Water, water everywhere? How about salt, salt, everywhere!

We used to have to memorize poetry in school back in the stone age. Do they even do that anymore? “Water, water everywhere and nary a drop to drink.” As I remember, that was the lament of the Ancient Mariner as he was surrounded by undrinkable salt water.

That’s not a problem for us anymore, at least in this country. Water comes free from our faucets and in plastic bottles if, while out and about, we forget to bring or run out of our own. After my morning coffee and OJ, I ONLY drink water

A comment on my Nov 8th blog entry asked how my weight has been so stable (within tenths) over the last few months. I began to wonder about that too. I’ve been in maintenance for almost 3 years, but my weight in that time has always varied by a few pounds one way or the other. Water weight I figured accounted for that. No big deal. Still, all of a sudden something is different and I’m drinking the same amount of water.

At first I thought it was because I became active on SP, determined as I was not to mess up now with my membership in the 5% right on the horizon. That may have had something to do with it, but then I remembered one other big change. Since I never had a blood pressure problem, in fact, it runs on the low side, I never before was concerned with salt intake. We don’t even have a salt shaker on the table, so how could it be a problem for us.

In September I added salt as a nutrient to measure on my tracker. I was surprised to see the wild daily fluctuations depending on which of my “favorites” I had eaten. I’ve been carefully reading labels for a long time now, but concentrating on calories, carbs, fat, protein and calcium. Yikes, salt is everywhere!! I began to actively keep within recommended limits, aiming for the middle of the range as much as possible. Strange how I never considered this before. More salt leads to more water retention and vice versa.

Ancient Rome used to pay its soldiers partly with salt. Salt is a necessary nutrient, not to mention one of the first preservatives. It’s also something I intend to keep in check.