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When most people think of salt, they tend to think of the salt that is so heavily advertised as being good for your health, such as Celtic sea salt or Himalayan rock salt. The question is, are these types of salt actually healthy for us and, if not, where should we be obtaining our salt from?
Sodium (salt) is critical for maintaining health and is utilised by the human body for numerous tasks that include the following:
- Found in the fluid between cells (extracellular fluid) where it is in constant dynamic balance with potassium which is mainly to be found within the cells (intracellular fluid). This healthy balance allows for the passage of waste and nutrients across the cell membranes
- A major component of blood and lymphatic fluid
- Needed for the use of our muscles, including the heart
- Correct functioning of our nerves
- Electrolyte, fluid and pH balance within our bodies
Over the last few thousand years, man has used salt for not only preserving foods, but also adding flavour to it. To think of going through life without adding salt to any of their foods would drive most people to distraction. "What, no salt on my food? But what should I do for taste?", most people will say. The addiction that most people have for adding salt to their food or for having salt added to it lies in the fact that most of the foods people eat are to put it quite simply not satiety and, so, the need is found to use salt to make the food come 'alive', which without it would appear as bland and unexciting as eating cardboard.
So, most of us now partake of various different types of salt, whether it is table salt, rock salt or sea salt. Many people know that traditional table salt is far from healthy as it is highly refined with various chemicals added to it including even fluoride in certain cases. They believe that by using other types of salt, which are deemed as being a healthy alternative such as 'unrefined sea salt' "Himalayan salt" and 'pure rock salt'.
Well, even though these types of salts do not go through the same processing that table salt does and as such could be termed 'natural', it does not automatically equate to them being healthy and suitable for human consumption. "Why?", you may ask.
Here are some points you may want to consider if you ever feel the need to sprinkle some 'healthy' salt on your food:
Consuming your salt through eating sea/rock salt, including table salt, creates the very real potential for overdosing and so can impact negatively upon the human body. How do you know when you have had too much, when your eyes become bloodshot or your blood pressure starts going up?
Unrefined sea salt can contain over 80 minerals but the majority of these are in very small amounts. For example a medium sized banana contains over 400mg of potassium while a teaspoon of sea salt contains just 11mg
Traces of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury have all been found in sea salt. Why would anyone knowingly want to potentially be adding known toxins to their body?
So getting your sodium through eating food laden with table/rock/sea salt is certainly not conducive towards good health and ideal body weight. Yet, there is another source of sodium that is greatly overlooked in the modern world and that is obtained through eating natural, whole foods, which all contain sodium. Below is just a small list of whole raw foods that contain good amounts of sodium:
- Celery
- Coconut water
- Carrots
- Kale
- Honeydew Melon
- Cantaloupe Melon
- Swiss Chard
- Beets
- Tomatoes
- Lettuce
Getting sodium through eating a whole raw food diet wins hands down because:
It is more bio-available, due to chelation (binding) which means it is much easier for the human body to absorb.
Consuming your salt through eating sea/rock salt including table salt creates the very real potential for overdosing, which impacts negatively upon the human body.
Consuming salt, whether it is table/rock or sea salt, is addictive and so unhealthy.
Fruits and vegetables more than easily cover all your bases when it comes to mineral content including iodine (as long as the soil it is grown in is healthy/mineral rich).
Overdosing on salt and suffering the health consequences from eating a raw food diet of vegetables and fruits is unheard of.
Just as a reminder if any of us needed one about the dangers of eating too much salt:
High blood pressure can result from having too much salt in the bloodstream, forcing the heart to work harder, putting it under greater strain and narrowing the arteries.
Increased body weight can occur due to fluid retention because of excess sodium requiring water from the body to neutralise it and make it safe. This can be a real issue for people wanting to achieve weight loss. So, if you want to lose weight, exclude salt from your diet completely and switch to a low-fat raw vegan diet.
The more sodium you have in your body, the less you will absorb calcium.
The body becomes dehydrated by the over consumption of salt.
Salt has an acidic effect on the body, which can force it to leach alkaline minerals such as calcium from the bones to maintain a healthy pH balance. This can eventually lead to osteoporosis.
Our own personal experience of living without salt on the 80/10/10 raw food diet for well over 3 years now has been an interesting one. As we weaned ourselves off the addiction that we had for salt in the past, we eventually found that we could live without it and now find our taste buds much more sensitive to the foods that we eat. We enjoy our meals more than we have ever done and the thought of adding any salt never ever crosses our mind. Looking back salt is now for us what we can best term as a sledgehammer to the taste buds. We do not miss it anymore and revel in all the many fruits and vegetables that we eat daily.
Do we or other people we know who follow the same diet as us get any symptoms of under eating on sodium such as tiredness, nausea or muscle cramps? Quite the opposite, in fact, and we do a lot of exercise, often in hot tropical climates. So the argument that you need to add salt to your diet as a means to be healthy is simply untrue. Just eating a healthy raw food diet of fruits and vegetables and you will more than adequately cover you sodium needs.
Find out the truth about salt and how you should really be obtaining it for true health! Also visit our website at: http://www.rawsomehealthy.com where you can find out even more about what healthy living really means and how you and your loved ones can set yourselves free!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Tarbath
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