The Link Between Salt and the Gut

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I’m not sure, if I can make milk work for me at the moment, feels like my metabolism is way too low to handle all the liquid. I’d need to eat waaay more sugar and salt in one sitting, to the point I feel thirsty or I feel really diluted or hypotonic, something like 3000kcal worth of jam per 500g of milk + salt. A glass of milk, even with a whopping tbsp of salt, after a 850kcal jar of jam is enough to trigger salt (starch/cheese) cravings. I’ll try to hold on until I can get more co in, I only took a tsp today, hopefully it will help bringing calorie density up.
I’ll do a week of pretty high salt and see what happens. A moment ago I ate a jar of jam and drank about 350g of milk with almost two tbsp of salt and I feel pretty good atm, though I’m not sure whether it’s a some kind of stress response from so much salt at once. At least my salt craving is gone.
Chewing food reduces my stress significantly, so maybe dropping cheese, the only chewable food in my diet, so quickly just made me feel “out of it” in the morning and made me crave salty cheese and pasta. Just a thought. Too much liquid was probably the main reason though.
RAY PEAT FORUM MEMBER RRR IN APRIL 2016

The sodium in cheese tends to be helpful, as it muffles the stress response by lowering adrenaline and aldosterone. Saturated fats and carbohydrate both increase the metabolic rate.
I’ve never experienced any negative effects from salt. Dr. Ray Peat views it as the safest supplement. Table salt, chemically known as sodium chloride, sometimes delivers excess chloride and does some harm.
As for food cravings, the body synthesizes corticotropin-releasing hormone, which tends to increase cortisol levels and stimulate the appetite. After indulging in a desirable food, the stress response muffles, and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis begins to quiet.
DAVE FOSTER IN APRIL 2016

One more thing about salt. The salt selection here is pretty poor, the available ones are pink himalayan salt, sea salt, rock salt and normal table salt with an anti caking agent. Which one of these in your opinion is the “safest”? I need to order something better from amazon soon, but for now one of those will do.
Baking soda makes me feel a bit weird, but if it didn’t, would it be safe to use baking soda instead of salt?
I’ve been using sea salt and pink himalayan salt, I’ll drop the himalayan salt. I’ll maybe try baking soda again too, thanks!
RAY PEAT FORUM MEMBER RRR IN APRIL 2016

Baking soda, chemically sodium bicarbonate, lacks chloride, but excessive consumption can lead to milk-alkali syndrome. For baking soda, a daily dosage of more than a teaspoon taken three times daily will tend to alkalize the urine, and milk or other alkaline substances will have a similar additive effect. In other words, the more milk that you drink, the less baking soda you’d need to supplement to cause milk-alkali syndrome. If you measured the acidity of your urine using pH test strips, you would observe increasing alkalinity.
When dissolved in a glass of water and drank prior to a workout, even just one teaspoon enhances exercise performance, but the compound will likely cause loose stools if taken away from food.
The iron in Himalayan salt causes it to change a pinkish color. Many Americans already consume too much iron.
DAVE FOSTER IN APRIL 2016

The sea salt I have is kind of grayish, meaning it has dirt and other impurities? The white sea salts in the nearby stores all have anti caking agent. Which one is the lesser evil, dirt or anti caking agent?
RAY PEAT FORUM MEMBER RRR IN APRIL 2016

Manufacturers use sodium aluminosilicate, sodium ferrocyanide or potassium ferrocyanide as anti-caking agents. The sea salt might be safer.
DAVE FOSTER IN APRIL 2016

I’ll probably try baking soda again since it’s probably the cleanest option available here. My OCD bells kind of keep ringing for using high amounts of “dirty” salts. It didn’t really bother that much before, because I wasn’t eating so much of it.
I think I need to use something else than milk for protein, the bloating and discomfort is just too much. Milk is probably not the best food, if you have low metabolism and poor digestion.
I’m gonna try lac free 1% cottage cheese again, maybe I can cover the taste with baking soda and jam. Cottage cheese’s calcium to phosphorus ratio is a bit off though, it’s pretty low in calcium too. I’ll probably need to supplement calcium.
I‘ll try calcium carbonate.
I’ve been wondering whether I should try caffeine and/or thyroid again, and start with a dose for ants. Half a teaspoon of instant coffee has about 30mg of caffeine and when I take that in the morning I can’t sleep for the whole night. I’ll probably need to count the coffee bits and increase by one every day, /jk.
How closely does tolerance for coffee mimic the tolerance for thyroid medication? I’ll probably try to get my tolerance for coffee up before trying thyroid again.
RAY PEAT FORUM MEMBER RRR IN APRIL 2016

Adequate calories and other nutrients, such as the electrolytes magnesium, sodium and calcium can promote a resilience against stress, as can exposure to light during the daytime. Although different, caffeine and thyroid have some overlapping effects. Non-herbal teas have less caffeine than coffee, and those with a sensitivity to caffeine may gradually increase the amount of tea consumed over several days. Teas do, however, contain compounds called tannins, which suppress the thyroid.
DAVE FOSTER IN APRIL 2016

