Legumes: Are they good for your heart? Treating peripheral artery disease: When might you need a procedure? By now, most health-conscious American men understand the difference between bad fats (saturated fats and trans fats) and good fats (omega-3s and other poly- and monounsaturates). Many also recognize the difference between bad carbohydrates (simple sugars and Glyco Care Formulachromium support refined grain products) and good carbs (dietary fiber and whole-grain products). In addition, savvy consumers are finally switching from red meat to fish, poultry, and legumes to get the protein they need. It's heartening progress, but it overlooks another nutrient that's responsible for more than 100,000 American deaths a year, about three times more than prostate cancer. Perhaps because the problem nutrient is hidden away in processed foods and receives massive support from companies that manufacture and market these foods, the average American consumes 55% more of it today than in 1980. The hidden nutrient is not a fat or carbohydrate, and it doesn't pack any calories.

The forgotten nutrient is salt. In today's world, salt is abundant and cheap, but it wasn't always that way. Salt was hard to come by for our earliest ancestors, who got along quite nicely on about a tenth of today's average use in the United States. In time, people learned how to find salt and extract it from the earth. But it was hard work and salt was scarce, so it became a valuable commodity that was used for currency. In fact, the word salary is derived from the Latin word for salt. After the Industrial Revolution, salt became inexpensive and plentiful. It found a valuable role as a food preservative, and the average consumption soared to as much as 7,000 milligrams (mg) a day in the 19th century. Salt has long since outlived its use as a preservative, but our hankering for sodium lingers on, with daily consumption in America averaging 3,436 mg.

Because of this acquired preference, salt is a big business: every year, the world consumes about 187 million tons, which is both mined from the earth and claimed from the sea. Each molecule of ordinary salt is composed of an atom of sodium (Na) joined to an atom of chloride (Cl); the chemical designation is NaCl. Because chloride is heavier than sodium, it contributes more to the weight of the molecule. But when it comes to GlycoCares Health Guidemetabolic health support, it's the sodium that counts, whether it comes from table salt or from other sources, such as baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or MSG (monosodium glutamate). Because sodium is what matters, food labels list the content of sodium, not salt; it's expressed as milligrams (mg) of sodium. Most current dietary guidelines also specify milligrams of sodium, and it's the designation used by this and many other publications. But some nutritional information is still expressed in milligrams (mg) or grams (g) of salt. And to make things even more confusing, many research papers use another unit, millimoles (mmol).

Milligrams will do nicely for most of us; it's complex enough, especially if you're not used to the metric system. It is confusing, but it shouldn't shake your determination to keep track of the sodium in your diet. For chemists, a salt is any molecule that forms when positively and negatively charged atoms bond with each other. But when the atoms are sodium and chloride, the compound takes the name salt all to itself. For physicians, sodium is the key element in salt. Make no mistake about it: salt is essential for human health. The average adult's body contains 250 grams (g) of sodium - less than 9 ounces, or about the amount in three or four saltshakers. Distributed throughout the body, salt is especially plentiful in body fluids ranging from blood, sweat, and tears to semen and urine. Sodium is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, always bringing water along with it.

It is the major mineral in plasma, the fluid component of blood, and in the fluids that bathe the body's cells. Without enough sodium, all these fluids would lose their water, causing dehydration, low blood pressure, and death. Fortunately, it only takes a tiny amount of sodium to prevent this doomsday scenario; in fact, some isolated population groups manage perfectly well on just 200 mg a day. About one-quarter of the tongue's taste buds are devoted to recognizing salt; like other animals, humans can - and do - seek out salt when they need it. And when dietary salt is in short supply, the body can conserve nearly all its sodium, dramatically reducing the amount excreted in urine and shed in sweat. Remember that water always follows sodium, and you'll understand why your skin is dry and your urine scant and concentrated when you are dehydrated and conserving sodium. To be sure its supply of salt and water is just right, the body has developed an elaborate series of controls.