National health advice has recommended the population lower their salt intake for the past two decades. But does this recommendation apply to athletes? In short, no! This is a good recommendation for an overweight, sedentary population eating mainly very heavily salted processed food.
Most fighters, however, could actually do with having more sodium day to day. Here is why:
Sodium is lost through sweating, urination, certain medications reduce it, vomiting and diarrhea.
Sodium plays a key role in many of our bodily functions such as:
Muscle contraction: Low sodium affects our ability to contract our muscles.
Fluid balance: Sodium helps to control the movement of water in and out of our cells.
Nutrient absorption: It plays a role in the active absorption of some important nutrients such as glucose and amino acids.
Nerve function: Sodium is required for your brain to communicate with your body via electrical signals in nerve cells
Blood volume: Helps bring blood into our blood vessels meaning more blood volume.
❓What does this mean for athletes❓
If you are not taking in enough sodium or if you are not replacing the sodium you are losing in training. You are compromising your:
💪Muscle contraction
⚡️ Nerve function
🥗 Nutrient absorption
🩸 Blood volume/blood pressure
💦 Fluid balance
🚨 We also know hormonal fluctuations in the second half of the menstrual cycle can affect fluid balance so it is extra important to be on top of sodium then!
HOW CAN WE REPLACE/INCREASE SODIUM?
👉🏻Eating natural foods (meats, fruits, veg all contain sodium).
👉🏻Using good quality rock salt on our foods.
👉🏻Eating fermented foods.
👉🏻Adding electrolytes to our water
👉🏻Eating salted snacks such as salted nuts etc.
If you found this helpful, please like & share so we can spread the word that salt is not all bad!!