7 Good Reasons Why Salt IS Not Good For Your Heath

We all love salt in our food. In fact, without it, food tastes insipid. An average human adult needs about one gram of salt in his daily diet. Children, however, need a little less. But in most countries including India, the average daily salt intake outstrips this cap by a huge margin. This definitely is not a healthy practice and can cause a range of health issues. Below, you find the most important reasons why excessive intake of salt may be harmful to your body-

1. Blood pressure is the pressure that is exerted on the walls of your blood vessels when blood moves through them. Factors like being obese, low physical activity and especially high salt intake can cause the blood pressure to rise. High blood pressure is devastating for the health. A range of diseases caused due to high blood pressure is fatal in nature.
2. Another important reason to curb your salt intake is that an excess of it can cause strokes. Stroke is a health condition where the blood supply gets stopped to the brain of an individual. This is a debilitating condition. And a lot of people, who suffer from it, get inflicted by paralysis and a host of other issues. Deaths due to strokes are also very common these days. Having said that, stroke is not an unpreventable condition. Being strict with your salt intake can keep conditions like a stroke at an arm’s length.
3. Coronary heart disease is the term used to mean a lowered or lack of blood supply to the heart. This is the reason why heart failures and heart attacks are caused. High salt intake can trigger heart diseases, and in more serious cases things go out of control, leaving the afflicted dead. So, naturally, keeping away from excessively salty food will keep your heart healthy.
4. High salt diets can also increase the risk of stomach cancer. The bacteria H.Pylori present in the stomach of human beings can cause a great deal of damage to the stomach lining. An excessive intake of salt results in the inflammation of this lining, which makes it prone to H.Pylori infection. H.Pylori infected stomach lining is, in turn, becomes prone to cancer.
5. A high salt content in the body can also cause calcium present in bones to get dissolved and excreted through urine. That’s why salt is also an indirect cause of osteoporosis, a condition in which thinning of bones occur.
6. A lot of salt in your diet can also make your body prone to water retention. Believe it or not, the retention can go as high as 1.5 litres of water, which is alarming.
7. Excessive salt damages the kidneys in a major and irreparable way. And this has also been reiterated by a research study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. And once your kidneys are gone, there is no way, you can make your body function properly.

So, now that you know in what ways high intake of salt can damage the body, be careful the next time you reach for the can of salt to sprinkle some of it over your salad.