# Salt

Category: Foods & Substances

Also known as: sodium chloride, sodium

Sodium is essential for maintaining blood volume, and its restriction is almost always unphysiological and irrational because reduced blood volume diminishes oxygen and nutrient delivery to all tissues. Peat argued that the common craving for salt reflects a real biological…

11 passages · 2 authors · 1993–2025 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/salt

## Synthesis

**Sodium** is essential for maintaining **blood volume**, and its restriction is almost always unphysiological and irrational because reduced blood volume diminishes oxygen and nutrient delivery to all tissues. [Source 7, 11] Peat argued that the common craving for salt reflects a real biological problem, often driven by increased *adrenalin*, and that satisfying this craving can prevent water retention and edema. [Source 7, 11] He noted that in pregnancy, low blood volume from salt restriction fails to nourish the fetus, causing the kidneys to release renin, which increases blood pressure; supplementing salt was shown to lower blood pressure and prevent toxemia. [Source 7]

The body’s ability to retain sodium is critically dependent on **thyroid function** and *carbon dioxide* production. [Source 1, 8] Hypothyroidism causes a constant loss of sodium through the kidneys, and as sodium is lost, the adrenals increase **aldosterone** to compensate. [Source 1, 3, 8] While aldosterone retains sodium, it does so at the expense of *magnesium*, instructing the kidneys to waste it. [Source 1, 8] Therefore, a low sodium intake relative to hormonal needs activates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), a factor recognized in hypertension, kidney disease, and heart fibrosis, while also increasing serotonin and sympathetic nervous system activity. [Source 5, 7] Peat explained that simply increasing sodium intake compensates for low thyroid function by turning off aldosterone, which directly lowers inflammation and stops magnesium loss. [Source 8]

Peat emphasized that salt, along with **protein**, **progesterone**, and **thyroid**, is a primary factor for maintaining brain temperature and function. [Source 1] He described salt as *anxiolytic* and *anti-inflammatory*, noting that it stabilizes blood sugar, lowers adrenaline, and prevents the hyperventilation that causes carbon dioxide loss and a shift to lactic acid metabolism. [Source 5, 6] He cited a population in Mongolia consuming an average of 30 grams of salt per day with no hypertension, and observed that the body adjusts completely to massive changes in salt consumption within two or three days if the person is otherwise well-nourished. [Source 5, 9] Roddy confirmed that salt was a major therapeutic aid for him, though he noted that excessive intake beyond natural taste could cause intestinal injury and diarrhea. [Source 4]

Regarding salt quality, Peat recommended **canning and pickling salt** as a very pure form of sodium chloride, free from the added iron and free-flowing agents found in standard table salt. [Source 10] He dismissed the mineral content of colored salts like pink Himalayan or sea salt, stating that while they may contain dozens of minerals, most of those are toxic, and the iron oxide responsible for the pink color is undesirable. [Source 10] He also warned against "natural" curing agents like celery juice powder used in bacon, explaining that they contain exactly as much nitrate and nitrite as pure chemical cures, but with the addition of extreme allergens and inherent toxicity from the plant material. [Source 2]

## People also ask

### Why did Peat think salt cravings are a biological signal?

Peat argued that salt cravings often reflect a real biological problem driven by increased adrenalin, and that satisfying the craving can prevent water retention and edema.

### How does salt intake affect magnesium levels in the body?

The corpus describes that low sodium intake activates aldosterone, which retains sodium but instructs the kidneys to waste magnesium; increasing salt intake turns off aldosterone and stops this magnesium loss.

### What type of salt did Peat recommend and why?

Peat recommended canning and pickling salt because it is a very pure sodium chloride free from the added iron and free-flowing agents found in standard table salt.

