Salt Increases the Risk of Diabetes

Salt isn't just a risk factor for diabetes. It can also weaken the heart and irritate the kidneys, favor high blood pressure and promote obesity. Salt is a kind of flavor enhancer. Without salt, many people would not eat half as much.

Today hardly anyone can imagine a diet without salt. However, salt is not consumed because one would think, 'I mustn't forget my daily portion of sodium chloride' when salting it, but because our sense of taste is so fixated on salt (and sugar) that a dish without salt (or without sugar) is possible. no longer tastes good. No wonder, since small children already eat at the table and are also given all the heavily salted foods.

Therefore, many people no longer even notice how too salty their daily meals actually are. The least amount of salt comes from the in-house salt shaker. Rather, it is the finished products that you buy already heavily salted, e.g. B. sausage, cheese, spreads, sauces, soups, crackers, bread, baked goods, tortellini, and much more.

8 to 10 grams of salt per day is not uncommon

In this way you can easily get up to 8 or even 10 g of salt per day - even though officially no more than 5 to 6 g is recommended. But who likes to stick to the rules? The regulatory mechanisms in the body would be happy about it. Because they have to remove the excessive amounts of salt from the organism every day.

Previous research has raised the suspicion that excessive salt consumption increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, possibly because salt directly promotes insulin resistance or because high salt consumption is linked to high blood pressure and obesity - both of which are considered risk factors for diabetes.

Salt not only increases the risk of type 2 diabetes but also type 1 diabetes

Apparently, with high salt consumption - according to a Swedish study by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm - type 1 diabetes, namely LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes), is much more likely to develop.

This form of diabetes leads to autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Compared to conventional type 1 diabetes, however, LADA develops much more slowly, often over many years, which is why it only occurs in adults. There is therefore also a risk that type 2 diabetes will be incorrectly diagnosed.

Diabetes risk increases by 43 to 73 percent

The Swedish study was carried out by Dr. Bahareh Rasouli at the Stockholm Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM). Rasouli and colleagues tried to find out exactly where the connection between salt consumption and type 2 diabetes and LADA is to be found.

The research team used data from an existing study on the risk factors of LADA and type 2 diabetes. 355 LADA and 1136 type 2 diabetes cases were compared with a control group (1379 people).

A genetic predisposition for diabetes was taken into account in the study, as well as energy intake, exercise, alcohol, and nicotine consumption, BMI, and nutrient supply.

The subjects were divided into three groups:

• Group 1: Consumed less than 2.4 g sodium per day, i.e. less than 6 g salt.
• Group 2: Consumed between 2.4 and 3.15 g sodium (6 to 7.9 g salt) daily.
• Group 3: Consumed more than 3.15 g of sodium per day (more than 7.9 g of salt).

Per gram of extra sodium consumed (i.e. per 2.5 grams of salt) the risk of type 2 diabetes rose by 43 percent and the LADA risk by 73 percent.

Less salt: protection against diabetes

Those who had a genetic weakness for diabetes and belonged to group 3 at the same time had a four-fold risk of developing a LADA than those who were also genetically determined but belonged to group 1, i.e. consumed little salt.

The authors of the study wrote: 'We confirm the suspected connection between sodium intake and type 2 diabetes. For genetically predisposed people there is also a connection with LADA.' They suggested that these new findings could be incorporated into diabetes prevention, so adults should be advised - in addition to other recommendations, of course - to eat only moderate amounts of salt if they wanted to remain diabetes-free. What does 'moderate' mean? We need sodium, but not necessarily table salt.

Moderately officially means not to exceed the above recommendations for 5 to 6 g of salt. In reality, the organism would have nothing against significantly less salt. Because we actually need sodium (and many other minerals), but not necessarily table salt.

However, like any other mineral, sodium is contained in normal foods. Natural foods - such as grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts - contain sodium, but in much smaller amounts than those that we consume with salt, which could be a sign that we do not need the mineral in large quantities, but rather the human organism is much more geared towards moderate amounts of sodium. And so it is not surprising that the sodium requirement of an adult is only 1.5 g, which would correspond to 3.75 g table salt (1 g Na = 2.5 g NaCl).

Natural sources of sodium: foods and their sodium content

But if our daily food already contains sodium, then of course you don't need 3.75 g of table salt, but much less. How much salt you still have to consume depends on the choice of food and diet. Those who live mainly on grain, legumes, cooked vegetables, lettuce, and fruit, consume perhaps 0.2 g of sodium with these foods (provided there are no ready-made products), so should add salt.

However, those who pay attention to high-sodium foods and z. For example, if you frequently eat the following foods, you have to add significantly less salt:

• White celery (with 130 mg sodium a real leader among the natural sources of sodium)
• Report (100 mg)
• Swiss chard (90 mg)
• Celeriac (77 mg)
• Dandelion (76 mg)
• Spinach (65 mg)
• Carrots (60 mg)
• Endive salad (60 mg)

You can see that green leafy vegetables are an exception and those wild vegetables are also richer in sodium than most cultivated vegetables (almost all of which only contain between 2 and 20 mg of sodium).

This is also the reason why our ancestors in the Stone Age era (and before) were not desperate in search of salt but were wonderfully able to obtain sodium from all the wild plants that they ate every day. So they didn't have to drink blood or eat brains, as can be heard from the Paleo corner from time to time.

Of course, seaweed also contains sodium. Nori z. B. provides 530 mg of sodium. But since you only eat very little of it (barely more than 5 g), this large amount is noticeably put into perspective.

Less salt - lower risk of diabetes & Co.

Anyone who now pays attention to their salt consumption, i.e., for example, increasingly packs the above-mentioned foods in their menu, pays attention to lower-salt variants when buying ready-made products, and increasingly relies on fresh herbs and spices for self-prepared meals, can easily reduce their salt consumption to the desired 3, Reduce 75 g and thus reduce your risk of diabetes and many other ailments. If you also choose herbal salt when choosing salt, you will automatically consume less salt due to the herbal content.