David Thomas wrote:

George E. Cawthon wrote:
David Thomas wrote:

Miniscule, perhaps George, but this source of sodium should still be
made aware to a patient on a sodium restricted diet.

I agree, but RB's paper indicated about 76 mg/l of sodium
for moderately hard water. Many of those patients would eat
a can of soup that had ten times as much sodium and never
give it a thought. Much like the person with a hole in his
throat still smoking cigaretts. Besides, how many people
drink a two liters of water a day?

According to the statistics, most everyone *consumes* the equivalent
of two liters a day. ;-) This includes the moisture found in your
bread, meat, etc. which obviously didn't come out of your water tap.
However, the water used to reconstitue that can of soup, in that cup
of coffee, etc. may very well have come from your tap. The volume of
two liters is simply used as 'worst case' and levels the playing
field.

Equivalent is different. And people that carry around 1
liter drinking bottles probably do drink at least 2 liters
each day. But many people like me drink 2 cups of coffee,
and maybe 2 glasses of water don't come close to 2 liters.
Not saying what is in the wine, but worrying about a little
salt is crazy compared to all the compounds found in wine.


I'm not convinced that following the maximum recommendation
of salt will have much beneficial effect, especially
compared to the potential bad side effect of low sodium.

The body has a great way of elementing excess sodium, I agree. I
believe (though I may be wrong) that sodium restricted diets are an
attempt to lower the bloop pressure by lowering the consumption of
fluids, i.e. eating high sodium foods makes us thirsty as the body
needs the fluids to rid itself of the excess sodium. My uncle was
placed on such a diet and does monitor and attempt to minimize his
sodium intact. I don't offhand remember what his daily allowed sodium
intact is, but I'm pretty sure two liters of ion-exchange softened
water would put a fair dent in it. A dent he might prefer to exchange
for one salty french fry.

Limiting salt intake isn't done to limit water consumption
but to limit water retention which swells tissues and make
it harder to pump blood, thus putting a strain on the
heart. That's why doctors (at least those in the know)
generally prescribe a diuretic in addition to other
medicines for high blood pressure.



;-)