We know that shaking that salt shaker (or soya-sauce bottle, or fish sauce, or oyster sauce, or… you get the idea) over our food too many times is not good for our health. We know that consistently having too much sodium can cause high blood-pressure and kidney failure. According to a survey of Singaporean undergraduate students, we also think that these diseases will only affect us when we are older.
After all, according to the National Health Survey, 1 in 4 Singaporeans aged 30-69 have hypertension, and the numbers spike to more than half once they hit the 60-69s. Incidence of kidney failure also becomes more prevalent at the age range of 55-69, as does high blood pressure. So, it seems like younger than 30 have little to fear… right?
Unfortunately, you can experience health consequences at the prime of your youth if you consistently take too much salt – all too easy to do in today’s fast-paced, fast food culture. Here are 5 lesser-known side effects of over-salting that your 30-and-below body definitely wants you to know.
1. Swelling like a balloon.
How many times have we heard various versions of the lines, “I shouldn’t have ate that ramen for supper last night; now I’ll have a puffy face when I wake up” in Korean dramas? Do you wake up the morning after a buffet dinner, feeling and looking bloated? Here’s what’s going on inside your body:
Processed foods contain unexpectedly high levels of sodium – one serving of instant noodles for example would be enough to fulfill a third of your recommended sodium intake! When you digest these foods, the resultant high concentration of sodium in your bloodstream sends your kidneys a signal to release less water into your urine, in order to dilute sodium concentrations in your body. More water in the body results in an increased blood volume due to water retention, and hence may cause swelling in parts of our bodies.
Sure, it’s not permanent organ damage or cardiovascular disease, but do yourself a favour. You should not have to deal with sodium-induced swelling at the prime of your youth.
2. Dehydration.
No, don’t scroll back up; you read right! Dehydration, while sounding like the polar opposite of water retention, is also a valid side effect of consuming too much salt. Water retention occurs with high sodium intake when you are well hydrated. On the flip side if you are not well hydrated, you may experience dehydration. In this case, the extra sodium in your bloodstream still needs water to balance it out, but without sufficient water, your body may pull water from within your cells instead, leading to discomfort. Symptoms of dehydration include:
- Thirst
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- stomach cramps or vomiting
Dehydration of the body could over the long-term, lead to a whole Pandora’s box of ailments including gout and kidney stones, but let’s quit while we’re ahead and move on to the third less-than-famous consequence of over-salting.
3. Receding hairline.
Here’s a more visible symptom that you can look out for. Excessive hair fall is usually indicative of imbalances within your body, so pay attention to it! Table salt contains minerals such as iodine and sodium. While these are essential for proper health and hair growth, eating too much salt and building up high levels of these minerals can have adverse effects. Too much iodine can inhibit your thyroid’s production of hormones, which can lead to subsequent hair loss.
4. Osteoporosis.
Sticks and stones may break your bones… but did you know, so can ingesting too much sodium chloride? Contrary to popular belief, brittle bones are not just something to worry about once we get our senior citizen’s card. For most of us, calcium depletes constantly from our bodies, and bone deterioration is a natural process of ageing. That being said, what you decide to put in your body also determines the rate at which our bones lose calcium. Keeping a consistently high-sodium diet is like pressing the fast-forward button on the ageing remote: not only does the high concentration of sodium decrease bone density, it also hampers your body’s ability to absorb calcium—that crucial nutrient for building and maintaining bone health.
5. Rollin’ (Kidney) Stones.
A survey on university students found that most youths know about kidney failure as a result of consuming too much salt, but much fewer knew that it had another possible consequence – kidney stones. Stones are formed when high concentrations of calcium in the urine (caused by excessive sodium intake) combine with other minerals in rich, salty foods. This creates a hard crystalline mass in your kidney. In their early stages of development, kidney stones don’t usually cause a lot of pain – which is why many people don’t stop overloading on sodium until symptoms occur. Some later-stage symptoms of kidney stones include:
- Acute pain in loins to groin (that most delicate and sensitive area)
- Urinary Tract Infections
- Bloody discharge in urine
To remove the stones, what usually follows at the doctor’s is a highly invasive, highly painful colonoscopy procedure …which is not a pleasant experience for the patient, to put it mildly. Prevention is your best cure!
So there you have it – 5 less-than-famous reasons why you should put down that soy-sauce bottle, cut down on eating out, and leave those last dregs of gravy in your mee rebus. Oversalting may not give you instant cardiovascular disease or kidney failure, but these lesser-known health problems will be present in the run-up to those health problem giants if you don’t do anything to change your diet – and they can affect you at an early age. So know your food and don’t be oblivious to your sodium intake. Take stewardship of your body and regulate – before it is too late!
By HAN KAI LI JOYCE
SALTSHAKERS 