salt - essential for life
An important component of the human diet
Salt is essential for life and an important component in the human diet. Sodium is a nutrient that the body cannot manufacture but which is required for life itself. Sodium is easily absorbed and is active in the absorption of other nutrients in the small intestine. It helps regulate water balance, pH, and is important in nerve conduction.
Because of sodium's importance to the body, several interacting mechanisms guard against under consumption and its threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Chloride, too, is essential to good health. It preserves acid-base balance in the body, aids potassium absorption, supplies the essence of digestive stomach acid, and enhances the ability of the blood to carry carbon dioxide from respiring tissues to the lungs. Quite simply, without it our bodies become chemically unbalanced, our muscles and nervous system cease to function and eventually we would die.
All our body fluids are salty. Blood, sweat, tears, saliva and one of our four taste buds is programmed to sense it. In recent times salt in the diet has become a contentious issue linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. The topic is still a hot one amongst many nutrition and dietry organisations but the general consensus is if you’re healthy you should aim towards a daily intake of five or six grams of salt to maintain a good healthy balance.
