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| Image credit: www.saltopiasalts.com |
In STEM we've been continuing to learn about subatomic particles and how they help atoms form ionic and covalent bonds. This week we read an article about salt: its chemical makeup, positive and negative effects on health, and how much of it the average human needs to stay healthy. This topic is important because it is important to understand the structure and effects of something we eat every day.
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| Image credit: www.health.com |
Besides making food taste salty, salt also enhances sweetness and rounds out the flavor in other foods. However, even though it makes food taste better, it can have negative effects on your health. In the article, it says that "taking to much salt has been associated with high blood pressure, which can damage the heart and blood vessels and increase the risk of a heart attack and stroke." These are all detrimental effects salt can have on your health. People aren't usually very effective at reducing the sodium in their diets because they are still exposed to the same amounts of salt in processed and restaurant foods, which is where 77% of the average person's salt comes from, according to the article.
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| Image credit: www.chemistry.wustl.edu |
A salt molecule is made out of two elements, sodium and chloride. Sodium is a very reactive element because it has only one valence electron, which it readily loses to form an ionic bond with another element, such as chloride. Chloride has 7 electrons and six additional protons, so it readily accepts sodium's single valence electron to bring the amount of electrons in it's outer shell to the optimal eight. This makes sodium and chloride very compatible and able to form a very strong ionic bond.
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| Image credit: www.oreida.com |
While it's fairly commonly known that too
much salt is bad for you, low-sodium diets can actually be just as harmful. In the article, it states that "Salt, especially the sodium ions (Na+) present in it's NaCl structure, is essential to the functioning of every cell in our bodies." The article then goes on to explain this by describing electrolytes.Electrolytes are solutions that conduct electric currents, the same electric currents that help your brain communicate with the rest of your body. As well, the amount of sodium in your body determines the osmolarity of your bodily fluids. Osmolarity means "the concentration of a solution expressed as the total number of solute particles per liter." If your sodium is low, the osmolarity if your blood could become imbalanced, and the total volume of liquid per cell would decrease, This could cause dehydration, low blood pressure, and even death. Because sodium/salt is also lost when we excrete it through urine and sweat, we need to continually replenish it by consuming salt.
It is important to balance the amount of salt in your diet. When adding salt to your food, it is important to remember that there's often already food added, especially if the food is processed or made in a restaurant. While having too much salt is definitely bad for your, causing things like high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes, low sodium levels can also have negative effects such as dehydration, low-blood pressure, or even death. The key to salt consumption is balance. It shouldn't even be too hard. According to the article, "people may somehow regulate the amount of salt they eat." This means that as long as you let your body tell you when it needs salt and when it doesn't, you should be fine.
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