Is Salt Really That Bad For You?

Too often, the foods we eat are loaded with unhealthy ingredients. In fact, items that are labeled as healthy, like vegetables and vitamin waters, are often laden with salt and other preservatives. While salt does, in fact, add a great deal of flavor to foods, an excess can be very unhealthy. There are numerous reasons why salt is bad for you – here are just a few.

Salt, or sodium as you will see it listed in ingredients labels, causes dehydration in the human body.  While a certain (small!) amount of this ingredient is good in order to balance the amount of water in your body, actually adding salt to anything beyond what is found in the food’s natural form will put the levels over what is needed. This can lead to dehydration and damage to your muscles if you eat a lot of salty food, such as potato chips and crisps.

Doctors agree that salt also raises blood pressure. For people who are in good health, this may not be a problem. However, for people who have marginal or high blood pressure, excess salt could lead to a host of problems, including heart damage, headaches, and even stroke.

In addition, salt should be avoided any time you are participating in vigorous activity such as exercise or sports, to stave off dehydration. Munching on a big bag of salty chips before you workout ‘for energy’ will actually harm your performance, not enhance it. 

There is a small amount of salt in almost everything that you eat. However, you should not add additional salt to your meals or snacks. It may taste great, but it is an unhealthy additive, especially to anyone who already has health problems.