The Salt Issue

I've seen a lot of people, particularly EDs, talking about how bad salt is because it makes you retain water and how you must cut it from your diet. I've also seen a lot of people talk about how wonderful vitamins are and how you must take great huge masses of them.

Western culture in particular has the habit of overgeneralizing. They see that too much salt is bad, so they say that salt itself is bad and must be avoided. They see that vitamins are needed, and so they declare that vitamins are good and must be religiously swallowed. In reality both of these viewpoints are flawed.

There must be balance. Too many vitamins is as dangerous and unhealthy as too few of them. Too little salt is as damaging to your body as too much. I know that EDs in particular tend to have all-or-nothing thinking patterns, so we're more likely to follow these one-sided views of good and bad, but sometimes for our own health and safety we must reconsider.

We're putting our bodies through an incredible amount of stress with our eating and not-eating habits, not to mention our purging, exercising, pill-popping, etcetera. It is vitally important that we do everything possible to keep our bodies stable and healthy at the same time. For this, we must be aware of what we need and how to keep ourselves in internal balance.

Read. Study. Not diet fads, not Weight-Watcher's tips, not the six o'clock news. Read the medical reports and scientific facts so you know the truth instead of whatever the latest book-selling poster child wants to preach. What we do is difficult and dangerous, and letting ourselves be misled into extremes only adds to that danger.

Back to salt in particular, since that seems to be one of the current big things. The reports about how salt levels need to be reduced are referring to the average person who eats a ton of processed, salt-covered food every day... not your average restricting ED, who will be eating far, far less. Know that not all water retention is bad. You must have water in your body for it to function properly. You must have salt for many reasons. For one thing, along with potassium and magnesium, sodium is key in maintaining a correct electrolyte and fluid balance... this keeps your heart and brain working. Yes, too much is bad, and water bloating sucks. But with too little you can hurt yourself badly. Find the balance.