## Related concepts

- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)
- [Caffeine](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/caffeine/index.md)
- [Copper](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/copper/index.md)
- [Hypertension](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/hypertension/index.md)
- [Adrenaline](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/adrenaline/index.md)
- [Aldosterone](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/aldosterone/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Memory, Cognition & Nutrition

Ray Peat · Interview · 2014

> **Andrew Murray:** Wow you’ve let your secret out (laughs). Okay - so let me just think okay, yeah, so I’d like to go back to sodium. I know that you have mentioned sodium itself and again, another controversial subject, but that’s what this show is all about I think, not so much controversy, but it’s actually the truth and it sounds so shocking that it seems to be controversial, but sodium in the form of regular table salt and I know that we have done lots of different shows or interjected shows with mentioning how good and positive and healthful and beneficial salt is for you, even though that that most of the advertising media wants to tell you how bad it is (just like sugar) but salt itself is very important in terms of retaining the magnesium that you are saying.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Stress and aging tend to make it harder to retain the sodium. Hyponatremia is a big problem for sick, old people but occasionally it happens in hypothyroid younger people because the thyroid-making carbon dioxide is an important factor in retaining sodium so it doesn’t get lost in the urine and when your body is sensing too much loss of sodium, the adrenals produce aldosterone to save the sodium and aldosterone tells the kidneys to lose magnesium. And so if you take enough sodium to keep your adrenals from making aldosterone, your kidneys are going to save magnesium so in that situation eating extra salt is going to be equivalent to having more magnesium in your diet because you will lose it less quickly.

### Source 2 — #74: Vaccine Shedding  |  Progesterone and Thyroid  |  Immunology, Ideology, and Power with Ray Peat

Ray Peat · Interview · Nov 27, 2021

> **Ray Peat:** The market is full of good solutions to problems that never existed. Very intense salt, sodium chloride, is fine for curing pork or making bacon. You just have to soak some of the salt out of it to make it ready to eat. Many years ago, they found that a little bit of sodium or potassium nitrate or nitrite would give it a pink color and suppress bacteria growth, so that became the rule. When someone discovered that it could be carcinogenic in very large amounts, they looked for alternatives. Some crops—if there's a heavy nitrogen fertilizer in commercial vegetable crops—become carcinogenic because of the extreme amount of nitrate and nitrite they contain. To create an alternative market, someone took the juice of these toxic industrial crops, dehydrated it into a powder, and found that the vegetable juice contained enough nitrate and nitrite to produce the pink color people wanted in ham and bacon. So, that has become very popular now as supposedly a "safe" bacon, but it has exactly as much nitrate and nitrite as the bacon and ham made with the pure chemicals. However, it also contains the complex, extreme allergens that some of these plants have. Celery juice happens to be on the edge of toxic ordinarily, even if you aren't allergic to it. But if you're allergic to it, then it can become extremely harmful.

### Source 3 — Cellular Repair KMUD 2012

Ray Peat · Interview · 2012

> **Caller:** So many doctors seem to think salt is the worst thing in the world, and especially if you have high blood pressure. I’m a bit overweight, and my blood pressure is high, and I take some medication that controls it. I don’t have side-effects from it. But I’ve always liked salt, and often have a craving for it. I’ve had atrial fibrillation recently, which was related to an over active thyroid, and I’m taking medication for that. The cardiologist said I should practically cut out salt, because he thought it should help me lose weight and bring my blood pressure down, and that the blood pressure could aggravate the atrial fibrillation. I haven’t had any atrial fibrillation attacks since I’ve been treated for the thyroid. But I wonder about the salt thing: medication seems to control my blood pressure. Is there any advantage in cutting back on my salt intake?
>
> **Ray Peat:** The hypothyroidism causes you to lose sodium, and it’s probably the main cause of people having high aldosterone. And once you have high aldosterone, because of low thyroid, or low calcium…
>
> **Caller:** I have hyperthyroid; I had an overactive thyroid, and have been getting it under control.

