SALT AND YOUR BODY

Every living cell in your body is bathed in a salt solution. The liquid part of the blood, plasma, is nine tenths water; in it are dissolved and carried the proteins, other food substances, gases and salts which our bodies require.

Sodium enables the red corpuscles in the bloodstream to carry vital oxygen to the tissues and to rid the body of harmful carbon dioxide.

Salt also helps to digest foods and turn them into living tissues; the salt we eat is easily absorbed into the bloodstream. Certain glands take salt from the blood and convert it to hydrochloric acid which forms part of our digestive juices and aids in the breaking-down of proteins. Sodium helps to transmit the nerve impulses which contract the muscles.

The body will not function properly unless the ratio of salt to water in the bloodstream remains nearly constant. A system of safe-guards prevents the intake of too much salt. First, heavily salted food is unpalatable; second, salt in large quantities acts as an emetic and would be rejected by the stomach; third, the kidneys filter out and eliminate any minor excess of salt.

Similarly when our intake of salt is too low for our needs the kidneys make every effort to retain all they can. The retentive power of the kidneys is not always adequate and we then suffer from salt deficiency. The symptoms of salt deficiency are weariness, lassitude, dizziness, heat cramps and sometimes prostration.

Because of the danger of salt deficiency, a salt-poor diet should not be undertaken unless prescribed by a physician. Salt deficiency had tragic effects on Napoleon's army in the great retreat from Moscow. The army's precious salt had to be left behind, and the lack of salt in the diet of the defeated stragglers added thousands to the toll taken by battle and exposure. When every pound counted on the Berlin Airlift at the end of World War II, salt was one of the all-important items that had to be carried in by the ton.