The network often raises questions about the benefits and dangers of salt, about the norms of its consumption, or about, for example, what will happen if you eat 3 tablespoons of salt. To begin with, we will understand what this compound is from the point of view of chemistry, accessible to an ordinary person with a secondary education.
Chemical formula and manufacturing method
In nature, salt is found in the form of compounds with other elements of the soil surrounding it; therefore, it can have a different composition. However, for consumption as a seasoning in food, the natural mixture is boiled and a pure compound of sodium chloride — NaCl — is obtained. It is this compound that we consume daily in the form of white powder or crystals. In fact, they are transparent, but due to their small size and a large number of edges, the light passing through the salt crystal colors it white.
Where did the tradition of salt come from: a common theory
It is difficult to disagree with the fact that fresh meals are tasteless, and in some cases even disgusting. Apparently, this could be the reason that the salting of the dish tightly entered into use. There is an opinion that the first way to extract this seasoning is to burn plants that grow in places where an increased concentration of salts was observed. Once upon a time, people ate fish and meat and from them received a lot of salt; lack of elements in the blood began to be noticed in the transition to agriculture - plants could not deliver such an amount of this chemical compound to the body.
Salt damage versus its utility
What will happen if you eat 3 tablespoons of salt, can be considered an instant reaction of the body and a demonstration of harm in all its glory. But even in small quantities, this seasoning constantly and with enviable regularity enters our bodies. In this case, it acts as a time bomb with an unpredictable area of destruction.
Arguments for and against salt
This chemical compound is not digested or absorbed in our body. Nevertheless, there are opinions that salt ions play an important role in the formation of gastric juice, the functioning of nerve cells, although seasoning does not carry any nutritional value - neither vitamins nor organic substances. In small quantities, if we talk about the benefits, this substance is undoubtedly necessary. But if there is a lot of salt in the body, and these are the realities of today, its excess primarily affects the same intestinal mucosa, then the kidneys, gall and bladder suffer. It also affects the cardiovascular system - for example, it stimulates the occurrence of hypertension.
If you eat a lot of salt, you will immediately feel the need for water. In some works, this property is characterized as a reaction of an organism to a foreign substance. There is a need to wash it out of the body by accumulating large amounts of water in the foci of salt concentration.
If you consume water in large quantities, then the formation of swelling is likely, but if not, on the contrary, tissue dehydration is going on up to a critical state.
A single intake of a large amount of salt - what is fraught with
What happens if you eat 3 tablespoons of salt? First you need to try to do it. Even if we are talking about teaspoons, already after the first there is a terrible disgust, up to vomiting. If a person is healthy and does not have problems with the heart, gastrointestinal tract, and / or kidneys, then a dose of three spoons is likely to pass without a fatal outcome. But vomiting, abdominal pain, dryness and intense thirst with possible swelling and increased blood pressure - this is what should be expected in this case. If there are diseases associated, as mentioned above, with the gastrointestinal tract, with the kidneys, with the heart or blood vessels, the result can be much worse.
To begin with, wondering what will happen if you eat 3 tablespoons of salt, you need to determine their size. So, if we are talking about teaspoons, then one contains from five grams of salt (without top and then growing), in a tablespoon there can be from 18 grams. Total minimum 15 grams in the first case and 54 grams in the second. Doctors called the dose of salt, which is called conditionally lethal, in the amount of 250 grams. As can be seen from the digital values, in the case of tablespoons you will have to eat not three, but five times three, that is, 15 tbsp. l If you can still overcome the vomiting reflex and disgust, without washing down all this with water, then most likely, without medical assistance, you will find yourself in the next world. So-so perspective.
People who do not know what salt is and why it is needed, in comparison with active consumers: level of health
Other observations related to the questions of why you should not eat a lot of salt are interesting. Some researchers of the depths of our planet noticed that the natives, to whom progress did not reach, never took this seasoning. The indicators of their health, in particular, pressure, were 120 to 80, and heart or kidney diseases were unknown to them. Studies have also been conducted in countries where the level of hypertension has record levels. Having calculated the daily norm of salt that a person eats, scientists were horrified - 15-20 grams per day, when the norm, taking into account the physiological characteristics of the body, lies within 2-4 grams.
That is, compared with the instant result, which shows what will happen if you eat 3 tablespoons of salt at a time, its prolonged excessive consumption will slowly and imperceptibly kill you, gradually spoiling your internal organs, thereby shortening the days of your life.