I had those ding dang leg cramps for DAYS (and nights too). I posted question about potassium/magnesium/calcium supplements, got tons of wonderful advice, started taking the supplements...still no better.. GUESS WHAT! I wasn't getting enough SALT!

sometimes I can't see the forest for the dang trees.

With so much sodium put into everything from chocolate pudding to tomato soup, I never lacked for sodium til I went on a low carb/no processed food WOE.

So it never occurred to me I might be missing salt. Well now I feel so much better! I was drinking a whole bunch of water, too, thinking that would also help...which you would think it would...but it was eliminating what little salt I actually was getting

Anyway. I hope this helps some other poor soul out there with those nasty cramps. It sure did it for me.

I had a horrible leg cramp (not in my calf, as is usual for me, but in the thigh) one or two days of being off-salt and peeing like crazy but I ate something salty and the pain was gone in about ten minutes.

This is also what I got when I was leaving all salt out of my diet owing to hypertension. The heck with that! I'm on meds, my BP is very good, I'm watching my salt but I believe it's essential to have some, especially when you eat natural unprocessed foods. No salt is a fast way to kill yourself. It's really necessary to keep the heart rhythm stable.
It's good also to take that multivitamin, and some magnesium and calcium, too.

If "salt licks" don't have salt in them but minerals (as some scientists state), then why don't we call them "mineral licks"?

Hi Bo, this WOE sure is educational. For sure you have to have SOME daily salt! RDA is one teaspoon a day. I wasn't even getting that, as I don't salt my food & of course wasn't eating pretzels and such on LC...a bit scary how you can overlook things like that. I don't have high BP fortunately, but like you said, you've got to have a bit of it.

Do you mean naturally occurring salt licks? Maybe those don't taste so salty....But I remember seeing the blue salt blocks for the cows when we'd drive by fields as a kid. They are definitely salty! But I can't prove it as I never licked one
Stay healthy!
Lainie

That teaspoon of salt is not the RDA but the maximum you should eat. If it is the RDA, it is only to emphasize that most people eat too much. It is the amount of sodium equivalent to a teaspoon maximum. All meats and vegetables contain sodium. Eating meat and chicken and fish and eggs and cheese will provide all the salt you need as long as you don't overdose on water.

All I know is, I was eating meat, chicken, fish, eggs and cheese in abundance, taking magnesium/zinc/calcium supplements and potassium too, and drinking 8 cups of water a day, and the leg cramps persisted.

When I raised my salt intake slightly by salting my food, the leg cramps went away.

And/or maybe the famous 8 cups of water a day, then, was too much for me.

Tinkering with one's diet is always a little tricky.

It's harder to get sodium if you don't eat meat.

Mostly, our bodies conserve sodium, but this time of year in the northern hemisphere, it's not too hard to get low if you're not eating processed foods.

Generally, my problem with cramps is potassium, but if I find myself craving potato chips, I'll add some table salt to something and I'm usually ok.

I'm a total salt geek.

I'm always looking around for new kinds of salt - salt from France, salt from Okinawa, from Maine and Utah... I love it all as long as it's pure and unrefined.

I don't believe iodized salt contains a very useful form of iodine - better to get your iodine from seaweed, shellfish or fish sauce. Sea salt does contain a trace amount of iodine, maybe not enough but it's in a very absorbable form.

Chloride is necessary to maintain the hydrochloric acid in your stomach. You need more salt to digest cooked food than raw food.

There is no absolute limit on the amount of sodium you consume. You should have the right ratio of potassium to sodium - about 5 to 1. Parsley is an excellent source of potassium, and, not coincidentally, a good garnish for salty food.

Salt was more important before refrigeration because it's good at preserving food. If you ferment vegetables, it's a great easy way to get them to sour into something tasty and healthy. I use copious amounts of salt for fermenting. I often eat my cooked meat with a fermented vegetable or fish sauce; then I don't need to add any extra salt because the condiment is salty.