Great, I’ll try that, thanks!
As you also suggested, I feel that I need to really increase my calories. To get more calories while keeping the cost down, I’d need to massively increase co consumption or start to eat starch. Eating 4 jars of jam is just too expensive. I’ve always disliked rice, and potatoes give me horrible gas, so I’d probably try organic pasta again which was a big part of my calories when I was younger and healthy.
I guess a combination of white sugar and co would be a better choice than pasta, but I can’t digest white sugar at all. White sugar and lactose are the biggest gut killers for me.
Do you think I shouldn’t eat pasta, and just slowly increase co consumption instead and hoping it won’t irritate my gut? I’m eating a little over tbs at the moment and I feel it’s a little irritating, stools are a bit loose too. Pasta is a little irritating too, but something like 700kcal of pasta isn’t probably as bad as 700kcal of co.
RAY PEAT FORUM MEMBER RRR IN APRIL 2016

Some cannot tolerate the wheat gluten in pasta, but that made from rice or corn has no gluten. Tubers, such as seasoned potatoes fried in coconut oil provide very good nutrition relative to grains. Overcooked, rather than undercooked starch, served with saturated fat and salt can digest relatively easier without gluten’s toxic effects.
Any carbohydrate will raise the metabolic rate and CO2 production, but starch stimulates insulin release, which drops blood sugar and begins the cycle of glycolysis, which elevates adrenaline to elevate blood sugar. “Runaway glycolysis” elevates the stress hormone cortisol and eventually free fatty acids, which have inflammatory and thus destructive effects. Starch can irritate the intestine and release serotonin, which, when combined with dramatic drop in blood sugar can lead to fatigue and even depression or anxiety. Consumption of some fruit sugar (fructose), such as fructose powder, table sugar (sucrose), fruit or honey alongside the starch mitigates the insulinogenic (insulin-producing) effect, but it can also encourage the growth of the more toxic gram-negative gut bacteria.
High-quality protein is very important, but consumption of gelatin (or taurine and glycine) can offset some of the negative effects of the inflammatory muscle meats.
Wheat contains the gluten protein, which promotes inflammation and constipation, the latter through its opiate-like effects in the gut. Doctors once prescribed morphine to treat loose stools for reference.
Among the starches, potatoes, particularly sweet potatoes, have the most complete nutritional profile including a balanced amino acid ratio. Undercooked starch irritates the intestine, and thorough cooking minimizes the irritation.
The cooking oils that remain liquid at room temperature, with their larger portion of polyunsaturated fatty acids, damage the stomach lining, poison the blood and activate the immune system, whereas the more solid animal fats, composed of predominantly monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids, aid the intestine in its discrimination of particles and regulations of its barrier. ¹ French fries cooked in vegetable oil will burden the digestive processes far more than if fried in beef fat or coconut oil.
Any carbohydrate will generally support thyroid hormone production. starch stimulates insulin release, which drops blood sugar and begins the cycle of glycolysis, which elevates adrenaline to elevate blood sugar. “Runaway glycolysis” elevates the stress hormone cortisol and eventually free fatty acids, which have inflammatory and thus destructive effects. Starch can irritate the intestine and release serotonin, which, when combined with dramatic drop in blood sugar can lead to fatigue and even depression or anxiety. Consumption of some fruit sugar (fructose), such as fructose powder, table sugar (sucrose), fruit or honey alongside the starch mitigates the insulinogenic (insulin-producing) effect, but it can also encourage the growth of the more toxic gram-negative gut bacteria.
High-quality protein is very important, but consumption of gelatin (or taurine and glycine) can offset some of the negative effects of the inflammatory muscle meats.
DAVE FOSTER IN APRIL 2016

I’ll probably try pasta for a short while with a little bit of co, but without any fructose. I’ve tried fructose powder and honey too and they give me diarrhea.
Not being able to digest sugars pretty much forces me to get my carbs from not so optimal sources, the jam is pretty expensive and has additives, so even that isn’t optimal. It tastes good and digest fairly well, those are its only saving graces. 😀 I haven’t eaten pasta for a while, so I don’t know how it digests, but it definitely digested better than rice and potatoes about 6 months ago when I stopped starch.
Do you have an idea why my armpits get sweaty (smells bad) when I drink milk? I remember this started happening when my digestion issues started. I’ve been on and off milk since then and this happens so consistently I’m now sure it’s from the milk.
I only drink about two glasses once or twice a week and those days are always bothersome, because I get so sweaty and smelly. On cottage cheese only days I don’t really sweat and if I do, the sweat doesn’t smell bad.
RAY PEAT FORUM MEMBER RRR IN APRIL 2016

That happens to me with high adrenaline symptoms. It might be related to the tryptophan content of the milk, which raises serotonin, as well as an excess of liquid.
DAVE FOSTER IN APRIL 2016

Alright, I’ll just stop drinking milk until my digestion and metabolism have improved. Thanks!
RAY PEAT FORUM MEMBER RRR IN APRIL 2016

The Link Between Salt and the Gut

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