How can eating salt and salty food when you are on certain medications cause weight gain?

Table salt is a chemical compound. Its chemical name is sodium chloride. It is present in the bloodstream in solution as sodium ions and chloride ions. It is the sodium ions that are involved in the fluid retention that causes weight gain. This webpage tells you more about sodium in food.

Amitriptyline does not contain salt. But amitriptyline weakens the walls of the blood vessels so that extra sodium ions and the water associated with them can distend the blood vessels so that they hold a greater blood volume than before. - The blood has been diluted a bit with the sodium ions and water. This is an example of fluid retention and an example of one of the many medications that cause it by weakening the walls of the blood vessels.

If you want to get the hang of it better, I suggest you read http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/lose_weight.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/obesity_and_the_salt_connection.html

Are you distressed about your Red Nose?

You wish your nose was less red and swollen? You wonder why it has become bigger and redder? - Well, a very likely reason for it is that you have become sensitive to salt and so the blood vessels in your nose, along with your other blood vessels, have become swollen because of extra salt and water in your blood stream. You may have already noticed that your face gets redder after you have eaten a salty meal.

The good news is that if you cut down on salt/sodium all of this swelling will be reduced, and your nose, along with the rest of your body, will look less red and swollen. (If you happen to drink a lot of alcohol, it would also help if you reduce alcohol intake, but you doubtless already know that.)
See Sodium in foods and Groups Vulnerable to Salt.

More children are suffering from EXTREME obesity

See Los Angeles Times blog report.

This tragic state of affairs obtains because members of the public continue to receive the wrong information and advice about obesity, and in particular, about child obesity.

When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body. Overweight children should not be put on a diet; dieting is harmful and unnecessary and does not usually result in weight loss. Once children start dieting it is often the beginning of a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and increasing weight and ill-health.

Unfortunately bread contains a lot of salt and most families eat quite a lot of bread because of using it for sandwiches in packed lunches, and for toast, etc. Because of its high salt content bread is not a healthy food for little children or for anyone who is overweight. Some bread manufacturers have lowered the salt content of certain loaves, but most bread still usually contains 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g. This is too much. - Always check on the packet; look for the lowest sodium content.

Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating yogurt (but avoid the sort of yogurt that has lots of chemical additives).

See Children and Obesity

And see Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Lose weight

vulnerable groups

FAT RETENTION

Doomed to failure: Scotland's new initiative, entitled ‘Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland – A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight’.

Why do I predict that THIS is doomed to failure? - Because yet again, influential, but ill-informed, people are claiming that obesity is on the increase because of energy imbalance, i.e. that obesity is being caused by taking in too many calories and expending too few calories. They see part of the answer to this supposed cause as pressing restaurants to limit portion sizes! - See this Telegraph article. What an intrusion into the personal liberty of both the customer and the restaurateur! - Why do I say this? - Isn't it worth it to improve people's health? - Well no, actually. - Limiting portion size will not improve anyone's health, and it certainly won't improve their temper or their blood pressure!

It dismays and astounds me that they are still, even now, peddling this lie, despite the destruction it is wreaking on the health of the people they are paid to serve.

Why don't they read the research? - Diets don't work! - Renaming diets 'healthy living' doesn't make them work. Restricting calories in and increasing exercise (calories out) is counter-productive. - It actually causes WEIGHT GAIN, because it weakens the blood vessel walls and so increases fluid retention. See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fatter.

To reduce obesity in Scotland they should be explaining that it is initiated by fluid retention, which tends to be followed by fat retention as well. The vector for both of these forms of excess weight is salt - more exactly, SODIUM. Reducing salt/sodium intake is the fastest, safest way to lose excess weight because it reduces both fluid retention and fat retention. - Fat retention is not caused by eating too much fat and is not cured by eating meals low in fat.

See Lose weight and
Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Don't bother about portion control. It is neither necessary nor desirable.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Children and Obesity

And they should be curbing the reckless prescribing of pharmaceutical drugs, since their side-effects are the major cause of adult onset morbid obesity. See

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Swollen/distended veins/blood vessels are not the result of obesity; they are the CAUSE of obesity.

