Is eating more salt dangerous?

Yes, there is a link to hypertension. You may or may not be going over the 2400 mg/day recommended allowance. Yes, you will excrete out a lot of excess salt, but generally not all of it.

High amounts of regular table salt will have a negative affect on your health. However you can combat this. Celery salt will allow you to use more salt on your food without adding the negative side effects of regular salt.

I've actually been quite interested in this topic. My gf puts a lot of salt on her food, and I wonder what effect that can have on her. She's also a triathlete so her level of physical activity is much higher. Does salt intake vary with physical activity? Could her salt intake negatively effect her training?

Jespah, you are a wonderful source on nutritional information. Might you have a good source you trust on this topic?

A lot of sodium
R
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Mwah!

It's a fluid retention thing: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=166


One of the main sources for sodium is the processing of foods. It's in not just canned foods, but also in frozen ones as well. Lots of manufactured diet foods are salt mines as sugar is removed (cottage cheese is very salty). Restaurants are also heavy with the shaker.

Cutting salt intake is good for dieting, not just so that you can release fluids (heh, do #1) as all that liquid weighs something and makes you bloated, but it also means that, by definition, you're generally eating fewer processed foods and more fresh ones, and you're most likely going out to dinner less, where portions can be outta control and ingredients are unknown at best and downright awful at worst.

Cutting intake:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=625

Instead of salt, try drizzling some lemon juice or cider vinegar. Make use of zest from citrus fruits. Combine some of your favorite herbs and spices and grind them into a powder to make a house blend of seasonings (without salt) to apply to food. Put it in the shaker that used to contain salt.

I think that if you have a specific condition, salt is important to watch; but I'm with Alton Brown on this one. Our tongue only tastes 5 things and Salt is one of them because it's absolutely critical for our body's functioning.

Look what I found while googling this -

http://able2know.org/topic/137269-1

Cycloptichorn

No question that it's necessary -- it's just that most of us get far too much of it.