Before you start making salt a villain maybe you should think about it. What does a farmer do when his cows are a little sick gives them a salt block and how does the cow know just how much to lick. Their bodies tell them when and when not to use the salt. I guess cows are smarter than us. Salt is made of sodium/chloride two main chemicals and many trace elements. The body needs chloride to make hydrochloric acid for stomach digestion very important. Sodium your body need to make sodium bicarbonate to neutralize the acid leaving the stomach into the small intestine for further digestion. I was a heavy salt user because I had digestive problem and cured them but I should have known to slow down. My body started telling to cut back but I did not listen I started drinking 5 or more pots of coffee a day to flush out the salt I also was getting up in the middle of the night t pee. Now my digestive system is working great I am cutting back on the salt and down to three pots of coffee a day now and sleeping through the night. I am getting as smart as a cow.
I don't think salt is harmful if your kidneys are not compromised. I read one paper a while ago that claimed it was the chloride ion that caused problems, not sodium, so potassium chloride would be as bad as sodium chloride. I do remember an active transport mechanism in the kidneys for sodium, but I recall no such thing for chloride. Anyway, sodium is an essential nutrient just as so many others are. If you have blood pressure issues, you MAY have a problem with sodium excretion, but if you don't, I wouldn't worry about sodium. As @Martin Alonzo says, your body should be able to regulate itself...even without the coffee if you have access to good water.
I don't know about " three pots of coffee a day". Three cups of coffee a day sounds like a lot to me. I have a cup when I wake up for the caffeine kick to get me going, then switch to other stuff....lemonade, apple cider, gatorade, etc. Research says it's healthy (http://www.eatingwell.com/article/42679/health-reasons-to-drink-coffee-and-cons-to-consider/), but too much of anything is seldom good. With salt it's hard to really keep track. Dash of salt here, dash there, the salt already in some packaged food or condiment or ingredient or whatever...who really knows their exact salt intake daily or weekly?
I use Bromelain for an anti-inflammatory and as a digestive aid. The only thing it does for joints is to reduce any swelling but the problem is that you have to take it sans any proteins. Bromelain attacks protein and helps to synthesize it into smaller particles that the body can readily use so if you've just consumed a meal, it's pretty much spent it's life cycle working on whatever meats, beans, etc you might have eaten making it useless as an anti-inflammatory agent. On the front of the bottle you'll see the ratio of how much bromelain it takes to break down a gram of protein. Dunno about using it as a meat tenderizer but it sure kills pain due to inflammation. Ever try green figs for a tenderizer? My Mideastern friend swears by them.
Salt is in everything and very hard to avoid. I do try and buy lower sodium things..like chips. Doctor does not have me keep tabs on salt.just said once your at the table, don't salt anything.
Coffee? I have 2 cups per week. One cup after Saturday breakfast and one cup after Sunday breakfast. Never while eating breakfast, just after. Hal
At 82, I've never had any negative reports from my annual Physical Exams, and I'm a real glutton for Salt ! My maternal grandmother, who worked on a Collective Farm in the Ukraine during the Stalin era, always used to state a Ukranian proverb: "Eat bread and salt and speak the truth." She worked hard and lived well into her 90's. I even salt my potato chips and pretzels! I'm with Ken on his philosophy of using Salt! Hal