What is sodium?
Sodium is a mineral. The main dietary source of sodium is common table salt (sodium chloride), which is 40% sodium and 60 chloride, but regular unprocessed foods contain natural sodium as well. Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk and cheese all contribute sodium. How Much Sodium Should I Have? The Dietary Guidelines for healthy American adults recommends limiting dietary intake to less than 2400 milligrams (mg) per day. The human body needs very minute amounts of sodium to function normally. We need about 250 mg of sodium each day, which is easily supplied by natural, unprocessed foods; however, the average American consumes approximately 4000 to 6000 mg per day. In Asian diets, the sodium intake can climb to over 8000 mg per day.
Sodium, or sodium chloride, is just another name for salt. Most tap, spring and mineral water contain a surprising amount of sodium. Noble’s Pureau has no sodium. Therefore, it’s excellent water for those people who are on a low-salt diet or have been told to reduce their salt intake because they have high blood pressure.
Sodium is an abundant metallic element which is an important mineral for all living organisms. It is also widely used industrially to make an assortment of consumer goods. The soft metal also appears in an abundance of compounds, such as sodium chloride, better known as salt. It also exists in high concentrations in seawater, and it is among the 10 most abundant minerals in the Earth’s crust. In a pure form, sodium is a soft, silvery gray, highly reactive metal. Pure sodium is usually stored in a nonreactive substance, as it oxidizes rapidly when exposed to air, quickly forming a thick coating. The chemical element is also highly explosive when exposed to moisture and water, to the delight of many chemistry students. Since the element is so reactive, it is usually found naturally in compounds with other elements. Many of these compounds, such as salt, are extremely stable and perfectly safe to handle. Other compounds, like sodium hydroxide, need to be handled carefully as they can be h
