I love football. Every fall, football begins and Saturdays and Sundays turn into game days. If you watch carefully, players are constantly putting fluids in their systems to keep themselves hydrated.  Lack of proper hydration leads to several issues, and ultimately could cost their team a victory. Teams and athletes drink everything from water to sports drinks to pickle juice so that they can maintain healthy physical levels during games and practices.  Several years ago, a drink called Gatorade was developed to make it easier for the athlete to replenish the essential nutrients lost during competition.  I assume that you have heard of Gatorade, but in case you haven’t, Google “Gatorade” to get a better idea of what we are talking about.

So the question that begs to be asked, is how important is sodium in these drinks? Surprisingly for some, the answer is that sodium is a critical element in these drinks.

When athletes work out hard, their bodies lose sodium, great quantities of sodium. In the human body, sodium helps perform several functions.  Among them, sodium works with potassium to balance the amount of water in the body.  Sodium is an integral to the conduction of nerve impulses and the contraction of muscles.  Without adequate sodium levels, a body cannot maintain it’s normal heart rhythm.  Sodium is important because it also keeps a sufficient volume of water in the blood. Ingestion of sodium during exercise helps prevent hyponatremia, a condition in which the concentration of sodium in the blood becomes dangerously low.  What we, the person sitting on the couch watching games and eating cookies, see is athletes grabbing legs and muscles due to cramping and spasms. What we don’t see is the athletes’ confusion, lethargy, fatigue, restlessness and irritability, and muscle weakness. Bottom line, sodium is needed to help athletes during stressful and physical activities.

Is there any question that during emergencies, when stress, pressure, and physical activity increase, that we will need more sodium in our diet? I have heard people express their concern with the amount of sodium in food storage.  Many may look at the nutritional facts on a freeze dried food pouch and think that the sodium levels per serving are too high.  In a standard, every day diet one should try to limit the amount of sodium that is taken into the body. In order to stay healthy, carefully watching and maintaining normal levels of sodium consumption is imperative. One reason that delicious staples of the American diet, like french fries, hamburgers, and pizza, aren’t healthy for you is the amount of sodium that they have in them. However, when it comes to emergency food, sodium not only helps food store longer but is necessary for many situations in which it will be eaten. During most disasters, stress levels increase rapidly and are very different than “normal” times. Stressful emergencies or disasters will cause a person to experience atypical physical activity, and usually demands an increased level of activity. It is necessary at these times to have adequate sodium in one’s diet to keep one’s body and mind healthy and active.  Losing your ability to think straight or have your muscles work properly would not be helpful during a crisis, it could potentially be fatal.

So as you are considering items for your emergency food storage, the amount of sodium in the meals needs to be evaluated based upon the conditions you would be facing should you be forced to rely on your reserves. Emergencies will likely push the body similar to the effort required for an athletic event, so more sodium in the diet is necessary. And ultimately, if I ever find myself in a situation having to solely rely on my food supply, I don’t think that eating a food that may be a little high in sodium is really going to concern me all that much.  I think my major concerns will be making sure that my family has everything that they need to survive.

Tags: emergency food, food storage

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