Why does salt taste good on our tongues? On the contrary, it burns us in the morning.
But she also burns us on the tongue. If you take too much of it, it will burn your tongue. It is simply its chemical structure and the characteristic of salt that it burns, that it eats away at the structure of our body. On the other hand, it also disinfects.
Ing. Hana Střítecka, DiS., Ph.D.
Nutritional therapist, chemical technologist, university teacher from the Faculty of Military Health of the University of Defense and director of the association Fair food. In his practice, he tries to raise the awareness of the general population about the problems associated with obesity, the technological procedures of food production and orientation in their offer.
But we all like her.
We need her. We are talking about salt, but it is not about the salt itself, but about the sodium contained in it. This is a mineral that we very much need. It is not only that it is connected to high blood pressure, but it actually controls how much water we will have in the cell, how much water we will have in the intercellular space, whether nerve impulses will be transmitted to us.
We take in a lot of sodium and relatively little potassium. That is why, for example, some matters in our body do not work as they should.
Ing. Hana Střítecka, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University
It has a huge number of properties and bonuses, in short, we cannot do without sodium. But on the other hand, if we have too much of him again, then he does what he doesn’t have. So instead of keeping water in the cells, it instead flows out of the cells and stays in the intercellular space. And we don’t want that. It’s not just about sodium, though.
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What is in table salt?
Not what’s in table salt, but what I need in my body to counter that sodium. So we have a so-called sodium-potassium pump. So, the more sodium I have, the more potassium I should have to balance it out. And we have a big disparity in that we get a lot of sodium and relatively little potassium. That is why, for example, some matters in our body do not work as they should.
The salt is 94 to 95 percent, depending on which salt we have, sodium chloride, that’s the base. And then there are other minerals that are packed into the salt depending on whether it is sea salt or rock salt. For example, the special Hawaiian salt also has a little clay in it, and according to the composition, the proportion of the salt itself as such decreases and the proportion of other minerals increases.
If you have high blood pressure and are advised to reduce your salt intake, look at where you are taking in salt and try to do something about it.
Ing. Hana Střítecka, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University
I remember the fairy tale Once upon a time there was a king and salt over gold. But not in every case, I feel.
Of course. Too much salt is bad. But otherwise, salt is really worth more than gold. We cannot live without salt, even animals need salt in winter and are given salt to lick. They seek out the just-mentioned sodium, so they consume things where this mineral is found. And then it’s okay.
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Because it is also due to the fact that sodium helps with the entry of, for example, glucose, it helps some amino acids to get into the cell and work there as they should. So we really need him. It’s not just evil, but in the right amount.
Czechs belong to the nations that use the most salt. Why?
Maybe also thanks to our traditional cuisine, because if you have something greasy and it wasn’t salty, we probably wouldn’t like it very much. And the second thing, it’s also about habit. And salt is also added when alcohol is consumed. We usually crave something more salty.
How much salt should we consume daily?
The right limit is between 5 and 7 grams. However, according to statistics, we salt 15 to 25 grams per day. We do not go below 15 grams.
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But most people don’t even salt their food anymore. Because salt is just everywhere.
On the one hand, it is said that we get the most salt in the ready-made foods we buy. But I must say that we were investigating this with students, where we calculated salt intake from what people buy and then from how they add salt. And we assumed that a significantly larger share is from what we desalt. Because many people don’t taste the food at all and just put salt on it, or magi, which is monosodium glutamate.
A lot of the things we add to our food also contain sodium, so we add other sources of sodium, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be salt directly. So it’s a problem with both processed foods and our seasonings.
Most people have dulled taste buds. Consider, the more intense the salty and sweet taste we are used to, the sooner the taste buds become numb. And you have to add even more next time to make the food taste good. So these people are constantly increasing their sodium intake.
And then, of course, it has to do with age. We all know it, we were used to our grandmothers and mothers not adding salt, and suddenly we feel that they add a lot of salt. It’s because it loses its flavor. So this is another way that, unfortunately, more salt gets into our diet.
If you have high blood pressure and are advised to reduce your salt intake, look at where you are consuming salt and try to do something about it. For example, replace the mineral water with ordinary water, try not to add salt, use herbs, garlic, chives, simply something that has a strong taste, but is not salt. And then, of course, look at the composition of processed foods.
The whole salty radio consultation with Ing. You can listen to Hana Střítecka from the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in our audio archive.
