Keeping up your salts

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Most of us try not to imbibe too much salt but the Grand Canyon is notorious for cases of hyponatremia, where you've drunk too much water and your salt balance is out of whack. Anyone pouring water down their throat but not offsetting the fluid intake with salty snack food needs to be watched for this condition.

To keep salt levels steady think about how to add salt in the diet without making it too obvious. Pringles potato chips at lunch time are lightweight, superbly compactly-packaged and way up there in sodium. Pretzels are another salty snack food that can be eaten anytime during the day. Bagels can be amazingly high in salt content. A jar of olives added to salads has a lot of sodium in it.

To maintain potassium levels, ample consumption of fruits is important. Bananas sliced and cooked in pancakes at breakfast help, as do melons, especially cantaloupes which keep well in crates and are great sliced up at breakfast. Apples and oranges travel well in crates and are good breakfast, lunch and at snack time.

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