what is the ideal amount of sodium per day?

[CCS]

The RDA is 2400mg, but is that the ideal amount, the minimum, or the maximum? I know people who sweat a lot will need more. My diet does not have much in there, except for the sodium I deliborately put there, so I need to know how much to get.

 

[hairwegoagain]

You worry this sh*t way too much, CCS.

 

[s.a.f]

This is an unhealthy obssession, eating right is good but noone can have THE perfect diet. Stop over anylising everthing and just enjoy life a bit more.

 

[Guest]

The RDA is the amount that will cover 98% of the populations needs. Individuals have their own needs.

For instance, if the RDA for iron is 10mg a day, then you will most likely be getting enough iron if you take 10mg a day. But, it is also likely that you don't need to take in 10mg a day, because YOUR body can function properly taking 8mg a day. But not everybody is the same. Hence, the RDA is the amount that will cover 98% if the populations needs for any given nutrient.

 

[Guest]

I have a chemistry question for you.

If you have 1.5M NaCl on the left side of a water permiable membrane and 2M Glucose on the right side of the membrane, which way side the water go as a result of osmosis?

 

[roki]

This is an unhealthy obssession, eating right is good but noone can have THE perfect diet. Stop over anylising everthing and just enjoy life a bit more.

the body is a machine if you treat it right it wont break
just like you need to put the right amount of oil in your car so it dosent break

 

[s.a.f]

Yeah ok !
Maybe it works better on a healthy diet but CCS seems to be going for immortality. We all know what to eat and what to avoid but you have to set a limit somewhere

 

[CCS]

I have a chemistry question for you.

If you have 1.5M NaCl on the left side of a water permiable membrane and 2M Glucose on the right side of the membrane, which way side the water go as a result of osmosis?

The NaCl dissociates into 2 moles of ions, whose charge is greater than the mere dipoles on the glucose O-H bonds. So the water would osmose to the left side. I don't know if the equilibrium point would be proportional to the molarities. Probably not, since the molecules are different.

...

So you are saying the RDA is an approximation of the ideal amount, and not the minimum or maximum? Is this true of 300mg cholesterol and 20g saturated fat, on a 2000 cal diet? I know that vitamin A has a max that is twice the RDA.

 

[CCS]

This is an unhealthy obssession, eating right is good but noone can have THE perfect diet. Stop over anylising everthing and just enjoy life a bit more.

This is an important question. I'm cutting beans out of my diet to avoid the gas, and removing those canned beans will drop my sodium intake to 50% the RDA (1200/2400mg). I need to know if I should add table salt to my food to avoid sodium deficiency, or if 2400 is the max and I should be happy to be at 50%.

 

[s.a.f]

Practicly everything you buy in the supermarket has salt added (and sugar etc) to it these days so I dont think that you need to add any. Most people take way too much without knowing it.
Getting back to my previous point though I do think that all this researching is getting out of hand. I try to eat healthy myself but I dont anilyse everything the way you do.
Seriously how much time a day do you waste worrying of insignificant things like this. 99% of the population does'nt give a second thought as to what they eat, and although they may not be super healthy they are probably 90% as fit as you are and will probably live almost as long. The only difference is that they wont have spent their lives worrying about everthing they do and eat.
I'm not having a go a you here but are you trying to become an olympic athlete or mr universe? because you seem to be searching for the ultimate diet/excercise regimen.
It seems to be an obsession with you that is taking over the way you live you life.
By all means be healthy but also learn to relax and dont worry about things that make little difference.

 

[bubka]

your body will balance it out to what you need as long as your drink enough water... come on man, i think sometimes you just think of a reason to post

starting to lean towards the whole ccs is not real theory too

 

[CCS]

your body will balance it out to what you need as long as your drink enough water.

Then how do some people die when they drink a lot of pure water and don't eat enough on a hot, sweaty day?

 

[CCS]

SAF, I don't eat TV dinners. I buy raw tomatoes, straight rolled oats, raw oranges, and frozen vegetables without salt added. My diet is just raw, whole foods. No, it does not have much salt in it. It does have 3x the potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and other mineral requirements I need, though, except for calcium, which it only has 100% of. I'm at 50% sodium. Should I buy some salt and add it to my food, or not?

 

[roki]

your body will balance it out to what you need as long as your drink enough water.

Then how do some people die when they drink a lot of pure water and don't eat enough on a hot, sweaty day?

i dont know the answer but does it have anything to do with salt?

 

[CCS]

It does. You sweat and pee out all the salt and die, though bubka says your body will regulate the salt and you don't need it in your diet.

I don't think anyone here knows what the RDA means. They know it means "recommended", but they don't know if that is supposed to be close to the ideal for most people, or if it is the minimum for most, or the maximum for most. Why can't you people just admit that you don't know?

 

[roki]

CCS does anybody know? cus i'd like to know know

 

[s.a.f]

your body will balance it out to what you need as long as your drink enough water.

Then how do some people die when they drink a lot of pure water and don't eat enough on a hot, sweaty day?

Does this really happen? You would have to eat nothing at all for at least 24hrs and drink a couple of gallons of water. I've heard of people trying to detox by doing this and then collapsing. But you dont do this so why worry.
Bubka is right any ordinary inbalance will sort itself out and having slightly too little sodium will not do you any major harm. Everybody's diet in the whole world is lacking in some areas, no one has the perfect diet.
Btw what about bread, butter/margarine, cheese and meat all of these foods are highly salted, dont you eat any of them?

 

[bubka]

your body will balance it out to what you need as long as your drink enough water.

Then how do some people die when they drink a lot of pure water and don't eat enough on a hot, sweaty day?

thats is because they have depleted or diluted their Na, K, and Cl levels (electrolytes) so that sometime that heart can fail to contract properly

 

[hellohello]

The reccomended daily intake is exactly that.

If your ingesting less and want your body to perform optimally (especially important for working out and cardio) then you will need to supplment the remaining sodium.

Remember in 3rd world countries people are dying from Hyponatremia (lack of salt which changes their body fluid makeup) and in first world countries are dying from over consumption.

 

[CCS]

OK, I thought that was true, hellohello. I just wondered because I think 45 IU vitamin E is a minimum amount, and I thought 20g of saturated fat and 300mg of cholesterol was a maximum amount.

My other concern is that without taking vitamins, just with the fruit I eat, and other foods, I get 300% as much potassium as I need, though I also get 300% of my other minerals except calcium and sodium.

As for SAF's question, cheese and fish are where I get my 50% salt from. I entered 1 cubic inch of cheddar and 1/2 can of mackerel into the calculater, along with 2 cups of oatmeal, 2 oranges, a bag of frozen mixed veggies, a medium tomato, 1 ounce coconut, a banana, and other stuff into the pantry calculater on nutritiondata.com. I get 200% the RDA of all my nutrients except B12 from that, on 2300 calories per day.