Sodium
(Na)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is sodium?
Sodium is an essential mineral necessary for proper hydration, digestion, absorption of nutrients, healthy nervous system functioning, and more. This mineral needs to be kept in balance with water and other electrolytes, such as potassium and magnesium, as too much salt without adequate intakes of these can lead to high blood pressure and other health problems. This article is about the main benefits of sodium, its potential side effects, how much sodium you need, and more.
What does sodium do in the body?
Sodium is an electrolyte, which means it can fully dissolve in water.
With a help of chloride, sodium attracts water molecules and transports them through the body.
Salt spends most of its time outside of human cells, hydrating the blood and other parts of extracellular fluid (fluids outside the cells).
While sodium itself cannot hydrate the cells in your body, it does so with a help of potassium. This process is called the sodium-potassium pump and consumes 20-40% of all body’s energy at rest.
In simplified terms, potassium hydrates all cells in the body, and sodium is needed to hydrate everything outside the cells.
Too much sodium increases the water content in the blood, which exerts more pressure on the walls of your blood vessels, causing high blood pressure. This increase in extracellular fluid can also lead to swelling.
Potassium can mitigate these risks to a great extent by moving excess sodium from the blood into the urine. This is why these electrolytes have to be kept in balance.
Besides hydrating the body, salt is also necessary for transporting food, digesting it, and absorbing glucose, amino acids, and some vitamins and minerals.
Sodium also helps transport most nutrients, hormones, toxins, and more.
This mineral is important for controlling the proper level of acidity in the body as a whole and individual tissues and compartments within cells.
Salt and potassium allow neurons to respond to neurotransmitters or other signals, and to transmit signals to other neurons or muscle cells.
How much sodium should you consume?
In general, all-caused mortality is at its lowest in people who consume 2000-3000 mg of sodium per day, which equals about 5-8 grams of salt.
To prevent sodium deficiency, you want to shoot for at least 2000 mg of sodium. Any less seems insufficient for anyone who is at least moderately active.
All-caused mortality starts increasing exponentially when people consume over 3500 mg of sodium, or about 9 grams of salt.
This doesn’t take into account that some people are more active than others and thus need more sodium. If you sweat a lot, you should get away with higher amounts of sodium, assuming you also drink enough water and consume enough potassium. Heavy sweating increases your need for sodium by 1000-3000 mg/d.
Potassium is needed to get rid of excess sodium and vice versa. Therefore, these two minerals should be kept in balance.
To prevent high blood pressure, you should consume at least 1 mg of potassium for every 1 mg of sodium.
The easiest way to find out whether or not you are consuming enough salt is by listening to your body. If you crave salt, you likely need more of it. If you are appalled by it and instead crave water, you should cut back on salt.
Possible side effects of too much sodium
These side effects are dose-dependent. The risk for them increases (often linearly but sometimes exponentially) as you increase the dose. Some of the side effects only apply to very high doses.
Who should lower their sodium intake?
You should probably lower your sodium intake if you:
Who needs more sodium?
You should probably increase your sodium intake if you:
Symptoms of sodium deficiency
Sodium deficiency is called hyponatremia. The most common signs of hyponatremia include:
Keep in mind that these signs are just indications of a deficiency. If you experience some or even most of them, it does not necessarily mean you need more sodium.
With that said, if you experience many or most of these symptoms, there is a high chance that you are not getting enough sodium. The more of these symptoms you have and the more severe they are, the more likely you are to have a deficiency.
All of these signs should disappear almost immediately after you consume sodium.
Types of salt
The different types of salt include:
Except for regular table salt, all other types of salt are great and worth consideration. Kosher salt and Himalayan salt may be slightly better than most types of sea salt since they do not contain nearly as many microplastics. However, the difference is tiny and sea salt is a great choice as well, especially if you are on a budget.
Food sources of sodium
Whole foods without added salt rarely contain considerable amounts of sodium. Most people get the majority of their salt intake from processed foods, such as deli meats, cheese, salted nuts, etc.
An average person in the developed world gets about 70-80% of salt from processed and prepared foods.
If you avoid processed food, you should get away with salting your food as much as you want and not overeat on salt, assuming you get a reasonable amount of potassium as well.
Best time to consume sodium
The best time to consume salt is when you are drinking water. It makes the water more hydrating and decreases the risks related to too much sodium.
Just like you do with drinking water, split your sodium intake evenly throughout the day as opposed to consuming all of it at once.
Assuming it doesn’t lead to dehydration, sodium does not interrupt your sleep in any way. It may actually help you fall asleep and stay asleep if you wake up to pee at night.
If you are practicing OMAD or other forms of time-restricted eating, simply make the food less salty and add some salt to your drinking water outside the meals.
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References
Most of the information provided in this guide is supported by scientific research that can be found and verified in the PubMed medical library. We highly encourage you to use the library to verify anything said in this article. We excluded from consideration studies that are either confounded or have a high conflict of interest.
We hope this guide has helped you determine how much sodium to consume.
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