Watch that salt in your food, say doctors
It has a direct relation to hypertension, cardiovascular diseases
Bengaluru: Salt, which is considered an essential part of our diet, is often consumed and added to our food in large amounts to replenish the sodium in our body. However, city doctors feel the body does not need more than a teaspoonful of salt and excessive consumption of salt, they say, can lead to hypertension, hypernatremia, fluid retention and a host of other diseases.
“Salt consumption, even though recommended, should be limited and I advise patients not to add too much of salt,” says Dr Chandrashekar, Consultant and Joint Replacement surgeon from Sakra World Hospital. He says that salt is one of the elements in our diet that can actually reduce bone density, increasing the risk of osteoporosis.
Dr Vinod Reddy, Consultant, Internal Medicine, Columbia Asia Hospital, Whitefield and Yashomati Hospitals, sees around thirty hypertension cases every day and advises them to cut down on salt as one of the essential lifestyle modification requirements.
“Salt has a direct relation to hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. It directly increases the blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attacks," says Dr Vinod, who also strictly asserts that people should avoid excessive salt intake as it has deleterious effects.
“What people should understand is that at initial stages, the kidney will be able to process the excessive salt but as years progress the kidney will not be able to process it any longer, leading to damaging effects on the heart,” says Dr Vinod.
Salt is thought to speed up the body's loss of calcium. According to doctors, most of us consume 9g of salt a day, but the recommended limit is 6g, which is just a teaspoonful.
Consuming more sodium than the maximum daily recommended intake is harmful, stress doctors.
"It sucks calcium from the body, leading to osteoporosis and causes fractures," adds Dr Chandrashekar.
“Just 2-3 gram of salt per day is sufficient and people should understand that. I advise patients not to pursue tasty food,” asserts Dr Vinod, who sums up the subject with, “Just cut down around 20% of salt in normal cooking and do not add extra salt only to make it tastier.”
( Source : dc )
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