I'm very strongly against drinking too much water. Drink when you're thirsty! If you train your taste on good food, it will tell you what you need. That's why farm animals have a salt lick - they take as much as they need and then stop. You can do the same by salting your food to taste at the table. In our house, we avoid plain water, especially with food. Lemon water, kombucha with ginger, or another (sometimes salty) fermented drink is typical. Even seltzer water seems to quench my thirst better than plain. I often drink coconut milk - sometimes diluted, sometimes straight, often with a little coconut milk yogurt mixed in.

Dependent on outside temp and exercise levels, the average human needs 500-1000 mg of sodium. Add some extra for loss due to perspiration in heat or exreme exercise.
3oz ground beef, 1 can unsalted salmon, 2 eggs, 2 oz cheese, 2 T heavy cream, 1 c cooked cauliflower, 2 c romaine lettuce, 2 T ranch dressing comes to over 1500 mg sodium and under 14 g carbs. All the above are unsalted except the cheese and dressing. Even to account for exercise or heat you would not need to add much if any salt as long as you are not overdosing on water. However, total electrolyte balance is also crucial and obviously an individual thing. I just get frustrated at people who insist we must have added salt.

I have eaten this way for several years with the occasionaly slightly higher sodium treat and the only time I have ever added the tiniest bit of salt was in Toronto when I was walking outside when it was 36 degrees (centigrad)

Allowing for just the tiniest bit of exaggeration, I'll spend all of July and August at that temperature. The second poster in this list is from Florida, and s/he will spend all of May-September at that temperature.

The OP doesn't provide a geography, but I'll bet it's at the very least south of the 54 - 40 line, and probably south of the Mason-Dixon.

The Romans paid in salt. Gandhi vanquished the British over salt (in part). Funny how quickly it's switched around, to where sodium's the overdosed element and potassium is hard to come by.

I'm in New Hampshire. I've never been one of the new faithful Water Drinkers of this age... I'm from the old "drink when you're thirsty" school.

But when on induction I had to raise my water intake, otherwise constipation was very bad despite eating lots of lettuce & veg. The other issue is leg cramps.

When I raised my water intake too much, it appears that I flushed away the (electrolytes? salt?) and got leg cramps. When I didn't drink enough water, I got constipated. Sigh...

I should mention I'm 53 and post menopausal. At the moment I'm also post surgery, on meds (prednisone & antibiotics) which puts yet another kink in the routine.

I'm still looking for the right balance. I am mostly not eating whites (potatoes, pasta, rice, white bread, sugar) and eat a lot more veggies.

A little known method of relieving constipation is to eat more fat. I refuse to drink water merely to get "unblocked" - but if I increase my coconut milk/coconut oil/ghee intake, everything comes right out.

They're finding that people who cut back on salt are actually dying more than people who eat plenty of it. Yay! Salt makes food taste more like what it tastes like.

I think a lot of low carbers actually do cut out a lot of sodium since they often don't eat a lot of processed stuff that contains a ton of sodium. So be sure to use your salt-shaker!

I will not try to force anyone to agree with me, but I would only follow this advice if I wanted to die. Since I am now healthier than I have been in years and eating Lc and low sodium, I will stick to what I know my body knows is the healthiest way for my body.

This is an obvious case right here of everybody doing what's right for themselves. Your body knows how much salt you need, and it will tell you through your taste. Revcharlie's body is very happy with no added salt, so for her, "salt to taste" means not at all. My body shouts out loud when I haven't salted my food enough. I also reach for the parsley and salad whenever something tastes TOO salty.

I think you can adapt to varying amounts of salt, but I don't think you'll do yourself harm by sticking with what tastes right.

I try to use the best salt I can get. Refined salt has all the magnesium stripped out - magnesium can get a much better price as a supplement or a raw material than as a trace mineral in salt. Table salt also has free-flowing agents added, including aluminum, phosphates, and "yellow prussiate of soda."

Some people have medical conditions that probably warrant cutting sodium, but I don't think you can apply their needs to the general population.

But here's a couple of articles about sodium, where cutting it isn't such a good thing:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...80515171020.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...80613101110.htm