The Fear Of Salt

The Fear Of Salt

Salt has always been a great mystery to me until I did a little homework.
Often I had customers walk into my health food store in a panic looking for unionized salt, special salts and no sodium salts.  I would walk them to the section of the store that had our salts with fear because I knew I couldn't answer their simple salt questions.  Probably just like yourself  I thought salt was bad.  I mean we've heard it for years, limit salt or it can raise blood pressure and lead to a whole host of health issues.

How did I learn about salt?

Many years ago I started following a personal development routine, reading daily, writing and listening to audio on the way to and from work then I discovered podcasts!  Podcasts opened up my mind to ideas, information and insights on stuff I had never thought about.  I came across a podcast about health and the person being interviewed spoke about a conspiracy involving the government and drug companies to sell more blood pressure medication and it became a big deal involving salt.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything just thought what the man spoke about extremely fascinating. When he spoke about the health benefits of salt on the human body I was so intrigued I decided to look things up, and what I found was amazing.

Quantity vs. Quality

Not all salt is created equal. Most of you hear the word salt and think of the white stuff in the shaker that sits beside the pepper, this indeed is salt, but not the healthy salt. 
It's the actual mineral (not always coming from a good source) but it goes through a process adding a couple of chemicals and stripping away important minerals that are naturally found in salt. 

Then you have Himalayan salt and Celtic sea salt, these are beneficial salt.  There is no harsh

processing that goes into making these and they are loaded with natural trace minerals making them excellent for your health. Your body is able to utilize these forms of salt in a way that table salt is not.

Benefits of salt

Your body needs salt plain and simple!  Without it your central nervous system, blood pressure, metabolism and adrenal gland truly suffer.  With that said, eat salt but use the good stuff like Celtic sea salt or Himalayan salt. In my research I've even come across an interesting fact:

If you crave salt it could be that your adrenal glands are suffering

How much should you use?

The amount of salt to use is about 6 grams per day (about a teaspoon) yet I've heard of some people using up to 10 grams per day.  Remember this is the good salt and not table salt that you should be using 6 grams of.

Should I keep an eye on salt?

So we have been taught to keep an eye on sodium content of our food, which is understandable but I believe based upon a healthy diet you don't need to keep an eye on the labels for sodium that much if you are making healthy choices, although I do believe you should replace your table salt with the healthier versions mentioned above.

A word of caution abut keeping an eye on salt on packaged foods.  If you are trying to be cautious and look for a "reduced salt" product be weary for they will add MSG or sugar to improve the flavoring of the product you were trying to stay away from to improve your health in the first place.

So as for the big salt scare that has plagued our minds for years it all simply comes down to a misunderstanding of the type of salt we should be using in our daily diet.  Use all natural salts to improve your health by giving your body essential trace minerals the body will recognize without the harmful effect of an over processed table salt.

Stay healthy and stay motivated
Shane Chartrand