Is drinking water with Himalayan salt actually good for you or not?
You may have already seen it pop up on your Instagram: sole water. No, it’s not a new, hip drink that influencers swear by. Although… Actually, it kind of is. Sole water is water with a pinch of Himalayan salt, and drinking this beverage is a trend. The reason: it’s supposedly very healthy for you. But is that really the case, or should we take it with a grain of salt?
If we followed all the health tips and tricks imposed on us, we’d have a full-time job carrying them out. In other words, we’d basically have no life left. So it’s important to examine what works and what doesn’t. Do we really need to drink lettuce water to fall asleep quickly? Are juice cleanses actually good or bad for us? Does the lion diet work (yes, it exists)? And now the question is: what health benefits come from drinking water with Himalayan salt?
Why would drinking salt water be healthy?
The idea that drinking salt water is good for you must have come from somewhere. What I mean is that it’s not as though someone once added a pinch of salt to their glass of water just for fun. No, that person had their reasons. Why is drinking salt water thought to be healthy?
Replenishing sodium
Sodium is an important electrolyte: a mineral with an electrical charge. It plays a role in relaxing and contracting your muscles, firing neurons and regulating the fluid balance in your body. Do you exercise a lot and lose a lot of sweat in the process? Then you also lose a lot of sodium. Salt has a high sodium content. If you add it to a glass of water and drink it, it is supposedly meant to replenish your sodium deficiency. Your body would then be hydrated again.
Improved digestion
Another reason to drink salt water: it would improve your digestion. If you drink a glass of salt water, you produce more saliva. This is necessary to break down food in your mouth, which in turn is needed to get healthy digestion going. In addition, natural salts, such as sodium chloride, are supposedly able to promote the production and function of your stomach acid. If the acid in your stomach is stimulated, the food would break down more easily. Too little stomach acid could cause, among other things, bloating and acid reflux.
Flushing out toxins
The more water you drink, the more you have to pee. (As you get older, you even have to get out of bed at night to do it. Believe me, then you curse that 2.5 liters a day.) Urinating means that you expel toxins from your body. When you drink water with salt, you would also have better bowel movements. Because, as you just read: your digestion would improve. And that is another way to eliminate toxins from your body.
This is why you’re better off not doing it
With all those supposed health benefits lined up, you’d almost stock up on kilos of Himalayan salt. But hold on. Because when it comes down to it, drinking water with Himalayan salt really isn’t that good for you.
The problem is that you can quickly consume too much salt, and that simply isn’t healthy. It can give you diarrhea, which can leave you severely dehydrated. And that while you thought you were taking in so much water! In fact, drinking water with salt has the opposite effect. On top of that, too much salt can also give you high blood pressure and, in the worst case, even kidney failure. Especially if you already have high blood pressure or kidney disease, it really isn’t wise to start drinking water with salt. You’re only inviting health problems.
Conclusion
In short, leave that salty glass of water alone. The disadvantages to your health are genuinely much greater than the benefits. With a nice glass of regular tap water, you can keep your fluid balance perfectly in check. And that will also make your digestion happy. We’ll just have to take having to pee at night in stride.
Also read:
- Wow: this is just how unhealthy water with powder or syrup really is
- Emma’s food pet peeves: water with lemon
- Why does tap water taste different everywhere in the Netherlands?
Sources: drinkhydrant.com, ELLE
