Originally Posted by
hig4s
200 mg every 20 minutes for 4 hours is 2400 mg.
And 2400 mg of sodium equates to 6,000 mg of salt.
Or, to illustrate the problems with vague language, 300 mg/20 minutes ends up with 3600 mg sodium. Or 400 mg/20 min = 4800 mg sodium. But these wiggle words probably reflect the natural variation of salt excretion in the population.
Per the CDC and FDA "The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 recommend that Americans aged 2 and up reduce sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) per day. People 51 and older and those of any age who are African Americans or who have high blood pressure,diabetes, or chronic kidney disease—about half the U.S. population and the majority of adults—should further reduce sodium intake to 1,500 mg per day. Even active people who lose lots of sodium through sweating require no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day."
So is the guideline 2,300 or 1,500 mg/day? And how do the "experts" determine that nobody loses more than 1500 mg/day?
While I've never weighed or calculated salt in my diet, I'm pretty sure I've had stretches where I've had to replace more than that. Maybe if I restricted my riding to 30 minutes a day (isn't that what the government wants us all to exercise?), and rode only in places where the average daily high was around 80F instead of lows near that, I could get away with that low a salt intake. But I don't.