Nine ways to know you are consuming too much salt

Consuming too much salt in food could be harmful to your overall health. While salt is something you cannot have your food without, it is necessary to keep a check on how much you consume. 

Consuming too much salt can have serious negative effects on your health. It increases your blood pressure and is also linked to cognitive decline as well. According to ndtv.com, here are some of the signs that you are consuming too much salt.

1. Frequent urination 

Frequent urination is a classic sign that you are consuming too much salt. Most of the time, you may feel an urgent need to wake up in the middle of the night to urinate. 

However, it is a symptom of many other conditions like UTIs, type 2 diabetes, and an overactive bladder. You should take a test to be sure of what exactly the root cause is. Nevertheless, consuming too much salt could be a reason for it.

2. Persistent thirst

Consuming too much salt can leave you feeling thirsty most of the time. This happens because foods with high sodium content mess with your body’s fluid balance. 

The best way to make up for this is to drink lots of water. Your body continues to give you a signal that it needs more water to restore salt balance in your body.

3. Swelling in strange places

Consuming too much salt can give you swelling in different parts of the body. This could be a reason why you feel bloated in the morning. The swelling can be felt on the fingers and around the ankles. 

This swelling is caused by excessive fluids in the body’s tissues and is known as edema. Edema is believed to be a symptom of an underlying health condition or a sign of the fact that you are consuming too much salt and the simple solution for this is to cut down on your sodium intake.

4. You find food bland 

If you always feel the need to add more salt to your food now and then and continuously find food bland. That’s probably because you are used to eating too much salt. Over time, your taste buds adapt to that flavor and that is where your need to add more salt to food comes from.

5. Frequent mild headaches

If you experience mild headaches now and then, chances are that these headaches are dehydration-induced. Consuming too much salt is likely to give you headaches in short intervals due to dehydration. To beat these headaches, you have to drink a lot of water.

6. Crave salty foods

When your taste buds adapt to salty flavors, it craves the same again and again. You suddenly feel the need to eat salted peanuts, chips, and other salty treats.

7. Gain Weight

Sudden gains of more than 1kg/day or over 2kg/week are signs that you need to review your diet for excess salt. 

8. Sleep disturbance

Eating salt reduces the quality of sleep: difficulty falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, nocturia, feeling tired, and dizzy when waking up. 

9. Digestive disorders

Feelings of bloating, indigestion, and even abdominal pain may increase with high salt intake. 

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