Salt, Water & Potassium

Salt, water, and potassium read better as a set than one at a time. Most of your sodium is already baked into ordinary foods, a good share of your water arrives through what you eat, and the gentlest lever is often adding a potassium-rich food rather than only subtracting salt.

Where the salt actually hides

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When people picture using less salt, they picture the shaker. In a typical food log it’s a minor player: most sodium arrives already inside bread, deli meat, cheese, canned goods, sauces, and restaurant meals. So the useful question shifts from “season less” to “which few foods carry most of it.” The WHO’s reference point for adults is under 2 g of sodium a day — about 5 g of salt (World 2012) — and against that, one swap on a heavy contributor usually moves your number further than reaching for the shaker less ever could. Calk reads sodium from what you logged, so the pattern you see reflects the real sources, not a single seasoning step.

The other half is potassium — and water

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Sodium rarely tells the whole story alone. Potassium sits beside it, and most people simply take in less than the guideline level of at least 3.5 g a day (World 2012) — so the calmest move is usually to add a source, not subtract salt. Potatoes, beans, spinach, and avocado quietly outdo the famous banana. Water belongs in the same frame: roughly a fifth to a third of daily water comes from food, not the glass, which is why water-rich plates — fruit, vegetables, soup — count toward hydration too (EFSA 2010). Calk reads water from what you log and treats it as a pattern to notice, not a target to chase.

Salt pattern

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What Calk looks at. Calk estimates your sodium from logged foods and watches the trend against a reference ceiling rather than any single meal. Because most sodium is built into processed foods, restaurant dishes, and sauces well before the table (World 2012), the read points at which foods carry it — not at how heavy your hand is with the shaker.

What you could try. If the trend sits high, start with the biggest contributors, not every food at once. Rinsing canned beans, choosing a low-sodium soy sauce or broth, or having the saltier item a little less often usually lowers the total without flattening the flavor — and you keep seasoning what you cook from scratch.

Water intake

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What Calk looks at. Calk reads the water you log against a gentle, body-weight-aware reference and shows it as a habit, not a scoreboard. Plenty of fluid also arrives through food and other drinks, so the logged number is one calm signal among several (EFSA 2010) — Calk’s scope here is what you record, nothing more clinical.

What you could try. Keeping water within reach tends to matter more than any single big glass; if plain water feels dull, a slice of lemon or cucumber helps, and tea and coffee count too. Steady sips across the day read better than catching up at night, and water-rich foods quietly top you up.

Potassium sources

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What Calk looks at. Calk watches how often genuinely potassium-rich foods show up across your log and notes when they’re thin on the ground. Guideline intake sits at 3.5 g a day or more, and most logs land below it (World 2012), so this reads as an add-a-source opportunity rather than anything to restrict.

What you could try. Bananas get the credit, but a potato, sweet potato, a serving of beans or lentils, spinach, or half an avocado each bring more per serving. Folding one or two of these into most days lifts the total comfortably — no supplement implied, just ordinary foods you’d recognize on a plate.

Sodium–potassium balance

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The natural close to the pair: Calk reads sodium and potassium side by side, because most logs lean heavy on one and light on the other. Rather than only trimming sodium, the steadier fix tilts both ends — ease one salty contributor and add a potassium-rich food — which the WHO’s two limits, under 2 g sodium and at least 3.5 g potassium, point at together (World 2012, World 2012). The add-a-source half is usually the easier place to start.