Salt tablets acting like diuretic...?

(Allie) #22

@anon38787346 I didn’t know if it’s relevant to your situation or not, but my own experience with salt was that when I was badly sodium deficient, I hated the taste of it and avoided at all costs. I’ve never been one for ready meals or junk like that and have always prepared my own meals so know exactly how much salt I wasn’t getting.

Then, after a few years on keto, I started learning about why salt is needed so started trying in increase my intake by adding to food, but hated it. Got a capsule machine and made up capsules to take instead (just regular pink salt) and instantly noticed improvements in how I felt, massive improvement with recovering after training and way less muscle soreness.

Carried on like that for some weeks until the caps suddenly started making me really, badly sick. It was an instant thing as soon as I swallowed one and that’s when I scaled back down to just maintaining salt intake as by that point I was able to accept the salt on food, my body seemed to have accepted it was needed.

These days I always add it to coffee, tastes weird without it, occasionally add a pinch to water if I remember, and sometimes add to food, if I feel like it.

It was almost like I had to train my body to accept it as I had never really consumed it in my diet before, but there’s definitely a benefit. The capsules were a game changer for me. Maybe for you one of the flavoured electrolyte drinks would be a starting point? Or the powders / dissolving tablets you add to water as that way you won’t have to deal with the taste of salt.

#23

Me too @islandlight, hate the taste.
I am dutifully following instructions due to it being important for controlling & regulating as I am preparing for major surgery with a keto supporting surgeon…this dietician works with his team and is underway with a PhD on ketogenic diet so she certainly knows more about it than i do. Tweaking everything she can to give me a better chance of a good result… and due to 6x cancellations the tweaking is getting highly refined now, we have had a lot more preparation time than originally planned!
As a keto diet non -salt-adder apparently I really need to supplement sodium, it’s important… and I will ask more questions and get back to you on exactly why in a few weeks, because you sound just like me!

I am so happy I am not the only person here who doesn’t add salt to anything, I really did try!

Thank you @Shortstuff for explaining your journey with salt.
I do find it really interesting that we three don’t like the taste of salt but everyone else seems to have no
problem with it.

That sounds like it may be my situation too.
In Australia there are no electrolyte drinks or powders with no added sugar available, crazy as that may seem. I am waiting on a sugar free import to arrive from the US but at the moment there are massive delays on international post ('cause of few planes coming into Australia).

I am 70yo and have never added salt to food in my adult life…52 years!

Can’t use the electrolyte drinks with sugar (due to controlling insulin levels) but I think the one on order may be a massive game changer for me when it finally arrives. If as you describe the aversion is due to a deficiency maybe if I can get my levels up with tabs and drinks then I’ll be able to add it ot food and coffee as you describe.
Currently I’m swallowing the salt tabs fast, washing down with water and not tasting them, so that is working.

Hoping I too get the benefits you describe of less muscle soreness and faster recovery times after training.

(Allie) #24

Hopefully helpful, says they do caps too.

#25

Thank you so much Shortstuff!!! :grinning:

#26

Me too…never a junk or fast food eater ever.
I wonder about @islandlight?

(Laurie) #27

Hi, thanks for asking.

As a child, I didn’t like milk and sugar on my porridge. I put salt on it instead.

But I remember even as a teenager I couldn’t enjoy Kentucky Fried Chicken. At the time their advertising mentioned “11 secret herbs and spices.” I used to joke that it was 11 kinds of salt.

Then the great salt scare came along and I just stopped salting my food entirely.

I’ve been able to enjoy restaurant food, pizza, bacon, prepared foods, etc. (anything except KFC!). But I like the taste of eggs, meat, and so on just as they are. I might use other seasonings, but it never occurs to me to add salt.

