Is Salt A Silent Killer? Let's Discuss...

0:00Sunna Van Kampen:Welcome to Catching Up With The Royals, a brand new show with me, Richard Coles. And me, Emily Andrews. Every week we'll be going beyond the headlines, lifting the lid on what life is really like behind the palace walls. Hello sir, good morning. I'm the Sun's new royal correspondent. Oh, he said, look at me up and down. Things are looking up. We'll be diving into the moments everyone's talking about. What does the world owe you if all of a sudden you've handed back your crown? Meghan and Harry can't keep hold of their stuff. We'll reveal the secrets of an organisation usually shrouded in mystery and explore defining moments of royal history to see how the past still shapes the monarchy today.

0:38Now, you actually knew Princess Anne.

0:40Sunna Van Kampen:I think one of the ways she acquired power was through that relationship with the present. But before that interview, no-one had really spoken and been so open. Was that a game-changer? So join us every week wherever you get your podcasts, on YouTube and on Saturdays on 5, as we catch up with the Royals. Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by Nature Raised Farms. Grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate Nature Raised Farms. It's chicken that's just chicken, and their lightly breaded chicken nuggets are free from gluten, dairy, and soy.

1:25Look for Nature Raised Farms on your next grocery trip and feel more confident about your choices.

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2:20Welcome back to The Unprocessed Truth. And today we're tackling another juicy one where for decades we've been told to avoid salt. And weirdly, today one of the biggest trends in health and wellness is electrolytes consuming more salt. So what's going on when health authorities have warned us that salt is dangerous and we should keep our intake low to protect against high blood pressure and heart disease. Supermarkets have been filled with low sodium labels and doctors have repeated the same advice, eat less salt. But salt has made this incredible comeback. Electrolyte powders, hydration mixes and even people adding salt to their morning water has become a full-blown Instagram health and wellness trend.

3:18So how did we get here from cut out salt to supplement with salt in just a couple of years? So let's get into it. Let's break down the truth and explore today the difference between table salt and real salt, why salt isn't the whole story, and how context, as always, matters and changes everything. so the background salt as this villain we should avoid it was an idea from the mid-20th century again when we didn't know as much as we know now where early studies found that people who ate very high salt diets tended to have higher blood pressure which increased the risk of stroke or heart disease from there public health messages became simply less salt equals better health But the story isn't that simple as ever.

4:13Later research showed that not everyone responds to salt in the same way. Some people are called salt sensitive. Their blood pressure really does rise when they eat more sodium. But many others are relatively unaffected. In fact, some studies show very low salt intake is linked with higher rates of insulin resistance, stress hormone release, and even cardiovascular problems. So like cholesterol, salt in isolation tells us very little without the context and the nuance of the subject. So let's get into it. Table salt versus real salt. As ever, processing and ultra-processing a food ingredient can have negative effects on what it does when it's put in our body.

5:04So if we look at table salt, it's highly processed. It's pure sodium chloride with often added anti-caking agents to stop it pumping. Most table salt is iodized, which can be helpful for preventing thyroid issues, but otherwise it's strict of all natural compounds. On the other side, if we look at unrefined sea salt and proper traditional mineral salts like Celtic sea salt or Himalayan rock salt. They contain sodium chloride obviously, but they also contain up to 80 other natural trace minerals, including magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, and iron. So these trace minerals are present in very small amounts.

5:54therefore we've mostly dismissed them but they play roles in hydration enzyme function and nerve signaling and the overall balance in our body so the difference isn't night and day nutritionally but unrefined salts do provide a broader spectrum of minerals and often taste better which encourages more mindful use. But let's get into the key reason why or how sodium actually affects our health. So this comes down to something called the sodium and potassium balance, one of the most important, most overlooked aspects of salt and health. So this is where the sodium to potassium ratio that's in the salt we consume is really important.

6:45Most processed diets are very high in sodium through fast food, ready meals, you name it. But again, the quality of salt is low. So you're not getting any potassium in there. So you see a diet that is high in sodium, low in potassium with an ultra processed food diet. And this is where potassium comes in. Potassium actually helps relax blood vessels and counteracts sodium's effect on blood pressure. So diets rich in fruits, lagoons and whole foods naturally bring this ratio back into balance through potassium, balancing out the effects of salt. So really, it's not about too much sodium. It's actually about Too much sodium without enough potassium.

7:35So a good electrolyte would always have sodium and a good level of potassium. So you're getting that optimal blend. So let's look at the hydration trend. Why are people suddenly adding salt to their diets? Well, it comes down to hydration and electrolytes. electrolytes and minerals including sodium potassium magnesium calcium among other things that help regulate our fluid balance they help with muscle contractions and nerve signals so if you're active and sweating a lot you probably are losing a lot of electrolytes and water alone won't replace those you need to add electrolytes for optimal hydration if you take a typical gym session you can lose anywhere between 500 and 1 ,500 milligrams of sodium in a one hour gym session.

