What sodium does in the body is to bind water and maintain intracellular and extracellular fluids in the right balance. It is also an electrically charged molecule, and along with potassium helps maintain electrical gradients across cell membranes, which is critical for nerve transmission, muscular contraction, and various other functions.

The body can NOT function without sodium.

The more sodium we have in our bloodstream, the more water it binds. For this reason, sodium is thought to increase blood pressure (which it does, but only mildly).

If blood pressure is elevated, the heart has to work harder to push the blood throughout the body and there is increased strain on the arteries and various organs. High blood pressure (hypertension) is a major risk factor for many serious diseases, like heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.

It is definitely true that reducing sodium can lower blood pressure, but the effect isn’t as strong we are led to think.

In a massive Cochrane review of 34 randomized controlled trials (RCT – The gold standard of research), salt restriction was shown to reduce blood pressure in:

• Individuals with elevated blood pressure by about of 5.39 mm Hg systolic and 2.82 mm Hg for diastolic.
• Individuals with normal blood pressure by about of 2.42 mm Hg systolic and 1.00 mm Hg for diastolic.

These numbers are only averages. Some people may have seen impressive reductions, while others little to no effect. Over the long term, low salt diets compared to normal salt diets in healthy people, the decrease is even less – systolic reading by 1.1 mmHg and diastolic by 0.6 mmHg, that is like going from 120/80 to 119/ 79.

As with most things in nutrition, the results depend on the individual, each responds differently to salt, so perhaps, it is best to leave it to individual tastes.

Doctors and nutritionists tell us to cut back on sodium because they believe that it will reduce our risk of serious diseases.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that blood pressure itself doesn’t kill anyone directly. It’s a risk factor, not necessarily a cause of disease.

Even though some intervention successfully lowers a risk factor, it doesn’t mean that this automatically reduces the risk of disease, especially if the intervention causes other adverse effects that outweigh the benefit.

When studies examine the effects of sodium restriction on actual disease, instead of just some marker, no statistically significant effects are found.

A recent meta analysis involving 6250 subjects reported in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Another Cochrane review of 7 R.C. trials noted that there is no effect on mortality or cardiovascular disease, even in individuals diagnosed with high blood pressure! Other studies confirm these findings. There is no benefit to sodium restriction when it comes to preventing heart disease or death.

In fact, European researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that less sodium correlates to greater risk of dying from heart disease.

It looks like the advice on sodium is bad advice too. Not only is it probably useless for the majority of people, these guidelines may even cause downright harm. Multiple studies show that salt restriction causes adverse effects on health:

In a massive review, low sodium diets were found to cause an increase in LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) by 4.6 percent and an increase in triglycerides by 5.9 percent. In one study, just 7 days on a low sodium diet increased insulin resistance, a leading cause of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

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