Swollen/distended veins/blood vessels are not the result of obesity; they are the CAUSE of obesity.

Some people, i.e. the people who tend to gain excess weight, are sensitive to salt. If they eat salt or food containing added salt they naturally get thirsty and so they drink water or some beverage containing water in order to quench their thirst. Unfortunately they are not able later to excrete all the excess salt (sodium) and the excess water that the salt has attracted to itself. Some of that excess salt water has entered their blood vessels and stayed there, and that fluid retention is causing distended veins AND WEIGHT GAIN. This is not what happens with slim people. If slim people eat salt or salty food and if they then become thirsty and drink to allay their thirst this does not make them gain weight. - Why? - Because their veins/blood vessels have strong enough walls to withstand the influx of the salt and water and also their kidneys are working well so the excess salt and water are quickly processed by the kidneys to be excreted in the urine when they urinate.

THAT'S the basic difference between fat and slim people. - Slim people are able to excrete excess salt and the water it attracts to itself; fat people's blood vessels are compromised and so they retain some of the excess salt and water and swell and so gain weight.

It is as simple - and as difficult - as that. - Obesity is on the increase NOT because more people are 'overeating', but because more and more people are becoming sensitive to salt, i.e. more and more people have weakened blood vessels and impaired kidney function. I have a webpage about this problem and these people: - Vulnerable groups

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

Children and Obesity

See also FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

The British Heart Foundation (the BHF) is mainly giving the wrong information about the causes of overweight and how to reduce it.

I've been looking at their website today and on this page - http://www.bhf.org.uk/keeping_your_heart_healthy/healthy_eating/managing_your_weight.aspx - it says:

"Why do we gain weight?

By taking in more energy (calories) than your body is burning, you will gain weight. The extra calories that you’ve consumed will be stored as fat – too much of which results in weight gain. If you’re not physically active, you’re even more likely to gain weight.

Fatty foods, sweet foods and sugary drinks are all likely to cause excess weight gain""

I have quoted selectively, but not inaccurately. This is their main message about what causes weight gain, but the fact is that excess weight gain is caused by fluid retention, NOT by calorie excess or energy imbalance. The fluid retention is maintained by salt/sodium intake, and the excess fluid is mainly held in the blood vessels, so that if you are very overweight you may already be aware of distended and painful veins. Calorie reduction does not reduce fluid retention, nor does it reduce fat retention.

On the same page it also says:

"How can I lose weight?

The best way to lose weight is by reducing your calorie (energy) intake by cutting down on the fat and sugar in your diet and following a healthy balanced diet. Being physically active also plays an important part in losing weight as you burn up calories.

Try not to lose weight too quickly. Losing weight slowly and steady about one to two pounds (between half a kilo and one kilo) a week is healthier, and you are more likely to keep the weight off for good. Gradual weight loss is the safest and most effective long term way to lose weight."

None of this is true. There is no evidence to support what they claim about burning up calories to lose excess weight. - The best and safest way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt/sodium and salty food. - If you do this gradually you will lose weight gradually; if you do it more rapidly you will lose weight very fast indeed, especially if you make sure that you eat plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables as well, because fruit and veg are rich in potassium, and potassium displaces some of the sodium in your body, thus enabling you to excrete more of the excess fluid from your body. Reducing salt intake is safe and we are advised to eat less salt. Most of us eat too much salt. - It is DIETING - by which I mean eating fewer calories than your body requires - that is harmful. Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fatter.

If you have fat retention as well as fluid retention, you will find that the fat retention is also reduced by cutting down on salt. - Fat retention is not caused by eating too much fat and is not cured by eating meals low in fat. - Read about fat retention here: FAT RETENTION

Here are the facts about obesity:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Sagging jawline? - Droopy face? - Here's how to give it a bit of a lift:

The problem is fluid retention - extra fluid in the veins. It is sometimes the result of dieting, sometimes the result of precribed medication, sometimes follows from pregnancy, sometimes results from eating salt as a child...

The excess water is held there because you are sensitive to salt. As far as possible, you need to avoid salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

The more overweight you become, the thinner your skin becomes, and the more likely your inner thighs will be to chafe as you walk.

