Salt is NOT The Big Bad Wolf. The KIND You Are Using MAY Very Well be!

Salt, many have been taught to avoid it, that it is bad for you.  That is NOT true, it is essential to life, but like anything we eat, how it is sourced, the quality, and how it is prepared is extremely important! Salt is not the problem; it is the form of salt used and the food you put it on.

Salt is essential to life. Symptoms of not enough salt in the diet are depression, headaches, nausea, muscle cramps, low energy, loss of appetite and more.

Historically, salt was used in preserving meats and fish before refrigeration and was used in fermented foods that were eaten at every meal.

Industrialized table salt with added iodine is NOT the best option for you.

If you look at salt in its natural form, it is a complex chloride. It contains not only sodium and chloride (the ingredients in industrialized table salt), but also seawater which contains potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride and many other elements, like minerals and trace forms of them. Iodine, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, manganese and other trace elements are included.

Around the turn of the 20^th century salt making companies realized they could remove the minerals and still sell this demineralized leftover salt. This would increase revenue, selling the demineralized salt AND the minerals separately.  This salt is what we know as industrialized table salt.

Salt by nature pulls water out of the air and into the salt.  So, at this same time they were selling the demineralized salts, they came up with the brilliant idea to add the chemicals sodium ferrocyanide, calcium silicoaluminate or sodium silicoaluminate to the salt, to prevent moisture and the caking that was a result. These are the same chemicals added to many deodorants.

Now industrialized table salt has no minerals, no trace minerals, and they have added chemicals, this is no longer the salt that your body needs for life.

Processed foods use tons of this demineralized industrialized table salt as a cheap preservative.  So, if you are eating processed foods, you are also eating this industrialized table salt with a lack of minerals, chemical laden and filled with additives.

Iodine was added to industrialized table salt during World War I.  The Government realized that the men they were drafting from the midwest, interior northwest and interior northeast had low iodine due to no ocean near them, that in turn was causing goiters. These areas were called the “Goiter belt of America”. They tried adding iodine to flour but ended up adding it to salt, because they could use potassium iodide, due to being shelf stable. This worked to stop the goiter problem.  However, when you add potassium Iodide to salt it is less than 10% bioavailable and poor nutrient form of iodine. You are much better off eating iodine rich foods, much more readily available now than in World War I, despite living far from the ocean.

When you look at the history of making salt, it was sourced from the ocean or from a dried-up seabed. Ancient civilizations set up their communities near access to salt.

When sourcing salt from the ocean, they would pull the seawater into a clay lined pond (the water will not be absorbed into the ground this way and in the Mediterranean the clay was often gray.  In Hawaii it is red clay).  As the salt water evaporates, it leaves crystals of gray or red salt, the gray or red were remnants of the mineral rich clay it evaporated on.

When sourcing salt from a dried-up seabed, they observed animals, who naturally find their way to ancient seabeds for the salt. They will paw and/or dig at the earth’s surface until they get to the minerals/salt in the salt beds.

There are 3 questions you should be asking to find a healthy salt (or milk, or meat, or fish, etc.)

1. Who is producing the salt
2. Know the source of the salt
3. What is the process between farming the salt and packaging it

Like any food source, some companies are more transparent than others, you can easily find their sources, or not! You can also try calling companies. Let them know you are interested in their product, ask them where the salt is processed, what chemicals are used in the process, what heat and processes are used specifically?

In Doctor Batmanghelidj’ book ‘Your Body’s Many Cries for Water’, he says we should salt our food liberally, assuming you are eating a non-processed diet.  For every quart of water that we drink we should add a teaspoon of non-processed salt to it. He also suggests we should be drinking half our body weight in ounces.

Some salts I like:

Redmond Real Salt, made in Redmond Utah

Bolivian Pink Salt – Saltworks

Bolivia Rose Salt – Andes Mountain Salt

Celtic Sea Salt (rich in magnesium) – Makai Pure

Mediterranean Sea Salt (From Spain it is richer in Magnesium, from Greece it is richer in potassium) – Spain, Añana salt and Greece, Kardamas Natural Sea Salt

Pink Himalayan Salt – Evolution

As I mentioned last month, I had surgery on my left hand for 3 trigger fingers (VERY successful!), and I have just had the surgery on my right hand 6 days ago at the time of this posting.  I have been unable to cook or do dishes (I know, poor me!!!) since February 27^th, and my husband has been tasked with these duties, so I have not prepared a recipe for you this month.  Back on track for next months newsletter! I will begin seeing clients again within the next two weeks, so if you were waiting, now is the time to get scheduled!