Effects of sodium on muscle growth?

[GoatMonkey]

I'm mostly wondering about things like sliced lunch meats like turkey, ham, roast beef, they all seem to have high sodium. Some of them have a nice fat and carb to protein ratio, but have high sodium. I know it's not good for blood pressure, but is it bad for muscle growth also?

I ask also because I noticed some low fat turkey hot dogs that seem to be similar with low fat/carbs and high protein/sodium, but most people seem to say you should avoid hot dogs for some reason.

Is there something else in there, like preservatives or something, that are the actual issue with hot dogs and lunch meats?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

In my experience, I feel best when I go with the least processed lean meats. Sodium is a pretty big deal in your body's equilibrium. I haven't read anything about it harming muscle cell growth, but if you have too much sodium, it could potentially mess with your nerve and muscle cell equilibrium I'd imagine. Try to keep your sodium intake low. Maybe even rinse stuff off before you eat it, if you're still gonna use it. I rinse my canned tuna twice before I eat it to try to get the excess salt out of it.

 

[purbeast0]

when i am cutting up i typically eat 2 cold-cut sandwiches for lunch that I make from meat i get at the deli at the grocery store.

however i also have eaten these when I bulked up and i have gained tremendous weight over my bulking phase the past 8 months or so.

so in conclusion, i have no idea, but it didn't seem to hinder my muscle growth, or when i was cutting up

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Just try to keep sodium intake low.

Unless you have other health problems related to salt or sodium the most harm it will do is cause you to retain water, which in some instances is good.

Just don't base your diet largely around processed foods and you should be alright.

 

[TecHNooB]

You can take away my soft drinks, you can take away my greasy fast food, you can take away my sweets, but you'll never take my deli meat!!!

 

[KoolDrew]

Clin Sci (Lond). 2007 Apr 10; [Epub ahead of print] Related Articles


Salt intake and insulin sensitivity in healthy human volunteers.

Townsend RR, Kapoor S, McFadden CB.

The literature on salt intake and insulin sensitivity presents a mixed picture as some studies show an increase while others a decrease in insulin action as sodium intake is enhanced. In some cases this may relate to the study of salt intake in patients with co-morbidities such as hypertension or diabetes. In this study we selected healthy normotensive lean volunteers who underwent a euglycemic clamp following 6 days of a low (20 milliequivalents of sodium daily) and subsequently 6 days of a high (200 milliequivalents of sodium daily). Our results show an increase in insulin mediated glucose disposal during euglycemic clamp conditions that was significantly higher (7.41+/-0.41 mgkg -1min -1) following the higher compared with the lower dietary salt (6.11+/-0.40 mgkg -1min -1; p=0.03) intake interventions. We measured calf blood flow (no significant change after the two dietary salt interventions) before and during insulin infusion, and plasma non-esterified fatty acids (also no significant differences). We observed the expected increases in renin concentration and aldosterone activity on the lower salt diet, and also observed significantly less increase in plasma norepinephrine concentration during euglycemic insulin infusion following the high compared with the low salt intake diets. We submit that the 4-5fold increase in serum aldosterone and the greater increase in plasma norepinephrine concentration following the low salt intervention compared with the higher salt period may have contributed to the differences in insulin sensitivity following dietary sodium intake adjustment.

PMID: 17425514 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

 

[superstition]

Salt increases inflammation as far as I know, as well as heart rate. Neither are desirable in general, and particularly when training. However, athletes like pro tennis players may have to supplement it in drinks to prevent cramping.