It's Not the Salt. It Never Was

For decades, we have been told that salt causes high blood pressure. Cut down on salt, your doctor says, and your blood pressure will drop.

But the research increasingly suggests something different. In many people, it is not the salt causing the water retention. It is the glucose.

Here is what actually happens. When your blood sugar is high, your blood literally becomes thicker. More viscous. Your kidneys detect this and respond by retaining water to dilute the blood. That extra water raises your blood volume. And raised blood volume means raised blood pressure.

The kidneys are retaining water to dilute thick, sugary blood. Not salty blood. Salt has been blamed for a problem that glucose is causing.

This does not mean extreme salt intake is harmless. But it does mean millions of people are obsessively avoiding salt while continuing to eat the bread, pasta, rice and potatoes that are actually driving their blood pressure up. They are treating the wrong suspect.

When people switch to a lower-carbohydrate way of eating, one of the first things that happens is the kidneys release excess sodium and water. That is why people often lose several pounds of water weight in the first week. The blood pressure drops because the glucose-driven water retention has stopped.

The problem is not your salt shaker. The problem, as always, is chronically elevated insulin. And chronically elevated insulin also increases a hormone called Aldesterone, which also tells the kidney's to retain more salt!

So there are not one, but two biological pathways that sugar puts up your blood pressure. Seems like we have been blaming the wrong white stuff.

Your action today: Instead of worrying about salt, focus on reducing the processed carbohydrates that spike your blood sugar. Log what you eat in the Clubwell app and notice how much of your plate is made up of starchy carbs. Reducing those is likely to do more for your blood pressure than emptying the salt cellar ever could.