8:35Obviously it depends how hard you go but that's why athletes often supplement with electrolytes and here's where unrefined salts come in. Again those trace minerals make the difference because instead of just the sodium chloride you're actually replenishing with more minerals which is really important to have that broad spectrum so we've flipped the script this is where social media primarily and the advancements in technology like instagram and ai drive our learning at a speed that never used to happen it used to take decades for health knowledge to change but in just I would say 18 months in the UK, electrolytes and hydration have gone from nothing to one of the biggest wellness trends almost overnight.

9:32Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by Nature Raised Farms. Grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate Nature Raised Farms. It's chicken that's just chicken. And their lightly breaded chicken nuggets are free from gluten, dairy and soy. Look for Nature Raised Farms on your next grocery trip and feel more confident about your choices. Quick question. When was the last time a display ad changed your mind? Now think about the last time a friend told you about something they loved.

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10:44so this is where really the too much sodium story is useful in the context of a processed food and sedentary lifestyle but it's not useful in the context of active people living a healthy diet eating whole foods and a bit of extra salt can actually help us and not hinder us and it can improve energy and it can improve our performance and it can improve even our focus at work being properly hydrated can really improve our focus just a two percent decline in our hydration can have as much as a 20 percent impact on our focus on our energy and our performance so it's a really interesting world so as a way i like to look at data that kind of shows us a different view to help bring these things to life and this is where we're not looking at the French paradox we're looking at the Japanese this is a real world case study from Japan because on average the Japanese consumes from the highest levels of salt in the world if you think about they put soy sauce on everything they love their miso soups and their pickled foods which add salt to the pickling process.

12:05So by old public health logic, this would make Japan a hotspot for heart disease. But here's again the paradox. Japan also has some of the highest life expectancies in the world and relatively low rates of cardiovascular disease compared to Western nations. And this is down to the context. The Japanese diet is also rich in seafood, vegetables, seaweed, all of which contain good levels of potassium which help balance those sodium effects. Add into the fact that they have relatively active lifestyles, lower obesity rates and strong social cultural dynamics and you see again that salt isn't the enemy, it's part of a bigger picture.

12:54So this is where we all need to take these subjects with nuance and balance because the The answer is always not is salt good or is salt bad. The answer is it depends. It depends if your diet is heavily processed because you're probably getting too much sodium and not enough potassium. It depends if you're eating a whole food, healthy diet, you exercise regularly, you sweat a lot because then you might benefit from more salt. And also the type of salt. So obviously a highly processed bleached salt with anti-cagent agents is not the same as a natural sea salt or mineral salt like Himalayan pink salt.

13:39So to get more potassium, make sure you eat plenty of vegetables, fruits and beans and leafy greens to balance out that sodium. You can check your blood pressure. It is still a very useful medical tool, but it will tell you more. And you should always check your blood pressure. It is a very useful medical tool and it will always tell you more than tracking your salt. And you can buy blood pressure trackers or measuring tools from the internet really cheaply and keep an eye on your own blood pressure at home rather than worrying about the salt you consume. So hydration and electrolytes and sodium is context dependent.

14:27as always I'm not a doctor nothing here should be taken as medical advice if you have high blood pressure kidney issues or concerns about your salt intake you need to speak to your doctor or qualified health professional it is a mineral that can have an impact in your body in different ways so the context is dependent and you need to look at the whole picture from a trained professional I'm just here to ask some of the questions and try and shed light on a topic that I believe is widely misunderstood. Because like cholesterol, salt is not the villain it's been made out to be. The truth is always more nuanced.

15:10It's not about cutting it out or overdoing it. It's about finding the right balance in the bigger picture of your diet, your lifestyle and your metabolic health. and in this case finding the right balance between sodium and potassium so thanks again for tuning in if you found this perspective helpful please share it with someone who's still stressing about salt on their food and remember health isn't about restriction it's about context it's about balance it's about habits that you can build into your life that last for years because health is made over years, not over a singular choice. So until next time, stay healthy and stay curious to learn more about your body and the fascinating things it can do for your health by giving it the right tools to thrive.

16:10Hi, this is Monica Reinagle of Nutrition Diva. Today's show is sponsored by nature-raised farms, grocery shopping can be a little overwhelming, especially if you're reading labels. And in my opinion, chicken shouldn't be complicated, which is why I appreciate nature-raised farms. It's chicken that's just chicken, and their lightly breaded chicken nuggets are free from gluten, dairy, and soy. Look for nature-raised farms on your next grocery trip and feel more confident about your choices. Here's a tip for you. There's a podcast out there with fans waiting to be your next customer. They tune in every week, they trust the host, and that host wants to talk about brands like yours in their own words to their audience.

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