🧂 Is Salt Really Bad for You? What the Science Actually Says

For years, salt has been labeled a dietary villain — blamed for heart disease, high blood pressure, and more. But current science tells a different story. If you’re eating a mostly whole-food diet, training hard, or just trying to feel better day-to-day, cutting salt may be doing more harm than good.

Let’s break it down.

🧪 The Study That Made Salt a Scapegoat — And Why It’s Flawed

The widespread fear of salt began in the 1970s, largely influenced by research from epidemiologist Dr. Lewis Dahl, who claimed high sodium intake caused hypertension.

But his conclusions had serious flaws:

• They were based on animal studies where rats were given human-equivalent sodium doses 100x higher than typical intake

• Cross-cultural studies failed to adjust for key variables like genetics, stress, diet quality, and lifestyle

  
  

Despite the weak evidence, this work influenced public health policy and the first Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which advised blanket sodium restriction — a recommendation that stuck for decades.

🔄 What New Research Actually Shows

Today, high-quality studies paint a clearer — and very different — picture.

🧾 The PURE Study (Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology)

• Followed over 100,000 people across 18 countries

• Found lowest cardiovascular risk in people consuming 3,000–5,000mg of sodium per day

• Linked very low sodium intake (below 3,000mg) to higher cardiovascular mortality, especially when potassium intake was also low

• Reinforced the importance of the sodium-to-potassium ratio, not sodium alone

  
  

Other large-scale reviews (BMJ, The Lancet) now show that moderate sodium intake is not harmful in the context of a nutrient-rich diet and healthy lifestyle — and that potassium intake and insulin resistance are stronger predictors of heart disease.

🧠 What Salt Actually Does in Your Body

Salt isn’t just a flavor enhancer — it plays a critical physiological role in nearly every system of the body. Sodium, the primary component of salt, is an essential electrolyte that your body needs to survive. Without it, hydration, nerve signaling, and muscle function would break down quickly.

Here’s a deeper look at what salt really does inside your body:

💧 1. Maintains Fluid Balance & Hydration

Sodium helps regulate the amount of fluid in and around your cells, ensuring you maintain proper blood volume and pressure. It works with potassium to pull water into cells or flush it out when needed. Without enough sodium, especially if you're sweating or losing fluids, you can experience dehydration, dizziness, or even hyponatremia — a dangerous drop in blood sodium levels.

⚡ 2. Enables Nerve Function & Muscle Contraction

Every time your brain sends a signal to move a muscle or regulate your heartbeat, sodium is involved. It’s essential in the sodium-potassium pump, a mechanism that helps fire nerve impulses and contract muscle fibers. Low sodium can lead to:

• Muscle cramps

• Sluggish nerve responses

• Irregular heartbeat or fatigue during workouts

  
  

🧃 3. Supports Nutrient Transport

Sodium helps shuttle glucose, amino acids, and nutrients into your cells for energy and repair. It’s also critical for maintaining cellular pH and proper function. Without it, cells can’t absorb nutrients efficiently — leading to low energy, reduced performance, or poor recovery.

🔥 4. Aids in Digestion

Salt stimulates the production of hydrochloric acid (HCl) in your stomach, which is necessary to break down food — especially protein — and kill harmful pathogens. If you’ve ever experienced bloating or poor digestion on a low-sodium diet, this could be why.

🕹️ 5. Regulates Adrenal Function & Cortisol

Your adrenal glands rely on a steady balance of sodium to help regulate aldosterone and cortisol, both of which are crucial for stress response and fluid balance. In low-salt states (especially under stress), adrenal fatigue symptoms like craving salt, brain fog, or chronic fatigue can show up.

🏃‍♂️ 6. Supports Performance & Endurance

Athletes or active individuals lose a large amount of sodium through sweat, especially in hot environments. Without adequate replenishment, performance drops, recovery slows, and cramping or lightheadedness becomes common. This is why electrolyte-rich hydration, not just plain water, is recommended during and after intense training.

🏃‍♀️ Who Needs More Salt?

✅ 1. Everyone

Yes — everyone needs salt. Sodium is an essential nutrient that the body cannot produce on its own, and it’s involved in everything from nerve conduction to muscle function and cellular hydration. Even the average sedentary person uses sodium daily through:

• Basal metabolic functions

• Urine excretion

• Breathing and perspiration

Without enough sodium, symptoms like low energy, headaches, brain fog, dizziness, and poor exercise tolerance can occur. Especially on clean, whole-food diets that are low in processed foods, it's common to accidentally under-consume sodium unless it’s added intentionally. Salt is not optional — it’s foundational.

