The Scoop on Salt

I am consfused.

If salt retains water then how does the water "flush" your system. Wouldn't the salt just hang on to the water?

Trying to think of a good way to explain it..  Salt will retain water.  Like a dam will.  It'll keep all that happy water in, but if you drink a lot of water, eventually the dam can't hold it all in anymore, and it'll wash the dam right away.  It's not a concrete dam, mind you.  More like a beaver dam, one you'd expect to get pulverised by a flash flood.

Nice analogy (spelling).

How does salt flush your system?  It doesn't....

No, Water....

Not salt. Sarcasm unappreciated.

Salt/sodium causes dehydration.   For example, you'd die if all you had to drink was seawater, because the salt in the water would negate the hydrating abilities of the water and you would not hydrate correctly.

If you eat too much salt, it sort of... leeches the water that's already in your body.  Therefore, when your body senses sodium/salt overload, it will try to conserve its water by retaining it and not flushing out the excess.  It's trying to ensure you don't dehydrate.

Therefore, the way to combat eating too much salt/sodium is to drink extra water.  This forces your body to continue flushing your system and to NOT hold onto the extra water. 

It's all about osmosis.  Your body need a certain balance of salt and water and too much salt makes your body need water and extra water can kind of wash out some salt.  Way too much water (gallons) dilutes the salt too much and you have a whole different problem.

Salt causes dehydration. Once your body has a high level of sodium it will hang on to any bit of water it can to dilute it. A higher intake of water tells your body that you are not dehydrated and it will chill out and rebalance your nutrients. However, like maddprofessor said, too much water is a problem as well. Your body begins dumping essential nutrients as it passes the water. Thus the clear color most people *mistakenly* believe their urine should be.

It is good to have nearly clear pee.  You people... sometimes...

Anyway, during cross country a girl on the team got dehydrated (like really bad and she couldn't keep anything down) so the doctor told her to drink slowly and eat saltines do her body would start retaining water.

The deal with salt is, watch your daily intake of it and get plenty of water.  Drink how ever much makes you feel good.

 

"Nearly" clear isn't the same as "clear". Something I picked up in the 6 years I spent in the nursing program before I graduated. Obviously you don't want your urine to be dark yellow, but you also want a little color. There's a balance to everything, including our tinkle.

Anyone have an idea of how long it takes to flush it out?

I have my monthly body comp at the gym later today, and was horrified to get on the scale this morning a see a 3 lb increase from yesterday. When I thought about why that might be, I remembered I had a very high sodium day yesterday (like 4500 mg, twice the daily recommmeded amount!) due to too much soy sauce in my stir fry. And I have leftovers for lunch today! Any hope of "flushing" all this sodium out before 5:30 pm?? If I drink, say, 10 glasses of water throughout the day?

I know it's vain but I want to proudly show off how much weight I lost this month, even just to the perky stick-girl trainer at the gym!