Just about everyone experiences salt cravings every once in a while. Such cravings could be due to your biological need for more sodium intake, or simply an outcome of your well-established routine of eating salty foods. Because of the risks sodium places on a diabetic's blood vessels and heart, salt intake levels should be lower than people without diabetes. If your salt cravings are unusual --- that is, sudden and not easily explained --- or come with other physical symptoms, seek medical attention immediately.
Self-Trained Palate
On average, Americans consume about 8,500 mg of salt every day, according to Harvard's School of Public Health. That's roughly 3,400 mg of sodium --- and far more than the 2,300 mg recommended for healthy people and excessively higher than the 1,500 mg for people with diabetes. Salt is an omnipresent substance, enhancing flavor and preserving food. Many people might crave salt simply out of habit. That is, your daily eating might simply incline you toward salty foods.
Possible Causes of Salt Cravings
Low sodium levels and premenstrual syndrome in women are easily identifiable causes of salt cravings. Sodium is an electrolyte your body needs to properly operate your muscles and nerves. A report by the University of Phoenix said because of this biological need, all human beings are predisposed to "seek out salt." Fluctuations in the hormones estrogen and cortisol and the neurotransmitter serotonin are the likely culprits behind women's sudden salt-seeking behavior. However, other more serious health complications, some linked to diabetes, might also be behind salt cravings. For example, medullary cystic kidney disease involves growths on the kidneys that cause them not to malfunction. MedlinePlus reports that it also causes loss of sodium, and its earliest symptoms include salt cravings.
Other Conditions
The adrenal glands are small, hormone-secreting organs that sit atop your kidneys. When they fail to produce enough hormone, such as cortisol, you could be diagnosed with primary adrenal insufficiency, also known as Addison's disease. Type 1 diabetes is a risk factor for Addison's disease, and usually one of the first symptoms of adrenal insufficiency is salt craving due to salt loss. When other glands related to the adrenal glands are also affected, that condition is called Schmidt's disease. It mainly affects adults and might be tied to diabetes. These conditions, however, are fairly rare. The National Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases Information Service reports that Addison's affects somewhere between one and four out of every 100,000 people.
Kicking America's Salt Habit
Harvard's School of Public Health says the "abundance of salt in our food is a silent killer," possibly responsible for 100,000 deaths each year and 11 million cases of high blood pressure. The salt preference is a learned one and can be unlearned by reducing the salt in your foods -- and might happen faster by abstaining. Based on insights gained from science, the school recommends cutting your portion sizes to scale back sodium and calories, filling half your plate with fruit and vegetables, eating fewer processed foods, and using heart-healthy unsaturated fats and oils to flavor foods. The recommendations come on the heels of more aggressive recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, which issued a report in April 2010 essentially recommending that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulate salt. For example, the institute suggested a set of standards about how much sodium should be put in prepared foods. The hoped-for effect would be initiating the reduction of sodium in processed and restaurant foods to a safer level.
Seek Medical Attention
When your salt cravings are new, not easily explained, intense, persistent or accompanied by other physical symptoms, consult your doctor. You have no reliable way of knowing whether you have a medical condition causing the salt cravings without the the expertise and testing by your health care provider. In addition, considering more than two-thirds of people with diabetes have high blood pressure, giving in to your salt cravings can set you on a path toward serious heart-related diabetic complications.
References
- "Physiology and Behavior"; "Salt Craving: The Psychobiology of Pathogenic Sodium Intake"; Michael Morris et al; August 2008
- Harvard School of Public Health: Tasting Success with Cutting Salt
- Institute of Medicine; "Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States"; April 2010
- National Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases Information Service; "Adrenal Insufficiency and Addison's Disease"; May 2009
- University of Phoenix; "The Science of Flavor: Curbing America's Love of Fat and Salt"; April 1, 2011
- "Archives of Disease in Childhood"; "Addison's Disease and Diabetes Mellitus"; A.P. Kenna; 1967
