Salt is an essential element required for maintaining proper function of each and every cell in the body besides its importance in making the food tasty. In the stomach salt helps to stabilize its pH. During stress salt plays an important and active role in maintaining healthy level of adrenaline.
However, on the other side eating too much of salt can be detrimental for health as it can contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease. Eating too much of salty food makes you feel more thirsty. This is because excessive salt can disrupt the balance between the extracellular and intracellular fluid in the body.
Why Do You Get Thirsty After Eating Salty Food?
Water and salt are two main building block of any living fleshed animal. Both are basic material required by each organ for their development. Salt is an electrolyte that keeps the muscles and nerve impulses active. The amount of fluid within and outside the cell is kept balanced because of electrolyte sodium. When you eat too much of salty food in your diet, the digestive system absorbs salt from its wall and sends it into the bloodstream in the form of sodium.
If there is intake of too much of sodium containing food, the blood becomes saturated with sodium content.
Effects Of Eating Too Much Salty Foods
Eating food that is high in sodium does not only make you thirsty but it can have detrimental effect on your health in a long run. If you are consuming extra salt in your diet or you are eating too much of processed food you may knowingly or unknowingly increase sodium salt in the body.
If the sodium content is high, kidney realizes it but at some point it becomes incapable to throw out excess of salt from the urine. As a result it starts to retain more water to dilute sodium and in the process there is fluid retention leading to swelling in lower leg and other dependent parts of the body. At the same time there is increased volume in the blood due to retained fluid. The consequence is quite grave. Over a period of time it can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.
Most experts recommend taking not more than 500 milligrams of sodium in a day. But most people consume more than that required by the body. The best way to reduce intake of extra sodium is to avoid eating processed food as they contain high amount of sodium. Instead eat a healthy diet that contains lots of vegetables and fruits, besides whole grains, fish, egg, etc.