Men's Health 1,001 Muscle Foods Fall 2011, pg 15:
Do I have to reduce my salt intake?
Not if your blood pressure is normal. In the 1940's, a Duke University researcher named Walter Kempner, M.D., became famous for using salt restriction to treat people with high blood pressure. Later, studies confirmed that reducing salt could help reduce hypertension. Large-scale scientific reviews, however, have determined that people with normal blood pressure have no reason to restrict their salt intake
[I personally disagree with that last statement, salt in excesses—and we're getting it in more excess than all human history combined during this period of time through processed, packaged and canned garbage—is linked to kidney problems and not just because of the fact that it raises blood pressure either. It is very abrasive stuff, your kidneys are only able to serve their purpose because of small cord-like mesh filtering your blood of it and other things they have to get rid of on a daily basis. It then becomes not very difficult to better understand the kidney failure epidemic in 'developed nations' without further explanation being necessary here. Salt isn't supposed to be consumed in massive quantities, but it is contained in almost everything today and at amounts that are simply outrageous e.g. an average American gets 3,400 mg salt/sodium or more per day and which is definitely far beyond a healthy amount of <2,000 mg].
(A quick clarification: Salt is a seasoning made of sodium chloride sodium is an element that can still exist in foods marked "no salt.") So if you already have high blood pressure, you may be "salt sensitive," and reducing the amount of salt you eat could be helpful. That said, people with high blood pressure who don't want to lower their salt intake can consume more potassium-containing foods. (For example, deep orange and green fruits like apricot, kiwi, and cantaloupe, as well as bananas and coconut water, are among top sources.) Why? Because the balance of salt and potassium in your body is what matters. In fact, Dutch researchers determined that a low potassium intake has the same impact on your blood pressure as high salt consumption does. And, as it turns out, the average guy consumes only 3,100 mg of potassium a day—1,600 mg less than recommended.
So what you can do is get some whey protein (I personally stick to Body Fortress, around $16 at Wal Mart) and a bunch of bananas and make yourself a nice protein smoothie. They're great and the banana is almost unnoticeable (I never really liked them by themselves and that's common, hence the recommendation of this method lol).
