The Hard Sell on Salt

Here in Southern California getting people to consume enough salt on hikes is really hard. Ignore all the pop-science warnings about salt if you are a hiker. You need it.

Don't have to sell me. I love salt. Probably gonna kill me some day.

Salt may not kill me, but it has a part in some of the chronic medical conditions that plague me. I have to take two high blood pressure pills per day.

–B.G.–

I too have high blood pressure, taking ace inhibitors. My home diet trys to keep to 3 grams per day. When away backpacking that slips a bit but I never add salt. Even when sweating in hot countries I have never been inconvenienced by this policy. I think if you take little salt your sweat becomes less salty. Anyway no salt added when backpacking works for me.

+3 on one who doesn't consume a ton of salt while hiking. Why? Plain and simple – the vast majority of us get plenty of sodium in our diet – we do NOT need to add more.
There is more to that though – keep hydrated and eat small noshes often when in hot weather. The issue is that people get dehydrated, then chug water and strip their body of electrolytes. Had they eaten they would have been a lot better off.
It isn't just sodium – potassium is as important if not more.

Healthy kidneys will retain what you need – too much sodium hurts the kidneys (renal failure is often contributed to life long undiagnosed high blood pressure, the high BP taxes the kidneys – and a high sodium diet is of no help).

My suggestions came from a specialist I saw years ago – who told me to stay balanced after I complained of becoming dizzy on hot days when I was dehydrated (something most don't know is that if you take BP meds and become dehydrated your BP can actually dip VERY low. Not fun!) I eat now often and always incorporate potassium rich foods in with it. Think dried apricots or very lightly salted kettle potato chips with your water.

The worst thing most of us can do is sit down at 8 pm and eat a meal that has 3K of sodium in it. We don't need it! Everything in moderation – and sadly much of the commercial food has too much (it helps preserve it). We don't have to dehydrate food persay but keeping an eye on what you eat is a good start.

OTOH….folks doing extreme miles are a different sort (for example those doing 25 miles and up a day, or those running marathons). They should be really, really watching their electrolytes- but again….it isn't just salt!

"The worst thing most of us can do is sit down at 8 pm and eat a meal that has 3K of sodium in it."

I'm totally with you on that one. When I realized exactly how much salt those suckers had in them, I immediately decided that I'd be doing my own dehydrating in order to keep my food load light.

Hear the real story here:
http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/users/rice/Stat2/salt.html

It's got so I don't even take any salt in our food supplies any more.

Cheers