### Source 4 — Bioenergetic Helpline #2: Calcium, Thyroid, DHEA, Precious Metals, Low Cholesterol, Moving Abroad

Danny Roddy · Interview · Dec 6, 2025 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqGwQFOriaY

> **Danny Roddy:** what you think yeah i think it was 2017 or 2018 salt was like the thing that helped me the most and so i tried a bunch of different amounts and i think i had emailed ray something where he told me that five teaspoons could help some people that was a massive amount you know and whenever i would um man i wish i had allowed people just to enter without approving this um whenever i would try to take too much it would just injure my intestine cause bad diarrhea and so it seemed like there was a hard cut off for it and i i think i've told that to a lot of other people and people other people seem to have the same reaction you know and So I think if you're going way beyond what you want, naturally, like you don't have the taste for it, you're like you're parachuting it or something. I think that can have a bad outcome. Like it's might upset your stomach, but there was an interview with Ray. Uh, and if you're, if you just came in here, I'm going to say Ray says this, Ray says that a lot, but, um, there was an interview with him where a woman, I think she could not get her temperature up. And Ray specifically asked her about her calcium intake and her salt. obviously those are like two thermogenic aids and so i don't think that's an unreasonable thing to explore i think i think it's underrated people don't talk about it very much and but yeah if it was causing diarrhea or it made you lose taste for food like when i would take in a bunch it would basically make me like accidentally anorexic like i just wouldn't want food anymore and i think that's probably a negative aspect of it

### Source 5 — #55: Bioenergetic Nutrition Basics  |  "The Ray Peat Diet"  |  Appetite and Metabolism with Ray Peat

Ray Peat · Interview · Apr 25, 2021

> ## Salt and Electrolytes
>
> **Danny Roddy:** Do you have an amount of salt that you think is necessary for minimal functioning?
>
> **Ray Peat:** No, you can adapt very well. When I worked in the woods, our cook was obsessed with the fact that sweating people needed extra salt, so he put a heaping spoonful in our porridge every morning. I found that I had so much salt in my sweat that it was crystallizing on my glasses. I decided to tell him my doctor put me on a low salt diet. Immediately, over the weekend, I didn't need salt tablets in the afternoon, and my sweat was like distilled water.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** There are some recent human studies that claim that anything less than five grams of elemental sodium daily activates chronically the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Would you agree with that?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Oh, for sure. That tiny amount brings up your anxiety and inflammation. So salt is definitely anxiolytic and anti-inflammatory. A population in Mongolia, for example, eats an average of about 30 grams of salt per day and doesn't have hypertension.
>
> **Danny Roddy:** So at least one teaspoon basic. What about calcium?

### Source 6 — Blood Pressure Regulation Heart Failure and Muscle Atrophy

Ray Peat · Interview · Jul 20, 2012 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Ce3BdRpds

> **Herb Doctor:** So, they had it right in the 50’s and before, in the wars conducted in deserts and hot places (in North Africa or India) when they used to give the troops salt tablets. I remember my stepfather telling me about the salt tablets he used to get.
>
> **Ray Peat:** One of the interesting effects of increasing your sodium intake is that it tends to stabilize your blood sugar, partly because it works with thyroid to improve energy efficiency. But it lowers adrenaline; and that makes your whole system work more efficiently. And it prevents hyperventilation, which is another way that people tend to lose carbon dioxide and shift over to lactic acid.
>
> **Herb Doctor:** It's also a good thing to take - if you have a performance or a show, and you’re a little bit nervous about it - if you drink some orange juice with a little salt in it, it can really lower adrenaline and make you more calm and more relaxed for the show.
>
> **Caller:** Do you happen to know of an herbal supplement for Isosorbide?
>
> **Herb Doctor 2:** Isosorbide? I’ve never heard of it.
>
> **Caller:** It's a time-release nitroglycerine for my heart.

### Source 7 — Salt, energy, metabolic rate, and longevity

Ray Peat · Article · 2007 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/salt.shtml

