Nutrition, Diet and Health Tips

When it comes to disease prevention or even management, there’s more at play than diet. Statistically, genes contribute like 20% to disease occurrence and the remaining 80% is centred on lifestyle, diet, environment, social aspects, habits and more. This is the reason why we have some blanket recommendations for a certain population in a different exposure and the same might not work for another population with different dynamics.

I am just from a tiktok live and someone calling themself a doctor was confidently telling his mass to stop eating, and increase their intake of salt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in agreement that intermittent fasting has beneficial health aspects and I also agree taking water with salt while doing intermittent fasting or Keto is very important to correct electrolyte losses that are common with reduced insulin production ( losses in the kidneys) but telling people that they can have as much salt as they want is wrong.

Salt just like any other food additive, intake should be regulated and controlled. It’s an ion that is needed in small amounts and if your diet is rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole foods, an additional of upto 2300mg/ day is sufficient enough. If your diet is rich in highly processed foods, then the intake needs to be lower. Over-consumption of sodium ( found in salt) has been linked to hypertension, cardiovascular risk and more. There’s strong evidence on reduced salt Intake with better markers of health..

Dietary sodium is reabsorbed in the renal tubes. When you increase sodium intake, your body’s water retention will increase ( basic osmosis) water molecules moves from a lower solute concentration to higher ( in this case reabsorbed because of sodium which is a solute).

The available standard guidelines have their shortcomings and all but remember before you blindly start following teachings, it’s important to do some small digging and reading. End of rant 🥳🥳🥳💯💯

As always, sending you love and light and a Happy New Month ❤️😘.

Lilian Mumina
Registered Dietitian
Mumina Wellness Solutions.