HIGH INTAKE OF SALT.

When I was young, my mother used to caution us not to take salty stuff or to add sauce to our foods. I was quite stubborn then and did not heed her warnings. I was thinking to myself that salt is added to make the foods taste better. No salt, the foods do not taste nice. Later when I discovered that the chicken blood when added with a few drops of salt would coagulate or clotting the blood in a bowl. Then I realised that the same theory applies to our blood vessels as sodium excess leads to abnormal fluid and electrolyte balance and also causes high blood pressure.

In reality, salt is not necessary at all. Several foods have salt content in them and deliberate addition during cooking and processing pushes salt use to the indiscrimate level.

In fact, every cell in the body needs salt. Salt, as we call the common cooking salt, is sodium chloride. Sodium is an ion. Excessive sodium is bad to blood vessels and heart. Indian diet makes one consume about 4 to 9 grams of salt every day. It is indeed preferable to restrict salt intake to 2 to 3 grams a day. In most Malay and Indian restaurants, the foods taste very salty as excessive salt is added to preserve them from turning bad. Usually, after dining in an Indian or a Malay restaurant, I would feel very thirsty due to the addition of excessive salt in the foods.

Some processed foods with added preservatives contain high quantities of sodium. Most preservatives contain sodium in some combined form like sodium benzoate, sodium alginate and sodium bicarbonate.

Thus, one must remember that salt adds nothing except taste, so it should be added in foods indiscriminately.

I then recalled that what a foolish person was I for listening to my mother's advice. I have no one to blame but myself for not heeding to my mother as the result, I am now suffering from my hypertension and high chloresterol. I consider myself to be very lucky though I had two minor strokes in a space of fifteen months. I just cannot afford to ignore taking my medication regularly but to refrain from taking excessive salt for fear of having a third deadlystroke.