Aside from the Super Bowl, there are few things Americans are as passionate about as salt. Do you know Americans consumed as much as 53 million metric tons of salt in 2020 alone?
And yes, fast food vendors are aware of this Romeo-and-Juliet romance between Americans and salt; hence why they dutifully stack their products with salt.
Salt – when modestly consumed – is an essential part of your diet. As one of the body’s core electrolytes, salt (in sodium) plays a critical role in regulating body fluids and enhancing muscle and nerve function. Furthermore, your body needs sodium to manage blood volume and pressure appropriately.
However, salt quickly transits from hero to villain when it is immodestly consumed. This is particularly dangerous for people with kidney issues.
You May Also Like
Let us start by examining the effects of excessive salt consumption.
How dangerous is excess salt?
Malfunctioning kidneys struggle with managing excess salt in your body. This can result in an unhealthy accumulation of fluid and sodium.
How does this manifest? Swollen ankles, blood pressure hikes, and unnatural puffiness in sections of your body are some of the signals of your kidneys struggling to manage salt.
It is the kidney’s full-time job to dispose of excess water from the body. It performs this by filtering your blood. For your kidney to successfully execute this, it needs
