Reason Why Humans Cannot Drink Salt Water

When marooned at sea, be sure not to drink the salt water and here is why:

Reason

Most people believe that salt water is not consumed because it simply does not taste good. While this is a legitimate reason not to drink salt water, drinking salt water is a deadly idea because salt water causes dehydration.

Problem

Let's say you were marooned at sea and you took a few goulps of ocean water to survive. The problem is that your body would have to urinate more water than you drink to remove all of the extra salt. This process would leave you thirstier than you were before you drank the water.

Desalination

Salt water and specifically sea water can be desalinated to lower the salt levels in the water where it can be consumed safely by the body, however this process is energy intensive.

Special Developments

Many animals have developed ways to extract the excess salt before it is processed by the body. The albatross, for example has special salt glands just behind the birds eye sockets that rmeove the salt within the water when the bird gulps. The excess salt is then secreted in a salt solution that is ultimately removed through the tip of its beak.

When marooned at sea, pray for some rain that you can capure and drink safely.