> He explained that sodium, in association with serum albumin, is essential for maintaining blood volume. Without adequate sodium, the serum albumin is unable to keep water from leaving the blood and entering the tissues. The tissues swell as the volume of blood is reduced.
>
> During pregnancy, the reduced blood volume doesn’t adequately nourish and oxygenate the growing fetus, and the reduced circulation to the kidneys causes them to release a signal substance (renin) that causes the blood to circulate faster, under greater pressure.
>
> A low salt diet is just one of the things that can reduce kidney circulation and stimulate renin production.
>
> Bacterial endotoxin, and other things that cause excessive capillary permeability, edema, or shock-like symptoms, will activate renin secretion.
>
> The blood volume problem isn’t limited to the hypertension of pregnancy toxemia: “Plasma volume is usually lower in patients with essential hypertension than in normal subjects” (Tarazi, 1976).
>
> Several studies of preeclampsia or toxemia of pregnancy showed that supplementing the diet with salt would lower the women’s blood pressure, and prevent the other complications associated with toxemia ( Shanklin and Hodin, 1979).
>
> It has been known for many years that decreasing sodium intake causes the body to respond adaptively, increasing the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS).
>
> The activation of this system is recognized as a factor in hypertension, kidney disease, heart failure, fibrosis of the heart, and other problems.
>
> Sodium restriction also increases serotonin, activity of the sympathetic nervous system, and plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1), which contributes to the accumulation of clots and is associated with breast and prostate cancer.
>
> The sympathetic nervous system becomes hyperactive in preeclampsia (Metsaars, et al., 2006).
>
> Despite the general knowledge of the relation of dietary salt to the RAA system, and its application by Brewer and others to the prevention of pregnancy toxemia, it isn’t common to see the information applied to other problems, such as aging and the stress-related degenerative diseases.
>
> Many young women periodically crave salt and sugar, especially around ovulation and premenstrually, when estrogen is high.
>
> Physiologically, this is similar to the food cravings of pregnancy.

### Source 8 — Ray Peat Interview on Iron Toxicity, Estrogen, PUFA, Thyroid, and Stress Hormones

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 15, 2025 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UmFIaFm2Mc

> **Josh Rubin:** While we're on the topic of blood pressure, there's a couple questions about salt. I think one of the great articles slash newsletter you wrote, if people haven't read it, is about eclampsia. in the real organism. It's one of my favorites. And if you haven't studied the work of Tom Brewer, guys, I got kind of his name from Dr. AP. He's got some great books on pregnancy, eclampsia, toxemia, et cetera. Can you talk a little bit about just the benefits of salt and so, you know, why is it so important not only for us but also pregnant women?
>
> **Ray Peat:** The eclampsia problem is very closely connected to high PUFA and that goes with low thyroid and low thyroid goes with the low carbon dioxide and poor ability to retain sodium and so the sodium is constantly being lost as well as the magnesium and as the sodium is lost the adrenals try to correct things by increasing aldosterone which does retain sodium, but at the expense of losing magnesium faster. And if your thyroid is low, you not only lose sodium through the kidneys, but your cells can't retain magnesium. And so on a low sodium intake relative to your hormonal needs, what you're doing is turning on a system that makes the problem worse by letting out the magnesium that is needed for cell energy and controlling inflammation and tension and cramps and so on. So if you just increase your sodium intake, you're compensating for a low thyroid function but you're turning off the aldosterone and getting the aldosterone down directly lowers inflammation and stops some of the magnesium loss. So just by adding sodium as Brewer and the people he based his thinking on, they showed that just sodium alone would very commonly cure the whole problem. and that seems to be acting by way largely of the aldosterone system.

