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Field to Table Index
(Click on Interest)Salty Fundamentals
There are over 40 different kinds of salt. Every geographic area from the Cayman Islands to Africa offers sea salt each with a distinct taste and texture, depending on trace minerals and crystal shape. The finest artisan salts are natural or organic and are not treated or washed.
During the Age of Discovery (15th-17thC) salt was traded ounce for ounce for gold.
Profits from the sale of salt financed the Great Wall.
In 110 B.C. salt piracy was punishable by death.
Salt taxes long supported British monarchs; thousands of Brits were imprisoned for smuggling salt.
The scarcity of salt was a major cause of the French Revolution. Mahatma Gandhi used salt as major leverage against the British Empire in 1930 when he led thousands of people to the sea to collec their own salt to avoid the salt tax imposed by the Brits.
Greece, involved in a far-reaching slave trade, exchanged salt for slaves, giving rise to the expression, "not worth his salt."
The word salary is derived from the Latin wod sal because Romans often received their pay in salt.
Our bodies posess three distinct fluid systems - all salty fluids.
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Field to Table -Pillars of Salt
'Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea.'
Pythagoras, Mathematician, Mystic and Scientist, (580 BC - 500 BC)
As consumers, we have two distinct choices when we purchase salt. Unrefined and refined. Both are sea salt. Unrefined salt is 85% sodium chloride and 15% other essential minerals. Refined salt is 97.5% sodium chloride and approximately 2.5% chemical additives.
Refined salt is a man made creation that contains anti-caking chemicals and added iodine. (Iodine was added for people who at one time did not benefit from natural iodine found in seafood.) It is refined or processed at high temperatures altering the molecular structure of the salt removing the beneficial trace minerals.
Only 7% of refined salt goes for food; the other 93% goes to industry. Industry requires chemically pure sodium chloride for manufacture of explosives, chlorine gas, soda, fertilizers and plastics. In essence, refined table salt is a production overrun.
So What's The Big Deal?
Refined salt contains anti-caking agents such as ferrocyanide, yellow prussiate of soda, tricalcium phosphate, alumine-calcium silicate, sodium aluminosilicate. All work by preventing the salt from mixing with water, inside the box, inside the salt shaker and inside the human body. These chemicals prevent sodium chloride from carrying out one of its important functions - regulating hydration.
Refined salt upsets your fluid balance and constantly overburdens your elimination systems, which can impair your health. When your body tries to isolate the overdose of refined salt, water molecules must surround the sodium chloride molecules to break them up into sodium and chloride ions in order to help your body neutralize them. To accomplish this, the stored water in your cell tries to neutralize the unnatural sodium chloride. The result is dehydrated cells that die prematurely.
How Much is too Much?
The average sodium intake for adults is 3,353 milligrams daily--more than 1,000 milligrams higher than the recommended upper limit. That excess increases appetite and decreases bone density leading to serious health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney problems, osteoporosis, cataracts and even the possibility of stomach cancer according to researchers at the American Institute for Cancer Research.
The adequate intake for people 9 to 50 years old is 1,500 milligrams. For those ages 51 to 70, it's 1,300 milligrams and for those older than 70, it's just 1,200 milligrams -- less than what a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich on whole wheat with mustard can pack.
Cultivate Conscious Choice - Reversing the Trend
Seasoning with salt at home accounts for only about 10 percent of total sodium intake. An astounding 75 percent of refined salt is consumed through processed foods purchased at grocery stores, vending machines, restaurants or fast-food franchises.
The good news is it only takes a few weeks to adjust to a lower-sodium regimen. To help make that switch, read and compare product labels whenever possible and cut down on processed foods. Look for ingredients containing sodium (like monosodium glutamate) and notice the amount of sodium in a serving.
When possible, cook from scratch and look for herbs like lemon and curry to add flavor without adding sodium. When eating out, request that dishes be served without salt. If that isn't possible, order foods that are lower in salt. Ask for gravy and salad dressing on the side.
Eat foods naturally high in sodium such as fish, eggs, nuts, prawns, crabs, lobsters and seaweed. (All of these natural sources of salt are also natural sources of iodine.) Other naturally occurring sources of sodium (although not quite as high) are celery, carrots, cauliflower, pineapples, jackfruits, and even fresh cow's milk. Unfortunately, you can't entirely rely on fruits and vegetables any more for your trace minerals: they just don't contain them. Even organic fruits and vegetables can be deficient unless the grower goes to the extra expense of remineralizing the soil.
Eating a modest amount of unrefined salt is an important part of staying healthy. So when purchasing salt source natural unrefined salt at your grocery store or health food stores. It stimulates salivation and helps balance and replenish all of the body's electrolytes and the natural iodine in unrefined sea salts protects against radiation, atomic fallout and many other pollutants while supplying all 92 vital trace minerals, thereby promoting optimum biological function and cellular maintenance.
It's important to note that much of the salt labeled 'sea salt' is actually refined table salt. Check the label - it should read 'unrefined'. And of course remember a healthy diet is a diet in moderation - just because it's natural doesn't mean you should overuse it.