Another salt question

#21

One could try fermented produce as a source of food and Na?

It’s a win-win.

(Joey) #22

My sense is that most of us have a pretty well-connected sense of taste when it comes to salt needs (not with magnesium and potassium) but with “table” salt (NaCl).

If you’re salting your food and/or drinking salted-water and it tastes good and addresses your sense of thirst, then you’re still taking good care of your salt needs.

If it starts going down yucky instead of satisfying, back off.

Sorry I can’t give you a personalized milligram dosage, but it varies so much by day, heat, humidity, season, activity, metabolism, etc.

Arm yourself with the best reliably research-based info you can garner in order to get over the unscientific preconceptions we’ve all been told (there are too many too mention!) and then become your own n=1 experiment and see what works for you at any particular time of day.

#23

No, millet was used since ages almost everywhere…? In very many places for sure. I never heard about quinoa most of my life, it’s some fancy new thing here.
But millet is what my anchestors ate, among other things.

My SO is enthusiastically googling now, millet was cultivated 6000 years ago in Mesopotamia, he says… It’s known it was very common here in Europe in the Middle Age.

Taste is very individual. I wouldn’t touch almost any green leaves while ketoers often love them… Many people love chicken, I find it tasteless (it’s possible chicken here isn’t the same as chicken there, though). I am not into bacon and dislike tallow (it’s fine when it’s together with the meat). No use to argue about taste, we can’t help what we like. I can’t even train myself out of certain things I don’t find ideal but they are near irresistible to me… (I don’t think anything is truly irresistible at this point. I can wait a bit, at least. I changed.)

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #24

As a regular thing, a couple of recent studies both showed that sodium intake in the range of 4-6 (from all sources, both food and added table salt) yielded the healthiest outcomes. Below that range, the health risk rises quite steeply; above it, it rises more slowly. What they call a J-shaped curve.

As a replacement for electrolytes lost in perspiration, either follow the directions on the bottle of salt tablets, or drink an electrolyte replacement drink until it stops tasting good. You could probably make your own solution, but it would take some research to get the proportions of the minerals correct. There is a thread on these forums with instructions for how to make a sort of Keto-Ade that many people find useful.

(Joey) #25

My only caution would be to carefully read the label of commercial drinks. Some have no added sugar, some have artificial sweeteners you may either care to avoid or not, and some have good old fructose corn syrup ( = refined sugar). As always, know what you’re ingesting.

#26

Thank you.

I work in agriculture and am ether outside, or in wearhouses with metal roofs. I really struggle in the heat and wondered if electrolites would help.

I just started using tablets and powders, but some people said they had hardly enough salt to make a difference. So I started eating flakes sea salt as I find if dificult to drink home made electrolite drinks, as I do not like the taste. The more dehydrated I get, the lessy stomach wants water anyway, so I need to literally ‘stay’ hydrated.

#27

Whom is going around weighing salt?..And I promise, I don’t mean to be ignorant, just wondering, because I don’t.

#28

Me. Sorry.
I am a chronic measurer. I just can’t help myself.

(Joey) #29

FWIW, for daily drinking water I don’t weigh salt, but simply use a small (roughly teaspoon) scoop when adding salt, then magnesium to my jug.

But I do weigh salt (in grams) when making home-fermented sauerkraut because I aim for a specific ratio of salt weight to cabbage weight in my preferred recipe as a percentage. Too much is too much. But not enough leaves the brine unable to do its magic as well as it should.

#30

I don’t suppose you’d share that sakt ti cabbage ratio would you?
I usually go for a teaspoon, but sometimes it works better than others.

(Joey) #31

I’ve settled on 1.5% salt:cabbage ratio determined by weight. Grams is the easiest to deal with for such purposes (vs. lbs/oz, where 1.5% makes for squirrely math). I weigh the cabbage after cutting out the hardest part of the cores, then add 1.5% of that weight in salt while smashing the cabbage around with my fingers/wrists to get it to release its moisture. No water added, just pure cabbage juices from the pounding/salt.

Now, whether to use iodized or non-iodized salt would make for another thread entirely :wink:

#32

I measured the salt I used for a while out of curiosity…
And I measure it for my roasts as I hate when the fatty jelly in the bottom is overly salty.

But otherwise, it’s bothersome to measure it. Still possible though.

I can’t measure my water intake, it’s totally impossible unless I am willing to focus on it like crazy all day. I did that once. Drinking is quite automatic for me and I do it a lot.
Salt is easier. Especially now that I eat little processed stuff. Most of the salt is in my roasted or fried meats. I even have my own salt container.

#33

That’s great. I’ve written that down in my cooking notes.
I do love making sauerkraut. I never leave it long enough though. 2 weeks and I end up eatting it.
Ill make a triple batch now so I can try and leave some.

I the cabbages I use have a LOT of moisture. So last time I made some I used half a normal white cabbage, then 1/4 sweetheart cabbage and 1/4 Savoy caddage.
It was pretty nice to have the different textures.