Salt: What You Don’t Know Can Harm You – and What You Should Do Instead
Do you usually reach for the salt shaker at the dinner table? Do you find that you crave salty snacks but are afraid of high blood pressure?
Your salt craving could mean you need minerals, but regular table salt isn’t the answer.
If you crave salt, it’s a sure sign that your body needs minerals. Turn down the table salt and use mineral-rich sea salt instead.
Flavorful Poison
Regular table salt, or iodized salt, is highly refined and has additives like sugar, chemicals, and preservatives. Many of the preservatives are not required to be listed on the container and include ferrocyanide, magnesium carbonate, and aluminum hydroxide.
These extra ingredients improve the pour-ability of standard salt, but they are not necessarily meant for human consumption. In fact, high levels of aluminum are believed to be a major factor in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s in the U.S.
Standard salt undergoes a refining process that strips it of 60 trace minerals, leaving a nutrient-free flavoring. Manufacturers put this refined salt into almost every prepared food, and it’s even present in municipal water sources.
Even though it may not be the cause of high blood pressure, consume refined salt at your own risk!
Real Sodium and Real Minerals
By contrast, natural sea salt is taken from the ocean where it forms in concentrated amounts, with no added chemicals, preservatives or sugar. It contains not only necessary sodium, but plenty of minerals your body needs for each and every cell.
(Keep in mind that natural sea salt does not have high levels of iodine, necessary for thyroid function. However, the Body Ecology program emphasizes ocean vegetables, which help meet your iodine requirement without having to resort to table salt.)
The Need for Salt
Salt cravings reveal our very real need for this natural, unrefined sodium and the minerals it provides- they are necessary for health and for life.
Craving salt is a sign that your adrenals, the small glands above your kidneys that regulate sleep, hormones and your body’s response to stress, need some TLC.
Feed your adrenals with plenty of vitamins and minerals from fermented foods and drinks, leafy green vegetables, ocean vegetables, Vitality SuperGreen, and small amounts of sea salt.
Read more on adrenals and how to nourish them in Sleeping Trouble? Discover Why Winter is the Ideal Time to Learn How to Sleep Right.
How Much Is Too Much?
If you like to drink a cold, sweet soda with your salty popcorn at the movies, you’ve experienced first hand how salt, which is contractive, makes you crave expansive sweets. So if you crave sweets, it could be a sign that you consume too much salt. To learn more about expansive vs. contractive foods, read: A Review of the 7 Key Healthy Eating Principles.
Also, some people are very sensitive to sodium, while others (especially endurance athletes) need more salt to function. In general, men need more than women, and children need the least of all.
Especially for women, pay attention to salt intake as you follow your monthly menstrual cycle. Cut way back on salt after ovulation so that your body will naturally become more expansive. It will then relax so that the lining of the uterus will be easily cleansed away as nature intended each month. If you eat too much salt during your period, it will inhibit the release of the lining that must be shed and you will not have a complete cleansing as nature intends.
After the lining is shed, you can then increase your use of sea salt a bit to bring on a smooth ovulation. The salt helps your ovaries contract to release the egg.
Experts recommend between 1600 mg and 2400 mg of sodium per day for adults, as a general guideline (1 teaspoon of salt provides about 2000 mg of sodium). But at Body Ecology we say to follow your own intuition and cravings as long as you use only high-quality, mineral-rich sea salt to satisfy your salt needs. Listen to your body, and you’ll take in the amount you need as your body seeks balance.
While too much of anything can cause health problems, follow the Body Ecology Principle of Balance when it comes to your sea salt intake.
Choose Sea Salt
Less than 1% of the world’s salt harvest has the artisinal quality of Celtic Sea Salt®. Celtic Sea Salt provides a unique array of bioavailable trace elements that exist in a perfectly balanced matrix. Learn More and Try Some Celtic Sea Salt Today!
How much salt you choose is just as important as what kind you choose.
Sea salt is certainly a much healthier alternative to standard table salt and can actually improve your health.
We recommend Celtic Sea Salt®, and it is widely regarded as one of the healthiest sea salts available. Using natural cultivation methods passed down from generations, salt farmers stir the ocean water until crystals form. Once harvested, Celtic Sea Salt® is moist, pure, biologically active and completely free from chemicals.
By listening to your body and choosing to use only a very high quality sea salt, you’ll enjoy the health rewards of sodium and minerals AND your taste buds will thank you!
Sources:
- Gittleman, ND, M.S., Ann Louise, Understanding Salt and Sodium, AskWaltStollMD.com, 28 August, 2004. http://askwaltstollmd.com/archives/salt/290243.html
- The Grain and Salt Society, CelticSeaSalt.com
- Hypertension: Junk Medicine Exposed, TheHealthierLife.co.uk, http://www.profoundliving.org/Salt_/Salt_III/salt_iii.htm