Drumroll… It’s SALT!!
Every morning, before I do anything else (including exercise and coffee) I add ½ tsp of good-quality salt to a full glass of water and down it. At night, around an hour before bed, I do the same with ¼ tsp in about ¼ cup of water. I like Celtic salt because it’s an unrefined sea salt, free from the anti-caking agents commonly added to most supermarket table salts. It isn’t washed or heavily refined, so it retains naturally occurring minerals and trace elements, including magnesium, potassium and calcium.
Why salt matters when you’re eating low-carb
When you switch to low-carb eating, especially very low-carb or keto, insulin levels typically drop. And because insulin tells the kidneys to hold onto sodium, when it drops, your kidneys excrete more sodium, and with it goes water. That’s one reason you can lose quite a bit of water weight when you first cut the carbs.
Lose too much sodium and fluid without replacing it, and you might notice headaches, fatigue, light-headedness, muscle cramps and low energy. Plenty of people write this off as the “keto flu” and wonder why they feel flat.
We need electrolytes, and sodium is an essential one, involved in fluid balance, nerve signalling and muscle function.
Water isn’t always enough
Rather than just drinking loads of plain water and ‘rinsing the pipes’, I make sure I’m replacing sodium too. This little hack has been a game-changer for me, it helps me hydrate properly. I sleep better, get up to pee less during the night and I have more energy.
But isn’t salt bad for us?
We’ve been taught to fear salt, and yes, if it’s coming from fast food burgers and bags of Doritos, maybe it’s warranted. But, when you switch to low-carb (and I’m talking real-food low-carb, not processed + packaged ‘low-carb’ stuff), you’re probably consuming much less salt than you were before. Pair that with your kidneys excreting more sodium, and it makes sense to pay attention to how much you’re getting.
So, let’s not fear salt! Our bodies need sodium.
Side note: If you have uncontrolled high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart failure or take medications that affect fluid or electrolyte balance, check with your health practitioner, and do some extra research, before deliberately increasing your salt intake.
