Sama Hoole@SamaHoole
I haven't used salt in two years.
I want to be careful here, because salt is one of those things where the carnivore community has quietly developed a strong collective position that I think deserves examination.
Salt is not an animal product. It does not appear in the archaeological record of Palaeolithic diet in any meaningful quantity. It is a mineral additive that humans adopted as a preservation technology, to stop meat rotting, not because the physiology required it.
I cut it out two years ago, and the following resolved within weeks: post-workout cramps, fast heartbeat in the evening, low-level anxiety that I'd attributed to other causes, and waking at 2am to use the bathroom.
All gone.
The mechanism, as I understand it: sodium and water maintain a feedback loop. More sodium requires more water to maintain osmotic balance. More water increases blood volume. Increased blood volume at rest, when you're not actively losing electrolytes through exercise, puts unnecessary load on the cardiovascular system and disrupts the signalling that regulates sleep and urine production.
Carnivore resolves so many things.
Salt quietly undoes some of them.
Worth experimenting with.