Why Not Drink Salt Water?

Most people know that we shouldn't drink salt water, but have you ever stopped to ask why we shouldn't drink salt water? Without even knowing the reason, why we shouldn't drink salt water, most people stick to this maxim. If you think about it, we can drink water, and we tend to ingest more salt daily than we really should. So, why can't we drink salt water? The answer lies within our kidneys. Our kidneys can only make urine which is less salty than salt water. If a person were to only consume salt water, they would eventually die from dehydration.

The salt contained within salt water is actually much higher than salt we consume in our food. A lot of the salt we consume is removed by the liquids we drink. In the case of salt water, the water itself contains the salt, and therefore negates the possibility of it to remove the salt in our body.

We don't even really need extra salt in our diet. Because of the high concentration of salt, in salt water, it isn't good for us. It is true our bodies require sodium, but salt is not basic sodium. Salt is comprised of sodium and chloride, which is not required in large amounts in our diets. The original purpose of using salt was to cure and dry out meats. By curing and drying out the meat with salt, the meat would last longer. There was no refrigeration invented yet. .

The Effects of Drinking Salt Water

Even if salt water was the only thing you had to drink, it still wouldn't be a good idea. The more salt water you'd drink, the thirstier you would become. Salt water would have no thirst quenching benefits. Drinking salt water leads to dehydration; if you continued drinking just salt water, you would wind up with severe dehydration. Severe dehydration will lead to death. Salt water doesn't go through any type of purification process. Therefore, it may not be safe to drink for reasons beyond dehydration.

Dehydration is not a good way to die. Initially, your body will sense that it is in trouble. Through self preservation, the body tries to hydrate the body with any kind of water molecules available to it. Unfortunately, this act will cause your body to stop working properly. Once dehydration fully sets in, you are likely to suffer seizures. You could go into a coma or even suffer brain damage. During all of this, the excess salt is still being carried to the kidneys. However, the kidneys can't handle the overflow of salt, they're overtaxed. Eventually, the kidneys will shut down, and death will follow shortly after.

Despite all of this, there are people who believe that drinking salt water has health benefits. They believe that the saltwater detoxifies the body and cleanses the intestines. Many proclaim that salt water has a great many healing effects in the body. These people are not likely to be drinking sea salt water. They add salt to boiled water and some of these people add lemon to help cover the taste.

It is true that gargling salt water can help to alleviate sore throats. Now people are claiming that salt water can actually help with pain relief throughout the body. People who use salt water, for health benefits, aren't likely to consume enough to cause severe dehydration. However, salt water treatments should be used with caution and cleared with a physician beforehand.

So to answer the question: "Why not drink salt water?" Because drinking salt water will cause you to die from dehydration. That should be a good enough reason to not do it.