💪 2. Athletes & Active Individuals

When you sweat, you lose both water and sodium. Replacing just the water can dilute your electrolyte balance and lead to hyponatremia (low sodium levels). Athletes — especially those training in heat — need extra salt to maintain:

• Hydration

• Muscle function

• Performance output

Many sports-related headaches, cramps, and fatigue are actually electrolyte-related, not dehydration alone.

🥑 3. Low-Carb or Keto Eaters

When carbs are reduced, insulin drops, and the kidneys begin to excrete more sodium and water. This is why people on keto often feel the effects of the so-called “keto flu”: fatigue, lightheadedness, and cramps — all symptoms of sodium loss. For these individuals, increasing sodium helps regulate energy and blood pressure.

🥦 4. Clean Eaters / Whole Food Dieters

If your diet is made up of mostly unprocessed foods — which is a great thing — you’re also not getting the sodium that comes hidden in processed snacks, frozen meals, and condiments. That means you need to add it yourself with intention. Whole foods like fruits, veggies, and lean meats are naturally low in sodium, so clean eaters often require more salt than they realize.

🛑 The Real Risk Factors for Heart Disease

Salt isn’t the problem. These are:

• Ultra-processed foods: High in sugar, trans fats, and isolated sodium — a triple threat for inflammation

• Insulin resistance: Caused by excess sugar and carbs, not salt

• Chronic stress: Raises cortisol, which can increase blood pressure independently of salt

• Inflammation: Linked to poor sleep, bad diets, and lack of movement — not your sea salt

• Sedentary lifestyle: Exercise improves vascular health and sodium balance

  
  

📊 What Redmond Real Salt & New Studies Show

Redmond Real Salt — an unrefined, mineral-rich sea salt from Utah — has supported recent studies that suggest:

• Unrefined salts may help maintain electrolyte balance better than ultra-processed table salt

• Participants using mineral salts reported better hydration and digestion, even at similar sodium levels

• Trace minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium in unrefined salt support healthy blood pressure, balancing the effects of sodium

In short: the quality of your salt matters just as much as the quantity.

🔁 Sodium-to-Potassium Ratio: The Real Metric to Watch

It’s not about low sodium — it’s about balancing sodium and potassium. A poor sodium-to-potassium ratio (typical in junk food diets) can strain the kidneys and blood vessels. The fix?

• Eat more potassium-rich foods: leafy greens, avocados, bananas, potatoes

• Pair with high-quality salt, like Redmond or Celtic sea salt

🧂 General Guidelines for Daily Sodium Needs

1. Standard Baseline for Healthy Adults

• Recommended Minimum: ~1,500–2,300 mg of sodium/day(That’s about ¾ to 1 teaspoon of salt)

• Functional Range for Active People: ~3,000–5,000 mg/day

The upper limit (2,300 mg) often cited by health authorities is outdated and aimed at people eating highly processed diets. Research now shows most active individuals thrive at higher intakes when salt is balanced with potassium and hydration.

🔢 Personalized Salt Calculation (Functional Approach)

👟 For Active People:

A good starting point: 500–1,000 mg of sodium lost per hour of exercise, especially in heat

👇 Here's a simple formula:

Daily Sodium Needs = Baseline (1,500–2,000 mg) + (1,000 mg × Hours of exercise)

🧂 Example:

• 1 hour of moderate-to-heavy exercise

• 2,000 mg (baseline) + 1,000 mg (exercise loss) = ~3,000 mg/day

If you're on keto or low-carb, you may need closer to 4,000–6,000 mg/day, due to increased sodium excretion.

🔁 Convert Sodium to Salt

Salt (NaCl) is about 40% sodium by weight.

To convert:

• 1 gram of sodium = 2.5 grams of salt

• 2,300 mg sodium ≈ 1 teaspoon of salt

So if you need ~4,000 mg of sodium/day, that equals ~10 grams of salt, or about 1.75 teaspoons.

📝 Final Word

Salt is not the health villain it's been made out to be. In fact, it’s a critical electrolyte that your body relies on for everything from muscle function to energy and brain health.

The real problem lies in processed food, low potassium intake, and lifestyle factors — not the salt you sprinkle on a home-cooked meal.

📊 Instead of cutting out salt entirely, focus on:

• Eating a whole-foods diet

• Balancing sodium with potassium

• Reducing processed food

• Staying active

• Managing blood sugar and inflammation

Salt wisely — and fearlessly.