While it may be a cardinal sin to consume oil, sugar, salt and flour in excess, in moderation they can be good for our body. Active! tells you how to tweak your diet plan to get the best of eating healthy without missing out on the taste factor

Food like rice, sugar, burgers and readymade packs are welcome delights for any young professional living in a busy metro, after a hard day's work. But are these harmful for our bodies? Is there a way by which we can use these to our benefit? Active! has listed seven deadly food items that are said to be harmful and tells you how to consume them effectively with suitable alternatives for each of them.



Salt
According to Mehta, excess consumption of non-iodised salt is harmful. She informs that one teaspoon of table salt contains 2, 300 mg (2.3 grams) of sodium. Mehta advises that for a healthy adult depending on the age and health condition, the consumption of salt should not exceed 1,500 or 2, 400 milligrams per day.

"Excessive sodium leads to high blood pressure, kidney disorder, cardiac problems and also creates imbalance in osmotic pressure," says Mehta. Salt is caustic to the sensitive inner tissues of the body and causes water retention to neutralise its acidic effect. When the salt is not eliminated, it gets deposited throughout the body fluids causing extreme irritation, injury and death to billions of cells craving for water."

However, she adds that it is important to supplement one's body with sodium rich juices and fluids to restore the amount of electrolyte.u00a0 Also, sodium helps in maintaining glucose absorption, acid-base balance and regulation of fluids.

An eight year-old study by scientists in Belgium suggested that including salt in the diet could reduce the chances of developing heart disease. Over the course of the European-based study, people with the lowest salt intake had the highest rate of death from heart disease. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).