How Effective Is A Low Salt Diet
How Effective Is A Low Salt Diet?
A popular gambit in weight reduction is a low salt diet. By decreasing salt intake any normal person can lose two to three pounds in a day or so. But he would then regain the lost weight. Contrariwise, if a normal person should double his salt intake, he would gain two to three pounds over a couple of days and then drift back down to his usual weight. Restriction of salt results in a temporary loss of water from the body with a concomitant temporary loss in weight.
Added salt results in a transient increase in water retention with a temporary increase in weight. The proportion of water in the body to total body weight is remarkably stable. Although ups and downs in weight will occur in short-term studies, permanent weight is unchanged. Frequently boxers must pare down to a weight closely specified within the contract.
The day before the fight the champion may weigh in at two pounds over the limit. He then subjects himself to steam baths and a low salt diet. Several hours later he weighs in according to the contractual agreement-but sapped of energy. Few will forget the inevitable defeat of Sugar Ray Robinson a decade ago at Yankee Stadium when he fell apart in a late round from a combination of (a) salt restriction, (b) weight loss due to dehydration, and (c) a very warm night.
Weight reduction by salt restriction is unworkable, un-physiologic, and, in certain cases, dangerous.
Other Weight Reducing Systems
Many remedies for obesity have been popular for the last few years. Dexedrine, commonly known as ”pep-up pills,” has been singularly successful because its pharmacological action promotes restiveness plus increased pulse rate, and therefore increased metabolism, or increased caloric utilization. Lack of sound sleep, high blood pressure, and a frenetic approach to daily activities are unfortunate and occasionally produce dangerous side effects. To add to this clouded benefit, a pill has been substituted for sincere desire. So often the good results of drug-induced diet evaporate when the drug is discontinued. No pill has yet been discovered which can safely or predictably replace desire. And especially beware of thyroid pills for patients without a proven thyroid deficiency.
Other regimens aim not at increasing energy demands, as do those mentioned above, but attempt to decrease appetite by providing bulk. Appetite is assuaged by a feeling of bulk and weight in the stomach. Neither a large mass of fluff nor a small weight of lead will suffice. The combination of mass and weight determines satisfaction. Several potions to produce bulk and thus hopefully assuage appetite are popular. Although these preparations are usually inert, they represent a crutch which attempts to fortify desire. Eventual success is rarely possible. Weight may temporarily come down, but it does not stay down.
Many reducing pills contain completely harmless elements. Often vitamins, lactalbumin, dried milk powder, salts, herbs, and sugars are included. While of no biochemical repute, they do have the advantage of increasing motivation through evangelistic self-conviction and an inordinate financial outlay producing a compulsion for results.