Hydration Series Part IISalt: The Whole Truth

It's true, salt has been fractionalized. Table salt is not a complete salt, rather it's the sodium chloride fractional component of mineral salts that's been processed, heated, bleached, treated, and mixed with glucose (yes, there is some sugar in table salt), potassium iodide (for iodine) and calcium silicate (for anti-caking). Clearly this is NOT real food.

Salts are the minerals such as calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, manganese, etc that can be found in sea salt. This is a complete whole salt. The components balance each other out to be properly assimilated into the body. They all play a major role in buffering acids in the body as well.

I've talked about the difference between a fractional food (egg white protein powder) and whole food (egg) in my last newsletter and it is clear that the body doesn't ultimately know what to do with a fractional element of food as it will need all the components in order to properly assimilate it. The over-abundance of sodium chloride in the body wreaks havoc within because there's simply no place to put all of it! Thus too much table salt can leave you with hypertension, water retention and kidney problems.

Salt's function has been greatly misunderstood. Yes, salt helps the body to maintain water in the system. Without it, we'd lose so much water that we would be unable to function. It also allows our muscles to retain their reactivity and a degree of rigidity necessary for quick movement. This all said, let's take it all a step deeper. Our bones and muscles act as our mineral storage units. Bones hold the calcium and muscles hold minerals like magnesium. The levels constantly are in flux depending on whether the body is acidic or alkaline. Blood needs to maintain a pH of 7.4 for optimal health. But when the blood becomes deficient in minerals necessary to keep it alkaline, the bone and muscle reserves are called to action in order buffer lactic acid and acid-producing foods we've eaten. Calling on these reserves too often prevents the stores from being replenished properly. Thus, we leave ourselves open to problems down the road in which the body begins to breakdown due to excess acidity and lack of minerals (ie. mineral deficiencies, osteoporosis).

All of the studies and articles I've read recently discuss the benefits of a low-sodium diet, but never differential between sea salt and table salt. Of course we need to lower our sodium chloride intake, but no one ever explains why. And a concern is using "salt" as a general term for all minerals which I find to be is misleading. So, a great immediate step is to remove processed, fractional components like table salt from your diet. Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt (or Real Salt) are much better options to consider adding in. This way you know beyond a doubt that you are getting a more balanced mineral mix into your system.

In the next edition to the Hydration Series, I'll talk more about the concept of maintaining the body's alkalinity and how many of us are sabotaging the precious homeostasis (aka. the body's equilibrium) necessary for good health at every meal. Just begin to look at the foods you are consuming on a daily basis and take note of your sodium chloride intake. Remember that food from restaurants and pre-packaged meals are usually higher in sodium than we'd like to admit. Often one dish at a restaurant is close to or exceeds the FDA daily recommended amount of 1.5 teaspoons for sodium chloride. So, if you are eating out often, keep this in mind.

Hydration Series Part IConnecting Cramping with Bone Loss

Hydration is two-fold: immediate and long term. Most people are very fixated on what's in their water bottle during vigorous exercise on a hot day, however the water bottle contents and salt pills are only patches for a deeper imbalance brewing below the surface. I want to take the first step in challenging conventional wisdom that guides us to believe that hydration is mostly about when and how much water and salts you consume. Thus, I intend to spend the next few articles laying out my case for ultimate hydration.

Currently, we believe that muscle cramps are caused by a few scenarios: exhaustion, lack of fluids, and also lack of salt in the body. And interestingly, we believe that bone loss comes from a lack of calcium intake and absorption which has led to the calcium-supplementing craze in the US. I think that what we know about these two situations is only half correct, which explains to me why debates about them persist. Also, consider that there is a great deal of money to be made by maintaining these positions.

This is where we return to immediate and long-term hydration. Muscle cramps are an immediate problem which seems to be resolved by consuming salts/minerals that allow water to remain in the body as well as maintaining muscle reactivity. Meanwhile, bone loss is a long-term issue as the bones are depleted of calcium leaving people in a panic to consume as much calcium as possible. It is important to obtain a deeper understanding of salt and I promise to cover in the next article. However for right now, consider that muscle cramps and bone loss are connected in the following way- as we train, lactic acid is created in the body which needs to be buffered by salts/minerals. The minerals and salts in the blood which maintain its alkalinity are used to buffer the acid in order to protect the body. As the acid builds in the system and more buffering occurs, the blood naturally becomes more acidic which is bad for the body. When the blood gets too acidic, the body will then begin to leech minerals from itself, ie. magnesium from the muscles and calcium from the bones, to continue buffering acid.

Keep in mind that acid is toxic to the body and not simply flushed out of the system. Though I've heard many trainers and coaches illustrate how to "flush out" the lactic acid, I'd like to know where exactly they believe the acid to be flushed. Rather than disappearing from the system, acid need to be tackled for protection-sake! So each time we go out for a ride, the cycle happens again, yet if we never address the blood's increasing acidity, we find ourselves in a tight spot. The more acidic the blood, the more minerals will be leeched from the body. Thus, we end up with acidic blood that will lead to other health problems, bone loss, and a deficit of necessary minerals for proper body function.

As I spoke with my friend a couple of weeks ago, up popped an interesting article on the front page of the New York Times called "Is Bicycling Bad for Your Bones?" talking about the high incidence of bone loss in cyclists. Sure, it can partly be chalked up to the fact that many cyclists don't do much in the way of weight bearing exercise, however low bone density is still a problem for other endurance athletes.

So, for now, consider what may be happening in your system and what your hydration plan has been thus far. Is it really working for you? We are told to exercise to avoid bone loss, but could all that training be setting us up for some long-term disaster we've yet to fully realize? Bone loss and muscle cramps are both manageable situations that can be reversed. Nutrition plays a huge part and so I'll spend the next few articles explaining how you can hydrate your system in a way that is long-term and supportive to your training (and living) needs.