Crave Salt?

[Mr. Krab]

I'm trying to cut down on salt for health reasons. I just wonder why i crave salt so much. I understand craving sugar because it spikes your blood sugar and afterwards your body reacts to the drop. But why salt?

[EyePod]

Are you on your period?

[Mr. Krab]

Originally Posted by LaChapelle

You could be craving potassium. Bananas are a good source. Which leads to the joke that's lingering to be said.

Easy now there, young fella.

[ottawa_chiefs_fan]

Do you look anything like this????

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by Mr. Krab's

Crave Salt?

No.

[KCinNY]

Love salt. Good thing my BP is normal for now.

The bottom of the bag of pretzels is awesome.

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by KCinNY

Love salt. Good thing my BP is normal for now.

The bottom of the bag of pretzels is awesome.

Lucky for you. I used to be the same way, but then I hit my 40s and everything changed. Enjoy it while you can.

[Ultra Peanut]

How long have you been avoiding salt? Maybe you're somehow low on sodium, or you developed a dependence/tolerance (I have no idea if this is biologically possible) and you're going through withdrawals. The treatment of that would be something I'm not even familiar with when it comes to your specific circumstances.

I would think eating potassium-rich foods would exacerbate the problem of salt cravings, though.

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by Ultra Peanut

How long have you been avoiding salt? Maybe you're somehow low on sodium, or you developed a dependence/tolerance (I have no idea if this is biologically possible) and you're going through withdrawals. The treatment of that would be something I'm not even familiar with when it comes to your specific circumstances.

I would think eating potassium-rich foods would exacerbate the problem of salt cravings, though.

It's difficult to get too little salt/sodium unless you are a workout warrior. Salt is everywhere. The potassium/sodium ratio should be 2:1. In most American diets it's like 1:5. Potassium won't cause you to crave salt.

The new guidelines for sodium for everyone is 1500 mg/day with a max of 2300 mg/day. The old guideline used to be 2300/day.

Here are just a few items where you get sodium in big doses, or where you didn't thing there was sodium at all:

Any processed food in a can (spaghetti sauce, veggies, etc) - 300 - 1500 mg/serving

Celery - 66 mg/serving

Cereal - 200-400 mg/serving (shredded wheat is very LS)

Bread - 110 - 200 mg/slice

Milk - 120 mg/cup

Flour tortillas - 200-300 mg/tortilla

Corn tortillas - 0 mg/tortilla

I could go on and on, but the rule of thumb is to stay away from canned anything, unless it's salt-free, no salt added, or very low sodium.

Any deli meat is loaded with sodium unless marked otherwise.

Stick to fresh/frozen veggies and fresh meats. It's actually quite easy to cut all the excess salt out of your diet. AND you'll actually taste the food!

[KcMizzou]

I probably use more salt that I should, but I think I could give it up.

Not black pepper though. I use tons of the stuff.

[BigOlChiefsfan]

Try squeezing fresh lemon juice on food that 'needs salt'. Won't cure everything, but works quite well on a lot of food. Cheaper than BP meds, too.

[bevischief]

You can get the same taste using different pepper spices that help your BP.
Black, Chile, Cheyenne, etc...

[Mr. Krab]

Originally Posted by chevy369

You can get the same taste using different pepper spices that help your BP.
Black, Chile, Cheyenne, etc...

Ya, that's kinda whay i've been doing. I use this lemon peppercorn black pepper and garlic powder to zing stuff up. I've pretty much given up adding any salt to food now. Of course most food still comes with salt already added so i still get plenty.