News India Live, Digital Desk: We Indians are fond of food. Be it tadka in dal, chaat masala on salad or French fries, we like everything to be a little ‘spicy’ and salty. Many people have the habit of sprinkling raw salt on their food. It seems fine for taste, but do you know that this habit of yours is silently ‘hollowing out’ your bones? Yes, excess salt not only causes high blood pressure or heart disease, but it is also the biggest enemy of your bones. Let us understand in simple language how it works. Salt steals ‘calcium’ from bones. What is the most important thing for the strength of our bones? The answer is Calcium. Now this is where salt (sodium) shows its cunning. According to health experts, when you eat more salt than required, the amount of sodium in your body increases. Our body tries to remove this extra sodium through urine. But the bad news is that when sodium leaves the body, it also takes the calcium present in your body with it. The meaning is clear – the more salt you eat, the more calcium will be taken out of your body. outcome? Bones will start becoming weak and the risk of osteoporosis will increase. Taking ‘excessive salt’ can be costly. If you are taking calcium by eating milk, cheese and green vegetables, but on the other hand, the intake of salt is high, then all that nutrition can go waste. This creates a kind of “leakage” in the body. This danger is highest in the elderly and women (especially after menopause), because with increasing age the bones start becoming weak anyway. On top of that, excess salt acts as ‘fuel to the fire’. Are you also making these mistakes? Adding salt to the food even after it tastes good. Consuming too much of packaged chips, namkeen, biscuits and pickles (these contain a lot of sodium). Excessive consumption of fast food. So should you stop eating salt? Absolutely not! Salt (sodium) is also very important for the body to function. Even if you eat too little salt, you may suffer from weakness and dizziness (Hyponatremia). The right mantra is balance. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one should not consume more than 5 grams (about one teaspoon) of salt in a day.