A nutritionist has explained whether excess salt or sugar ruins your health
Both salt and sugar are called the "white death". Both products are necessary for the body, but their abuse contributes to the emergence of serious incurable diseases. Nutritionist nutritionist Irina Mansurova explained which additive - salt or sugar - has a greater impact on health.
If you consume no more than five grams of salt per day, salt is useful and necessary. It plays an important role in maintaining water-salt balance, regulates blood pressure and supports the nervous system. In addition, with the help of salt, the body recovers faster, this product has and antibacterial effect - it inhibits putrefactive processes in the digestive system, and in the stomach forms hydrochloric acid, without which it is impossible to normal breakdown of food. Salt also contributes to the formation of conditions for the existence of red blood cells (red blood cells).
Health problems can arise from both deficiency and excessive salt intake.
Salt deficiency, for example, leads to headaches and muscle weakness - to name a few symptoms. Excessive consumption contributes to kidney stones, high blood pressure that leads to heart attacks and strokes.
The level of salt intake can be increased in summer, when in hot weather a person sweats and loses electrolytes, among other things. But it is important to remember that many foods already contain it.
"80 percent of the salt that a person consumes in a day falls on the so-called "hidden salt", as it is in different types and amounts in almost all products. A large amount of salt is found in products of animal origin - meat, fish, eggs. So, even cooked without its addition meat dish includes 3-4 grams of salt", - explained the doctor.
Sugar is also "hidden" - in baked goods, yogurt and even sausage. A popular type - refined white granulated sugar goes through several stages of purification and contains neither minerals nor vitamins. It contains only pure sucrose, which is broken down into glucose and fructose. This is a carbohydrate that provides the body and energy necessary for the work and sufficient blood supply to the brain and muscles. With its deficiency, a person may experience weakness, dizziness, drowsiness, decreased intellectual ability.
The norm is the consumption of no more than six spoons of sugar per day. This is approximately 30 grams. Excess product leads to diabetes mellitus, which in turn provokes a number of other serious diseases. Sugar also affects the level of bad cholesterol, the state of the teeth, the presence of excess weight.
"Giving up sugar will reduce the number of episodes of illness, as sugar leads to chronic inflammation, which weakens any body. The plus side is that sugar, unlike salt, can easily be replaced with other products that will be healthier, such as topinambur syrup, maple syrup, stevia. They take longer to digest and do not cause a sharp rise in blood sugar levels," says Irina Mansurova.
Thus, concluded the nutritionist, both products are equally dangerous in excess, as they can lead to incurable diseases if people do not change their eating habits.