age. This is how much salt will be enough to replenish the daily loss of chlorine and sodium in the body. The usual diet contains an average of about 10 grams of compounds, which include chlorine and sodium, so additional salting of dishes is not always justified.

In certain cases daily salt intake tends to increase(when playing sports, working in hot shops, with high sweating and in the hot season), and in some situations, on the contrary, to a decrease (with dysfunction of the blood supply to the brain, urolithiasis, diseases of the pancreas, kidneys and vascular-cardiac system) .

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The norm of salt per day for a person is individual and is determined by the state of health of his body. Natural salt contains essential beneficial minerals. Among them are those minerals that are contained in food in small insufficient quantities or are completely absent.

Natural salt (according to the method of extraction) is stone and sea.

Table salt (processed rock) salt, in addition to sodium, contains small quantities other elements: magnesium, calcium, iron, potassium.

Sea salt contains sodium chloride (97-99%), some of its varieties, less purified, may contain in small quantities: magnesium, calcium, potassium, bromine, strontium. Sea salt is not rich in iodine, so it is added up to 100 mg/kg.

Today we will talk about salt as a natural product containing in its composition the necessary: ​​sodium, chlorine, iodine, bromine, strontium.

Sodium is found in all tissues, organs and physiological fluids of the human body. A significant part (about 50%) of this microelement is determined in extracellular fluids, only 10% - inside cells and 40% in cartilage and bones.

Sodium is an active participant in metabolic processes, both intracellular and intercellular. Together with potassium, it controls the work of the nervous, motor, cardiac and vascular systems.

Together with chlorine, sodium normalizes the work digestive system and metabolic processes.

Daily rate human in sodium consists of 4-6 gr.

Chlorine. Most more content chlorine in the skin. It is also determined in the fluid of the intercellular space, blood and bone tissue.

Chlorine in the body performs important functions:

Together with sodium and potassium controls acid-base balance and water-salt exchange. All three of these elements are in interstitial fluid in a strictly defined proportion, violation of which leads to undesirable consequences with health.

With a deficiency or excess of at least one of these elements, edema appears, heart failure and pressure instability.

Chlorine is an active regulator osmotic pressure in all body fluids,

Participates in the process of digestion

Chlorine protects our body from dehydration,

Helps to remove excess from the body carbon dioxide, waste products of metabolic processes,

Maintains normal blood function.

Up to 6 grams is enough for a person. chlorine per day.

The elements sodium and chlorine enter the body mainly in the form of edible salt, which performs a lot in the body important functions. Consider those of them that can be used for the benefit of the body:

A few grains of salt and two glasses of live water will help relieve asthma attacks, as salt has antihistamine properties,

The same grains of salt and water in the same volume will help normalize blood pressure and relieve breathlessness

Dry cough will recede from a pinch of salt on the tongue,

Drinking a glass of water, a few crystals of salt on the tongue, contribute to a sound restful sleep,

Salt supports sexual function,

Prevents muscle cramps, varicose veins veins.

The norm of salt per day for a person is 10-15 grams.

At increased sweating(intense physical activity, visiting baths and saunas), as well as with profuse vomiting, urination and diarrhea, it is necessary to increase salt intake to 20 g.

Bromine found in the kidneys, pituitary gland, thyroid gland, muscles and bones, in the blood. The microelement is necessary in such biological processes how:

Activation digestive enzymes stomach,

Controlling the activity of certain pancreatic enzymes,

Harmonious work thyroid gland,

regulation of the activity of the nervous system,

Activation of the function of the reproductive system,

Ensuring normal activity of the adrenal glands,

Participation in the process of hematopoiesis,

Implementation full exchange fats and carbohydrates.

The daily norm for the consumption of bromine is 3-8 mg.

Iodine- very needed by the body trace element.

Iodine provides healthy work thyroid gland. It is part of the hormones of the named gland, which control the growth, as well as the development of the body,.

In the thyroid gland, with the participation of iodine, microorganisms in the blood are neutralized.

Iodine relaxes the increased painful tone of the nervous system.

The normal content of iodine increases mental activity.

Iodine rightfully occupies a leading position among the catalysts that control the processes of oxidation in cells.

Iodine stimulates the restoration of the energy tone of the body.

A person needs 0.2 mg per day. iodine.

Strontium is a naturally occurring trace element. In the human body, in addition to bones (99%), it is found in the blood, kidneys and liver. Strontium is also present in lymph nodes, ovaries and lungs.

We already mentioned this element in a previous article, talked about what happens in case of a lack of calcium.

Until recently, it was believed that strontium poses a danger to us. Yes, indeed - the isotope of strontium90 is radioactive, but natural strontium is necessary to maintain normal life.

Participates in the formation and protection of tooth enamel,

Strontium is an active participant in the process of bone formation,

Prevents skin diseases and

Correct exchange strontium in cells helps to prevent disorders in the work of the cardiac and vascular systems, digestive organs.

The daily norm for the body in strontium has not yet been precisely established, presumably it ranges from 1 mg. up to 3-4 mg.


We have considered a small part of the elements necessary for health. What else does our health depend on? We will talk about this in future articles.

Good health to you!

Tatyana Dmitrieva

Today it is difficult to find a person who consumes little salt. It is even more difficult to find a person who does not accept at all, but is limited to its content in products.

According to scientists, 0.5 grams of salt per day (1/10 of a teaspoon) is enough for our body to function normally. In this case, all need for salt satisfy the natural products we consume. For example, in one potato - 20 mg of salt, in one fresh tomato- 35 mg of salt. Thus, there is no need to add salt to the cooked food.

In fact, few people who follow these rules would find it easier to limit themselves to 5 grams of salt per day (1 teaspoon). For most people, this amount is enough to maintain their health in order. According to some reports, athletes, people involved in physical labor need more salt. On hot days, the need for salt increases due to its loss with sweat (4 g of salt per liter of sweat).

Here are some tips for reducing your salt intake:

      • Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. They can be eaten without problems without additional salt. They also contain a lot of potassium, which helps;
      • Refuse to take salty snacks (potatoes, snacks, salty cookies);
      • When cooking vegetables, try not to fully cook them, because in this state less salt is required to eat them;
      • Sometimes during cooking, to add flavor, replace salt with herbs: parsley, horseradish, garlic, onion, tarragon, or other herbs;
      • For cooking, choose recipes that do not require the addition of salt.

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