Salt: we learned it differently

You add more salt and feel slightly guilty about it.

Salt is what you’re supposed to reduce - that’s what we’ve all been taught.

And yet, without sodium, literally nothing works in your body.

Every nerve impulse depends on it.

So does every muscle contraction.

Even sugar and amino acids can only enter your cells with sodium.

And your blood volume depends directly on it.

This is where it gets interesting.

If you consistently get too little sodium, your blood volume drops somewhat.

Your body can’t allow that, because your brain needs pressure in the system.

So it activates an emergency program that retains sodium.

Renin and aldosterone rise, along with noradrenaline.

The latter is a stress hormone, and it keeps you alert and tense.

That’s why the signs are so subtle that they’re almost always misinterpreted.

• Brief dizziness when standing up quickly.
• Heart palpitations for no apparent reason.
• Restlessness in the evening, even though the day was calm.
• A tiredness that feels like tension rather than exhaustion.

Ray Peat saw salt as one of the simplest ways to counter this chronic tension, because otherwise your body has to "buy" the missing amount with stress hormones.

You’re particularly affected if you sweat a lot, drink a lot of coffee, train regularly and eat little processed food.

In that case, you often eat significantly less salt than you think.

Don’t misunderstand this: eating unprocessed food is exactly the right thing to do.

It’s just that most of the salt in today’s diet comes from processed foods, and when those are eliminated, the salt goes too.

How high the price for that can be is shown by a large review of more than one hundred controlled studies.

In people with normal blood pressure, consuming less salt lowered blood pressure by about one millimetre of mercury.

Practically nothing, in other words.

At the same time, noradrenaline rose by around 27 percent and aldosterone by more than double.

A tiny gain, but a high price.

Important: If you have high blood pressure or take relevant medication, this does not automatically apply to you; that’s something to discuss with a doctor.

For everyone else, the takeaway is surprisingly simple.

Salt your food to taste, not according to a rule.

If you crave something salty after exercise, a sauna or a hot day, that isn’t a loss of control but feedback.

For many people, a glass of water with a pinch of salt and a spoonful of honey in the morning makes more difference than the next supplement.

Your body rarely sends signals for no reason.

We’ve simply forgotten how to listen to it.

Best wishes

Your Raw Animal Team