Where's the chloride?

[xenolith]

It is well known that in order to possess an optimum electrolyte balance, it's best to have a daily dietary intake of the following minerals:

potassium 3500mg minimum
sodium 1500-2400mg
chloride: 2300-3000mg

It is also well known that in the typical American diet, sodium and chloride deficiencies are very rare because sodium choride is common table salt. And table salt is all too common on dinner tables and in processed foods like snakes, sauces, and cereals. It's so common it usually results in most Americans consuming too much sodium.

However, it's important to remember that sodium and chloride are two separate minerals. What if I consume absolutely no table salt or I eat no processed foods?

Potassium and sodium are relatively easy minerals to keep track of because they're usually listed on nutrition labels and on food nutrition websites like this. Therefore, I know how much my potassium (~4g/d) and sodium (~1500mg/d) intake is by the amount of vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts, no-fat dairy products (and sometimes grass-fed beef) I consume everyday.

Chloride on the other hand is never listed on nutrition labels, or anywhere else that I can find. All I could find is that sea kelp (yuk!) is very high in chloride, but it's also high in sodium too. I also found out that olives and tomatos are chloride rich w/o sodium constantly tagging along, but I can't find a source that tells me how much chloride they contain.

How do I find out how much chloride I'm getting?

 

[BigPoppa]

Most potassium and sodium you take in are going to be in the salt form. I honestly wouldn't worry about your chloride intake, there are better things to worry about.

 

[uclaLabrat]

You should be far more worried about iodide.

FWIW, anytime you have sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, etc. it's often as a salt, as bigpoppa said. Chloride is just the negative counterion to the positive metal ions. You probably get plenty of it, as he said.

 

[LilPima]

I was actually hospitalized before for being "undernourished". I was drinking too much volume of liquids with no carbs and not absorbing the nutrients I was taking in. I was also deficient in the last 2 minerals you mentioned because I was not adding table salt to anything I cooked and was not eating anything processed.

uclaLabrat is right, iodine is important. You can't get this from adding sea salt to your meals.. must use table salt. You shouldn't have to worry about chloride at all if you add minute amounts of regular salt when you are cooking. 🙂