Perhaps you’ve heard some of the buzz in the health blog world lately about salt. Perhaps you are asking yourself, Is salt good for me?
Why, Yes, it is! I know, I know. This is contrary to the pretty blatant lies told to us by the American Heart Association and FDA etc and thank goodness, because salt makes food taste amazing.
This is obvious, but bears mentioning- don’t rely on high-sodium processed food for salt! That is not a good source of sodium. Make food from scratch and salt it yourself.
Salt's amazing health benefits include supporting healthy digestion, facilitating body movement, supporting heart health, helps prevent iodine deficiency, an important element of rehydration, helps reduces diabetes risk, promotes good oral health, improves respiratory health, decrease appetite, helps remove toxins, support normal blood pressure, and help maintain normal blood pH.
One of the things that happens when there isn’t enough sodium in the diet is that more aldosterone is synthesized. Aldosterone causes less sodium to be lost in the urine and sweat, but it achieves that at the expense of the increased loss of potassium, magnesium, and probably calcium… Magnesium deficiency is extremely common, but a little extra salt in the diet makes it easier to retain the magnesium in our foods.
What is Salt? Salt has been around for millennia. Arguably, it has been around so long, that a part of our tongue is dedicated to detecting this substance, and evolutionary trait that takes millennia to develop. Regardless. Even though this substance, also known as sodium chloride, has been around such a long time, and continues to be an important part of our diets today, it has gotten a bad rep owing to its overconsumption. Because salt retains important functions towards our health. Many people take it for granted nowadays, so maybe it warrants an explanation of what is can do for our health.
Salt is good for you if it is the right type. With that said, regular processed salt is better than no salt, that’s for sure. But the better option is unrefined salt, which is rich in trace minerals and free of additives.
Food should be salted freely and to taste. When the metabolism is slow and the thyroid is not optimally functioning, it may be beneficial to consume extra salt whenever possible. This could include salting all beverages and using liberal salt when cooking and baking.
Salt's amazing health benefits includes supporting healthy digestion, facilitating body movement, supporting heart health, helps prevent iodine deficiency, an important element of rehydration, helps reduces diabetes risk, promotes good oral health, improves respiratory health, decrease appetite, helps remove toxins, support normal blood pressure, and help maintain normal blood pH.
TYPES of SALT
Iodized Salt
Often called table salt because it is often kept and used at the kitchen table. This finely ground salt is mined from salt deposits underneath the earth and then refined and mixed with iodine.
Sea Salt
There are many types of salt in the sea. When seawater dries up in tidal pools, it leaves salty residue. This is collected and refined for use as table salt.
Kosher Salt
You’ve probably asked yourself if there’s a difference between kosher and table salt, and there definitely is. For starters, it has a coarser texture. And unlike table salt, kosher has no iodine content or any other additives. It’s said to taste better because of the lack of iodine.
Pickling Salt
Pickling salt doesn’t have any additives to keep it from clumping, so it’s much more dissolvable even though it’s coarse. This is the type of salt is used for preserving and canning food like gherkins, beans, and beets.
Pink Salt
Otherwise known as Himalayan Pink Salt, this coarse and vibrantly colored salt comes from Pakistan. It’s one of the purest forms of salt, with a sodium chloride content of 98%. Pink salt is usually used as a garnish or finishing salt on gourmet dishes and is a favorite material in salt decor.
Black Salt
This salt is also called Himalayan Black Salt. It’s not actually black, but more of a deep purple. It’s coarse, like pink salt, but it’s very strong, so should be used with discretion to garnish a plate or as a final touch.
Flake Salt
Flake salt isn’t ground like other types of salt. Instead, it’s shaved off, giving it a light, thin texture. This type of salt has a strong salty taste. It’s often used to garnish appetizers like bruschetta and even for salted caramel.
Black Hawaiian Salt
Black Hawaiian Salt is harvested and refined with activated charcoal to give it a powerful earthy taste. This type of salt is coarsely ground and used as a finishing salt on savory and smoked dishes.
Red Hawaiian Salt
Coarse Red Hawaiian salt is coarsely ground with red volcanic clay to give it a bright red color and nutty taste. Great for garnishing pretzels and even desserts.
. Smoked Salt
Made by smoking applewood or hickory wood under the salt, so the salt soaks up all of the flavors. This is great for a smoky flavor for food on the barbeque.
Celtic Salt
Celtic salt is collected in France, from the Atlantic Ocean. It brings out the flavor of foods like vegetables and roasted meats and doesn’t have a strong salty taste, which makes it a popular choice for people who don’t like salt.
12. Fleur De Sel
Fleur de Sel means “flower of salt” in French. This is a very rare type of salt that is harvested in Brittany. It doesn’t have a strong salt flavor like other garnish salts but does make a nice finishing touch on many dishes. And it’s easily dissolved.
What About Epsom Salts?
Surprisingly, Epsom salts are not salt at all, they’re made up of magnesium, sulfur, and oxygen, making cup the compound, magnesium sulfate. This can be used in the bath for relaxation and has been said to be effective for detoxifying the body.
A s well as a great way for the body to absorb magnesium through the largest organ - the skin. But don't eat Epsom Salts. :P
Low Salt Intake May Be Linked With Migraine
For migraine sufferers, it is often necessary to raise the amount of sodium (which is about 40% of salt) they consume. Starting with 1:1 sodium to potassium ratio and increasing the ratio to the point when the migraines stop. Athletes tend to need more (3-4 times more sodium than potassium). potassium supplements are not always optimal. Instead, use whole foods that contain potassium, like avocado.
