Health professionals recommend diets that are high in fruits and vegetables since these contain potassium which is known to normalize blood pressure. The recommended dietary quantity of potassium is actually higher than sodium. They must be balanced in physiological processes such as nerve transmission.
But it’s notoriously difficult to get people to change their diets. Regular table salt (sodium chloride) is very inexpensive relative to potassium salts so commercial processed foods contain a huge preponderance of sodium.
Here’s information about potassium including cautions about adding additional potassium to the diet.
For people with normal kidney function, Lite Salt (R) brand is a good option since it contains 50% potassium chloride and 50% sodium chloride. I have cooked with this for many years. It’s more expensive than regular table salt but still a trivial expense. Much cheaper than fruits and vegetables (which we eat also, of course) and easier to get for people who live in food deserts.
The macroeconomic impact of high blood pressure relative to the slight cost of adding potassium to the diet is huge.
Wendy
The electrolyte composition of blood serum is similar to that of seawater. 140/5 meq/dl (sodium/potassium) is typical. Sodium is much higher than potassium. But sodium is much more abundant in the diet.
Note that too much potassium can be toxic. Don’t over do it.
OTOH, the macro-economic impact of not making life-style choices that directly contribute to high blood pressure, such as over-eating and failing to exercise, might avoid having to self-medicate with potassium, not that having a sufficient level of magnesium (and D3, and K2) aren’t important to maintaining one’s immune system.
I’ve been using low sodium salt for years. The price difference is vanishingly small, irrelevant. It’s great for treating muscle cramps. BTW, my blood pressure was normal even before using it.
Just to mess up the thread, my bloodwork always comes back showing potassium a hair above the “normal” range. I don’t live on bananas either. Everything else is not only “normal”, but most are dead center in the “normal” range.
Somehow I’ve always thought “low sodium salt” is kind of like “not wet water”. Salt is, I thought, by definition NaCl. It’s right there in the formula.
But aren’t we talking about NaCl in this thread? That’s how I took goofy’s remark. What the vast majority of people talk about when they mention “salt.”
Would it have helped it he said, “common salt is, I thought, by definition NaCl” or “table salt is, I thought, by definition NaCl”?
@MataroPete, yes, that is what a chemist would say.
@Goofyhoofy here is a practical exercise in salts.
If your garden tomatoes have blossom end rot it’s a sign they don’t have enough calcium. But common agricultural lime (crushed limestone which is calcium carbonate*) is slow to dissolve. You need a soluble, quick-acting calcium salt.
Dissolve an eggshell (or a Tums tablet) in vinegar, making sure that there is excess solid so the solution is not acidic.
Acid + base → salt + water
CH3COOH + CaCO3 —> CH3COO Ca (calcium acetate) + CO2 (bubbles) + H2O
Water the tomato plants with the solution of calcium acetate salt. That will heal the blossom end rot.
Wendy
*Quicklime (CaO) is made by heating limestone. Slaked lime has water added to quicklime – it’s Ca(OH)2
I’m always amazed at the number of people who don’t measure their blood pressure somewhat frequently…say, once or twice a week and at different times during the day. Reserving the ritual for the annual physical.
Then again, there are probably plenty of folk around who don’t bother with an annual physical either, so there’s that…
Looking at the cross section of the population that I saw as patients in my office, I’d say fewer than the numbers who brushed and flossed diligently and effectively. Something that didn’t necessarily change when the consequences of high BP and/or periodontal disease became apparent.
@WendyBG …this may or may not have been discussed with you but, post surgery and if your experience is anything like my husband, you might find yourself on BP meds… along with everything else… in order to keep your BP artificially low. At least, temporarily. To protect the valve etc.
Husband had never experienced high blood pressure prior. Measured periodically (just like weight) since he’s black, and both parents developed quite hard to manage high blood pressure in their senior years…and he has had a working lifetime’s experience of folk walking round with preventable/treatable diseases they were unaware of. Whether it’s a consequence of now taking bp meds, or that length of dacron he has in lieu of his dodgy ascending aorta, he’s become quite salt sensitive. Now that he measures his BP every morning, the effects of a saltier-than- usual meal the night before will usually become quite apparent.
Yeap, I am find with sodium and use regular salt. I have the potassium so I can caringly cook for friends who must limiit their sodium and for whom potassium is OK within reason.
Not quite everyone, manifestly. Or, at least, not concerned enough to do the best they can with their alloted lifespan/the genetic hand they’ve been dealt.