I’m not sure whether that answers your question.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #28

As I noted above:

Salt does not have a specific ‘taste’ like specific foods have specific tastes. That said, potassium-based salt and magnesium-based salt taste slightly different from sodium-based salt. Magnesium salt (aka epsom salt) has a strong bitterness on top. But otherwise the differences are subtle and when mixed in foods, hardly noticeable. We have a salt receptor on our tongues and I think it’s there simply to make sure we can tell when we’re eating too much of it. In palatable proportions to food, salt accentuates the flavours of the foods. But if you’re tasting ‘salt’ you added too much. As a society I think folks generally eat too much salt simply because it gets added to virtually everything most folks eat, unless you take a very conscious and dedicated effort to avoid everything with added ‘salt’. Few bother and when many do so they think the food tastes ‘bland’ because they no longer notice the excessive salt.

We keto folks also get constantly reminded that electrolytes get flushed out in far greater quantity so we need to consume large amounts of various salts to replenish daily. True, but you don’t necessarily have to consume such large quantities that salt dominates everything else. My best example is my morning keto coffee which contains 2.5 grams of my electrolyte mix of sodium and potassium salts. That’s 2.5 grams in a liter of coffee! The coffee is not ‘salty’, but the flavours of the coffee are enhanced by the presence of the salt. There are subtle flavours hiding in the coffee that don’t come through without the salt. And I think this is true with lots of foods.

Anyway, to all you folks who think you ‘hate’ the ‘taste’ of salt or feel disgusted by it’s ‘flavour’, I suggest you just try using less. If you want salt flavour eat chips and dip. Otherwise, use a light touch.

Just my humble opinion, of course.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #29

The PURE study, out of McMaster University, and a couple of others released around the same time, all say that 4-6 g of sodium a day is the healthiest range to be in. That amount of sodium is found in 10-15 grams of sodium chloride (table salt). And of course, the total includes salt already present in food.

Someone who embarks on a well-formulated ketogenic diet is likely to have eliminated almost all processed foods, which are generally loaded with salt. And I would say that any “keto-friendly” food that is loaded with a comparable amount of salt is probably also loaded with other ingredients that don’t really go all that well with a ketogenic diet. The upshot of all this is that someone on a good-quality ketogenic diet is more likely to need to work to increase salt intake, rather than the opposite.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #30

@PaulL Agreed overall, at least approximately depending on one’s overall size and maybe some other metabolic factors. And moreso for those of us on keto with more daily depletion of electrolytes. But what do you say to the OP and others upthread who claim they can’t consume ‘salt’ (presumably table salt) because they find the ‘taste’ of salt unpalatable? “Toughen up and drink your salt water? It’s good for you!” Some us do in fact drink ‘salt water’, but my bet is not very many.

I guess it’s a matter of trial and error per individual to determine how much salt one can sprinkle on one’s food before it gets unpalatable. Make it so, then back off a bit. :salt::salt::salt:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #31

Ordinarily I’d say that they probably are getting enough salt. Either because their intake is in the normal range, or because their system is unique in some way. If, however, their magnesium, potassium, and calcium are out of whack, then I’d worry about their not getting enough. But I have to confess, I am not sufficiently versed in human biology to do more than guess, here.

(Allie) #32

That’s a very Scottish thing to do :grinning:

(Karen) #33

I was brought up on porridge with golden syrup … something my mum loved and couldn’t resist but always gave her tummy ache lol

#34

Thanks, yes, that answers my question. :grinning:

#35

I did try, but stopped trying to drink and eat salt (Maldon salt flakes) when I started to throw up. Which is when my dietician ordered me a good balanced unsweetened electrolyte drink she’s getting a bulk order of for all her clients that want it. Apparently there are a lot of us here in Sydney.

Meantime I have been eating more oysters and salt water fish.

And I can swallow the salt tabs just fine and take magnesium.

My query on this topic was whether anyone else had experienced a diuretic effect when they introduced more salt.

Yes, I have stopped eating all processed food including miso,tamari soy sauce etc so no salt added in incidentally with processed foods, you have summarised my situation perfectlly Paul.