During a fast it is also important to replace the water and salt you are using. Angela explains how the water can go also become oedema symptoms and how taking salt resolves this issue very quickly.
Rather than reaching for a pain relief tablet, when a migraine starts coming on, Angela recommends reaching for salt first. She explains why pain tablets don’t work to resolve the underlying problem and other issues.
Interestingly, while salt may not cure all types of migraine, low intake of sodium may increase migraine incidences, says a 2016 study. While most foods contain sodium, salt has the highest amount. So this means that low intake of salt is linked with migraine.
Fore more info:
Stanton Migraine Protocol®, a protocol of great success that can help you learn what migraine is, what it is caused by, how it is caused, and why it is caused. The Protocol also teaches you how to stop an ongoing migraine, and how to prevent any new migraines from coming.
Salt Is Integrally Involved In Digestion At this point you may be wondering how exactly does salt contribute to digestion, and this is a valid point. However, it takes a little deeper dive to understand how this happens. The primary substance that kick starts digestion in the stomach is hydrochloric acid (HCl), which to be produced requires the presence of hydrogen and chlorine ions. Salt is essentially composed of sodium and chloride ions, which upon ingestion is broken up into constituent parts and reused where it is needed. Though it rarely occurs, deficiency of salt would inhibit digestion as a side effect. Essential For Good Heart Conduction While the heart has its own pacemaker cells, there are things beyond them which control their function. For example, sodium ions help in the transmission of electrical impulses, so that these cells are stimulated to transmit signals to cardiac cells to beat. Though it shares this responsibility with potassium ions, its importance cannot be overlooked. Necessary To Facilitate Body Movement In similar manner to the heart, but much more directly, sodium helps propagate the transmission of electrical impulses from the nerves to the muscles, to allow contraction and movement. Without these stimuli, movement would be impossible, and typically take years to develop. This is why children take much longer to develop fine motor skills, since transmission in weaker at this stage.
Helps To Prevent Iodine Deficiency
While iodine is not a part of salt, today it is basically standard fare for all table salt produced to be enriched with iodine, solving a major problem afflicting a large population of the world. Poorer countries especially may not have the luxury of iodized salt, and find themselves deficient in this important micro mineral. Iodine plays important roles in metabolism and healthy cellular function, also being important to pregnant mothers in order to ensure the health brain development of the unborn child.
Important in Rehydration
Rehydration does not merely involve drinking water, but also the mineral salts that regulate electrolyte balance. When we sweat we lose water and electrolytes, so we must ensure that we rehydrate with an ideally isotonic solution of sodium, magnesium and potassium ions along with water. Use of water alone would cause a scenario known as water intoxication.
Helps To Reduce Diabetes Risk
Many people do not know, but sodium plays an important role in maintaining the sensitivity of insulin towards blood glucose. In addition to magnesium, sodium also helps to ensure that insulin functions as intended, and clears glucose in a timely manner. Type 2 diabetics suffer from reduced insulin sensitivity often, with poor glucose control a result.
A Salt Water Gargle Can Promote Good Oral Health
A salt water gargle is one of the simplest remedies for maintaining good oral health, being able to clear excessive bacteria from the mouth and reducing the impact they have on health. salt water gargles can be used to managing strep throat, canker sores (also known as mouth ulcers), as well as reducing the likelihood of developing gingivitis or for managing toothaches. Some toothpastes even use salt as an ingredient for whitening, since micronized sized molecules can help to whiten teeth.
Improve Respiratory Health
Salt is a unique compound that possesses anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and mucolytic properties, which helps promote the health of our respiratory system significantly. Though not many people know this, inhaling ultrapure micronized salt into the nostril can elicit these effects in the lungs. This technique is known as halotherapy, and has shown potential in reducing allergies and managing asthma.
Can Decrease Your Appetite
Though since has pondered on it for years, there is evidence that shows the flavor we are yearning for can help suppress you appetite once supplied. Case in point, there are times that you crave something salty, or something sweet on the flip side. These cravings are usually met with junk food, which supply numerous calories that do nothing for our body. Consumption of a simple salt water drink could suppress your cravings and hunger for that taste, and save you endless calories in the process. It is believed that our various cravings re reflective of a nutrient need we have on a cellular level.
Helps Remove Toxins
Soaking your feet in a salt water solution for a period of time is quickly catching on as a health trend, as toxins appear to diffuse from the blood to the salt solution that you are using as a soak. The salt water mixture allegedly becomes very nasty after a period of time, indicative of the potential of this treatment.
Necessary For Normal Blood Pressure
While it is true that high intakes of salt negatively affect blood pressure, you would be wrong to think that we can absolutely remove it from our diet. Electrolyte balance needs to be maintained, via the consumption of both sodium and potassium rich foods. Using table salt in your meals (while keeping an eye on your intake) is the best way to regulate blood pressure.
Helps Maintain Normal Blood pH
Salt is naturally of a neutral pH, which is what our bodies are ideally looking for. Though our normal pH is slightly alkaline, consumption of many neutral foods helps to maintain that balance. This is important to the brain as well, as small alterations to pH could be lethal.
Helps To Normalize Cholesterol
Research has found that diets low in salt correspond to highest levels of blood lipid dysfunction, indicating another important function of it. Low salt consumption is noteworthy in increasing levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides.
Can Improve The Condition Of The Skin
A salt paste can be used to relieve inflammation and itching associated with conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It can also be applied to wounds to discourage infection with bacteria.
Final Thoughts It would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of salt in our diets, even though most of its newsworthy headlines relate to it causing hypertension, and nothing else. Most importantly, listen to your body. Let your salt craving and desire for seasoning dictate how much salt to consume.
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