Your Weight Gain May Be Due To Too Much Salt

It is biologically impossible to put on pounds of body fat overnight. Actual weight gain takes time to manifest because “fat is insidious — it sneaks into the body, builds up gradually, and is not so immediately perceptible.

Toronto-based dietitian Rosie Schwartz,  author of The Enlightened Eater’s Whole Foods Guide: Harvest the Power of Phyto Foods explained if you find that your weight fluctuates somewhat erratically, that you often wake up and find yourself 2 or 3
pounds heavier than you were the night before, your problem probably isn’t actual weight gain. You may just be consuming too much salt.

An excess of salt in the body results in water retention, and that almost instantaneously translates to body bloat, as well as pain and stiffness in the joints, sore spots on the feet, swollen ankles, feet, and hands, and a general feeling of achiness.

But when we feel a little puffier than normal, we often mistake this for weight gain, when the real culprit is just too much salt.

Don’t get it wrong: Salt is a necessity — without it, the heart, muscles, and brain simply cannot function, says KerryvAnne Bajaj, certified health coach at the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City.

However, sodium chloride,— which is different from the sodium that occurs
naturally in foods, a mineral, or more technically, an electrolyte, and something that is vital to our bodily function—  is a chemical the body does not need.

While you may not be heavy handed with the salt shaker, it is processed foods and restaurant meals that are the primary culprit, accounting for more than 75% of our sodium intake.

And “for every gram of excess sodium chloride that your body has to neutralize, it uses up 23 grams of cellular water,” Bajaj tells Yahoo Health, “so eating too much common processed salt will cause fluid to accumulate in your tissues.”

The longer-term effects of consuming too much salt can be quite detrimental because the resulting water loss (which leads to water retention) strains the kidneys, the blood vessels, and the arteries, says J.J. Virgin, a nutritionist, fitness expert, author, and Yahoo Health advisory board member.

The sodium buildup in the body can also lead to chronic high blood pressure, strain the heart and brain, and “put you at an increased risk of heart attack and/or stroke.”

Source: yahoo.com


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