Chafing is very painful...)o: It can cause sores and bleeding.

People suffering from chafing need underwear that has little legs so that the fabric takes the friction when there is rubbing, rather than the delicate skin of the inner thighs.

There are twin enemies for heavily overweight people, especially if they are overweight/obese as the result of taking prescription drugs like tricyclic antidepressants, steroids or antipsychotics. - These enemies are friction - which harms the thin skin - and pressure - which hurts the weakened, distended blood vessels. So it's best to avoid tight clothing and belts, and to have plenty of soft cushions for comfort.

When you turn on your side in bed it may be too painful for your knees so you may find it helpful to place a soft pillow or cushion between your knees.

Here is what to do about the overweight/obesity itself:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Have you ever wondered what the word 'BLOATED' actually means?

Here are some definitions:

Swollen or distended beyond normal size by fluid or gaseous material.

Bloating is any abnormal general swelling, or increase in diameter of the abdominal area. As a symptom, the patient feels a full and tight abdomen.


Well I'd like to suggest to you that all overweight/obesity is caused by distension/swelling because of fluid retention - rather than by eating too many calories.

Dieting, by which I mean eating less food/fewer calories than the body requires in the mistaken belief that this will reduce obesity, is EXTREMELY HARMFUL. - The skin gets very much thinner very much faster, and the blood vessel walls get very much thinner very much faster too. - This obviously causes the blood vessel walls to be overstretched and stressed and much weaker, which results in them becoming distended (fluid retention) with extra fluid, so causing WEIGHT GAIN, NOT WEIGHT LOSS.

To reduce excess weight you need to reduce the fluid retention that has caused the weight gain. - So you need to avoid dieting/'slimming' and instead concentrate on avoiding salt and salty food, because that extra fluid in the veins is extra sodium and water, and to lose some of it you need to reduce your sodium intake.

When people whose blood vessels are weaker than the norm eat salt, the result is weight gain and obesity (because of excess sodium and water held in the blood vessels and elsewhere). This condition is also known as sodium retention, water retention, fluid retention, salt sensitivity or oedema. If these people reduce their salt intake they lose some of the excess sodium and water, and so lose weight, and if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables they lose weight faster, because the potassium in the fruit and vegetables displaces some of the excess sodium from the body.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Prominent/Swollen/Bulging/Protruding/Proliferating/Painful/Aching/Delicate Veins? Weakened Blood Vessels? Bleed Easily? Bleeding Piles/Haemorrhoids?

It is very likely that you have become sensitive to salt. You would benefit by avoiding salt and salty food or at any rate reducing your salt/sodium intake.

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Obese children are 'suffering high blood pressure'

Obese children 'suffering high blood pressure' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Scientists who studied 14,187 children aged between three and 18 found that more than three per cent had high blood pressure but three quarters of them had not been properly diagnosed.

The team warned that doctors need to be more aware of the condition.

It comes as one quarter of children in the UK are classed as overweight and the obesity epidemic is growing.

Having hypertension as a child increases the risk of heart disease in adulthood as the longer blood pressure is elevated the greater the risk.

Children are also being diagnosed with type two diabetes which is usually associated with being overweight.

The authors of a study of children in Ohio, America and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association said: “Hypertension in children has been shown to correlate with family history of hypertension, low birth weight, and excess weight. With the increasing prevalence of childhood weight problems, increased attention to weight-related health conditions including hypertension is warranted. Several lines of evidence suggest that blood pressure in US children and adolescents is increasing in parallel with weight.”

Of the 14,187 children and adolescents studied between June 1999 and September 2006 in the outpatient clinics 507 children and adolescents (3.6 per cent) had hypertension. Of those 131 (26 per cent) had a diagnosis of hypertension or elevated blood pressure documented in the electronic medical record meaning three quarters had not been formally diagnosed. "

It is fluid retention that causes the obesity and the high blood pressure in these children. And fluid retention in children is caused by eating food high in salt. - It is not caused by overeating or by lack of exercise. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html Here is an extract from the page:

"When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body."

Lose weight and improve your health by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! - How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions