Prioritize this before you invest in another supplement…

When I was recently asked about what I’m doing to support my body in a stressful season, and my answer was to increase my sodium intake, I was immediately met with, “But what supplements are you taking?” which really made me pause. Are there supplements that can lower cortisol during stressful times? Yes, but we don’t always need to lower cortisol (side note: a lot of these are not safe for pregnancy either). I like to ensure that I’m not depleting my minerals in the first place, which will allow me to handle the stress I’m dealing with better. When we can handle stress better, we feel better and are less likely to get dysregulated. So, one thing that I have increased during this stressful time is my sodium intake. You may be wondering, why sodium, Amanda? Let’s get into it!

Importance of Sodium For Our Health

Sodium is often highlighted for its ability to increase blood pressure and is something we are told to minimize, but it has SO many important functions in the body. A major one is that it helps us respond to stress appropriately. Our body uses up sodium during the stress response. Low sodium levels can actually cause a stress response in the body. Stress happens, we will never eliminate all of it and we shouldn’t want to. Sometimes we go through more stress than we’d like and our bodies need a bit more support. How can we do that? By increasing minerals that are used up during the stress response, a major one being sodium.

Sodium is also crucial for keeping our cells nourished. It helps nutrients and hormones pass through and get inside our cells so we can utilize them for important functions in the body. Low sodium can be it difficult to get these nutrients and hormones inside and slow down important systems in the body.

Another reason I’m supporting healthy sodium levels is to support my blood sugar. Sodium is an important mineral for blood sugar balance that doesn’t get near enough attention. Low salt diets have been shown to increase insulin resistance in healthy subjects and also increase negative outcomes for those with Type 2 Diabetes. This is likely because sodium helps get nutrients and hormones inside our cells. When levels are deficient, this process slows down, Supporting balanced blood sugar is a great way to reduce stress on the body. As I’m working on supporting my sodium levels, I also try to minimize stressors in as many other areas as possible. That way I’m not bombarding my body with stress from every angle. A big part of this is supporting healthy blood sugar balance.

Sodium is also crucial for health digestion. It is part of what makes up stomach acid and also impacts fluid balance in the body, which will impact elimination of our stool. Supporting digestion again, can help reduce physical stressors on the body, so it’s another benefit of supporting sodium.

That’s my why of choosing to focus on sodium, here’s how I do it!

Ways To Incorporate Sodium

That’s my why of choosing to focus on sodium, here’s how I do it!

Important side note: it’s important to increase sodium SLOWLY. We want to incorporate potassium food sources as well. This helps maintain fluid balance in the body and avoid fluid retention and swelling that can happen if you increase your sodium too fast. I teach you how to do this in the Master Your Minerals course. The other thing that can happen if you increase salt too quickly is loose stools. Please go slowly if you decide to implement and alway talk with your doctor to make sure this is a good fit for you.

How I Get More Sodium

• Salt first thing in the morning: I take a pinch of sea salt and put it under my tongue first thing in the morning followed by about 8-12oz of water. This is a great way to get sodium into the system quickly and can help boost energy. I love having clients that are extra fatigued start this daily habit.
• Sole water in my water 2-3x per day: I make solé water typically once a month (it lasts a long time) and add 1 tbsp of this to my water 2-3x per day. I have built up to 1 tbsp. You would never start there. I am also pregnant, which means my sodium needs are higher. I have clients start at 1 tsp of sole in their water once a day. This can even be too much for some people and cause loose stools. Then you’d go down to 1/2 tsp to see if that works. If you’re also increasing potassium, that typically helps.
• Generously salting my food: I use salt in all of my cooking, typically to taste. This is a great place to start and then you can consider doing the morning salt for a few weeks. Letting your body adjust as you increase potassium rich foods as well. Then if you need more support you can add salt or solé to your water once a day to begin (1 tsp) and see how you feel.

Overall, adding more sodium to your diet can be helpful when it comes to supporting a healthy stress response and making sure you don’t get depleted. You just want to go slowly, increase potassium rich foods as well, and listen to your body. Slow is fast when it comes to minerals!

I hope this blog post was helpful for you, especially if you’re in a stressful season and trying to support your body!

If you found this blog post interesting, then check out my sodium deep dive podcast episode here!

reminder: i’m currently taking on 1:1 clients. if you’d like to explore what it would be like to work together and if we are a good fit, fill out this form to get more details!​