I normally cook without salt for no particular reason. Is it bad for my health?
In the US, American adults (on average) consume about 3,400 mg. of sodium daily (8.5 grams or 1 3/4 teaspoons of salt), far exceeding the 2,300 mg. recommendation issued by the CDC.[1]While your body needs salt to remain healthy, you’re getting plenty of salt elsewhere when you eat you eat processed, prepackaged, and restaurant foods. Additionally, salt is naturally-occurring in many meats, seafood, dairy products and vegetables.Sodium is a vital nutrient. It’s a major component of extracellular fluid, and is essential for maintaining the volume of the plasma to allow adequate tissue perfusion and normal cellular metabolism. (7) Because sodium is used as an extracellular cation, it is typically found in the blood and lymph fluid. The maintenance of extracellular fluid volume is an important physiologic function of the sodium in the body, particularly in regards to cardiovascular health.Besides helping to maintain fluid balance and cardiovascular function, sodium and chloride ions also play an important role in the nervous system. Changes in the concentrations of these ions allow neurons to send signals to other neurons and cells, allowing for nerve transmission as well as mechanical movement. Chloride ions provided by salt are secreted in the gastric juice as hydrochloric acid (HCL). And HCL is vital to the digestion of food and the destruction of food-borne pathogens in the stomach.source: Shaking up the Salt Myth: The Human Need for SaltToo much salt is bad for your health.[2] Too little salt is bad for your health. It’s all about moderation.Footnotes[1] Sodium Fact Sheet[2] Health Risks and Disease Related to Salt and Sodium
Is cooked salt better than raw salt for someone with high blood pressure? if yes, why is that?
No, if you have high blood pressure you should check the sodium content on all food labels. Cooking does not change chemical nature of it. It doesn't pertain to only salt that you throw on it yourself.
Is salt good or bad for your diet?
Being that you will most definitely DIE (that's not an exaggeration) if you don't ingest it in one form or another, regularly, I would say it's pretty good for you. Wars have been fought over the rights to own it and produce it. Furthermore, the standard table salt we use today is fortified with iodide - another compound we need to prevent goiter and other forms of thyroiditis, and wide spread mental retardation in children. Too much salt (just like everything else) is bad for you, and can cause (alleged) health problems.
Salt makes me feel really ill, as does too much sodium in food. But people are said to have to have it.?
How's it enough to not have it already in food and water? Would I be okay to just drink a really good brand of water with plenty of minerals (not added, but already in it)? People didn't always have salt shakers, but according to history, people are supposed to eat it? How would people instinctually know to go find salt? I don't think I woulda had a craving had I never tried it. Could it be maybe they just heard of other cultures using it or something and liked it, so thought they had to have it? There's too many differing opinions about it. Some say eat it constantly, some say do not eat it unless it's naturally in the food already. And I feel sick even thinking of it, and have found I can't eat it or I get really ill. I used to take levothyroxine sodium and was wrongly prescribed to it for many years. And there are too many different opinions, what are the actual facts?