### Source 9 — Townsend Letter — January 2000

Ray Peat · Newsletter · Jan 1, 2000

> In physiology lab classes, professors sometimes have one group of students drink a quart of ordinary water at the beginning of the class, while another group drinks a quart of isotonic saline (containing roughly a rounded teaspoonful of salt). Everyone measures their urine output over the next few hours, and by the end of the class, it turns out that those who drank the plain water produced about a quart more urine than those who drank the slightly salty water. The conclusion is obvious: For every 9 grams of salt, we retain a quart of water. That’s an unfortunate experiment, though, because it creates such a clear impression of salt’s immediate effect, but provides no information at all about its longer-range effects.
>
> Recently, a British physician, from Mongolia or northern China, studied the incidence of hypertension in her native region, where people consume at least 30 grams of salt per day. She found no hypertension at all, even among the oldest people. In my experiments, it has taken the body only two or three days to adjust completely to a massive change in salt consumption. Many hormones adjust quickly to retain or release sodium, according to the amount consumed, if the person is otherwise well nourished. Hypothyroid people, however, are unable to maintain a normal sodium concentration in their body fluids even when they increase their salt consumption.
>
> Thyroid, protein, sodium, and magnesium will correct most edemas. Progesterone, acting on mitochondria to increase respiratory efficiency, and on structural proteins to change their ionic affinities, synergizes with the other natural factors to correct permeability and water regulation. One of the first people I saw use progesterone was a woman who (after being studied at the Mayo Clinic and many other places) believed she had Bright’s disease, and habitually produced an extremely small quantity of urine. A few hours after taking just a few milligrams of progesterone, she telephoned to report that she “had to stop at every gas station on the way home,” because she was forming urine at such a great rate.
>
> Increased perfusion of the kidneys is one of progesterone’s normal functions, that accounts for its ability to prevent or cure “toxemia” of pregnancy.

### Source 10 — Dr. Ray Peat, Ph.D - Your Health Questions Answered - March 2, 2021 | One Radio Network

Ray Peat · Interview · 2021

> **Patrick Timpone:** And speaking of salt, this is a great lead into this question. Would you please ask Dr. Peat, writes Amy, about information on Morton’s Canning and Pickling salt, that Dr Huggins used to recommend versus redmans or himilayan salt?
>
> **Ray Peat:** The canning and pickling salt its feature is that they don’t add iron and other materials for free flowing (see toxinless.com salt section). Its sodium chloride in just a very pure form. Someone I knew worked in a blood chemistry lab and they would buy most of their chemicals form a company like Sigma or Spectrum and pay astronomical prices but when they wanted just pure sodium chloride they would just go to the store and get canning and pickling salt.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** So, you think its pretty good choice, every day?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah because the coloring material if its gray or pink or whatever the pink is usually iron oxide or other…
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** In the sea salt? Of course the sea salt people make this argument that we need all of the different minerals, but you don't resonant with that?
>
> **Ray Peat:** No, some places identify 90 or 92 different minerals, but most of those are toxic.

### Source 11 — Nutrition for Women

Ray Peat · Book · 1993

> If we eat salty foods when we crave them, we are able to retain our magnesium more easily. Sodium also helps to regulate blood sugar, for example by improving its absorption from the intestine. There is even evidence that sodium can spare protein, since, if there isn't enough sodium to excrete into the urine to balance acids, the kidneys will waste protein to produce ammonium as an ionic substitute for sodium. But I think the most important point to remember is that it is essential for maintaining adequate blood volume, and that it is almost always unphysiological and irrational to restrict sodium intake, because reduced blood volume tends to reduce the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to all tissues, leading to many problems. The emotional tension many people feel when they crave salt is, in some cases, the result of increased adrenalin, reflecting a real biological problem.
>
> ### Obesity
>
> Several years ago, the death of a young physician from blood clots, while she was using a linseed oil supplement, caused me to realize the urgency of getting more information on the toxicity of unsaturated oils into an easily understandable form. While I was writing my dissertation, more than 20 years ago, I saw that there was already abundant research on their toxicity, but commercial propaganda for the "health benefits" of the "good unsaturated oils" (from seeds, nuts, and fish) had caused many people to overlook their harmful effects. At that time, it was clear that they promoted cancer, heart disease, and various degenerative diseases, and even premature aging. Agricultural research had demonstrated that they promoted obesity, and biochemists could demonstrate a specific interference with our most essential respiratory enzymes. Although I knew of experiments in which rats grew fat according to the degree of unsaturation of the fats in their diet, regardless of quantity, and grew lean in proportion to the percentage of (relatively saturated) coconut oil in their diet, again regardless of quantity, I didn't get around to making practical use of these facts until I had spent several months reading the whole history of research on the biological effects of dietary fats. The idea of "essential fatty acids" (sometimes called "vitamin F") appeared in the 1930s, as a result of tests in which rats developed a skin disease on a fat-free diet, and recovered from the skin disease when fed unsaturated fats.

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