This is not copy righted or found on the web so I will post in it's entirety.
The Truth About Salt
Ted H Spence, DDS, ND, PhD/DSc, MH
Salt, has been vilified and denigrated, despite the fact that it is essential to life. Salt licks are essential for cattle to maintain health and they die without it. Cattle will walk for miles to get to a salt lick. Now when I speak of salt, I am referring to natural sea salt, not table salt, which is merely sodium chloride (NaCl). It is table salt that is responsible for raising blood pressure and causing heart problems. Sea salt is the best form and contains many minerals, like magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium, chloride, sulfate, phosphate and many other trace minerals. Sea salt does not raise blood pressure and is very health promoting.
The importance of trace minerals and electrolytes on our health cannot be stressed enough. Gillian Martlew, ND states, "Trace minerals and electrolytes are the spark of life, and without them we simply wouldn't function."
The terms electrolytes, ions, minerals may be used as other terms for salt. She adds, "Electrolytes are ionized salts (minerals) found in body fluids and the blood stream. In solution, or dissolved and transformed in water, they can conduct an electric current."
"The whole body is a bioelectric organism and the nervous system and brain also operate on electrical energy. Electrolytes are both the "switch" and the energy source."
Dr Bernard Jensen stated, "All cellular structures become alive through electrolytic activity. Life begins with electrolytes. Trace minerals carry the life force in our bodies more than any other substance."
Salt adds minerals (ions) to our foods and enhances its flavor. Without salt, our body cannot make adequate amounts of HCl (stomach acid). With low levels of HCl, our digestion is impaired and we cannot absorb minerals. Minerals are needed for activating enzymes, and other important metabolic functions. Therefore, one can see the idiocy of taking antacids (or avoiding salt) which block mineral absorption. Low levels of HCl can be translated into disease quite easily, for without minerals one cannot be healthy. Salt is also needed to maintain osmotic balance (water), to control pH levels and to help activate enzymes. Salt serves as a natural buffer for acidity and through osmotic mechanisms, salt helps to control the amount of water within the cells (intracellular fluid) and around the cells (extracellular fluid). Gillian Martlew, ND stated, "Electrolytes are essential to the production of enzymes, the function of cells, and in maintaining a normal pH balance in the body and digestive system. Electrolytes also maintain normal fluid balance including osmosis (the cell's internal and external fluid pressure), and blood pressure."
Jaques de Langre, PhD, in his praise of sea salt, states, " ... the oceans give us a natural sea salt with the most exquisite taste and a physiologically-vital mineral mix. Today, every common table salt is artificial and sadly pales beside the real sea salt. Out of the richest spectrum of 92 essential minerals found in the ocean, the industrial refined variety retains only two! Debased white table salt deserves all of its bad name and all the misdeeds as charged."
Therefore, do not confuse common refined table salt (sodium chloride) with natural unrefined (and health-promoting) sea salt. He continues, "Salt is the single element required for the proper breakdown of plant carbohydrates into usable and assimilable human food."
Salt as Medicine:
During times of cold or flu one old folk remedy was the use of chicken soup with lots of salt. There is much science behind this remedy, because Jacques de Langre, PhD states, "There are times at the onset or in the early development of an illness when extra salting of food, for a strictly limited period - no more than three days, salt is powerful medicine - will effectively counteract an illness." Further he concludes, "Celtic sea salt has countless medicinal uses. It can help in correcting excess acidity; restoring good digestion; relieving allergies and skin diseases; and preventing many forms of cancer. Natural salt provides a steady boost in cellular energy and gives the body a heightened resistance to infections and bacterial diseases."
Salt balance is also controlled by our adrenals, which use the mineralocorticoids (hormones) to maintain salt (electrolyte) balance. They control the reabsorption of sodium and the secretion of potassium from the renal tubules. Persons avoiding salt will experience low blood pressure, dizziness, chronic fatigue, poor digestion and hypoadrenal function. Their digestive problems come from the lack of HCl, which we stated would cause deficient mineral absorption. Fatigue sets in when the adrenals become exhausted and anemia may result from deficient absorption of iron caused by the lack of HCl. Their ability to make energy (ATP/ADP) is hampered by the lack of essential minerals (ions) needed for activation of enzymes. Avoidance of salt will create all of these problems in time, because salt is (despite other claims to the contrary) essential to life. Persons who avoid salt will suffer fatigue, poor digestion, low blood pressure, and possibly anemia.
Salt and Vegetarians:
Jacques de Langre, PhD states, "Salting vegetable foods is a necessity; the benefits of a vegetable diet are canceled without the penetrating action of salt and its minerals."
So why do some people and many vegetarians avoid salt? The answer to this question is found in another nutrient which vegetarians are commonly deficient in ... protein. Simply put, vegetarians lack protein and protein is needed to maintain osmotic balance in and around the cells. Therefore, without adequate protein to keep the fluids in balance, ingestion of salt will cause edema and water retention. One should realize that it is not the salt, per se, which is the problem, but protein deficiency that is the problem. Many people can ingest sea salt without having high blood pressure, water retention, or other salt-related problems, because their digestion is in balance and they have adequate protein available. The elderly especially are at risk for lacking HCl, which is a key element for digestion and absorption. Yet, they are told to omit all forms of salt. Without adequate HCl minerals are not absorbed and fatigue sets in. If sea salt is used problems are avoided and they may salt the food to taste. If one does have high blood pressure, then they are lacking potassium and getting too much sodium. Sea salt has a balance of potassium and sodium, which does not result in high blood pressure or other health problems.
One great raw vegetarian understanding is that "raw plant proteins do not equal animal proteins". If it were true then vegetarians would not be suffering from "cachexia" and other negative protein balance problems as their body tries to "rob" its own organs and tissues to maintain protein balance. Strict "junk food" vegetarians are losing their own body's protein since protein must be maintained in the blood "at all costs". Plasma proteins help to maintain osmotic balance, which means that fluids are balanced between the blood, the cells and the extra-cellular fluid (ECF). Therefore, proteins are maintained in the blood at all costs since their function is so vital to life. Loomis states, "Because these proteins are critical for the maintenance of homeostasis they must be maintained in the blood at all costs."
"At all costs" means that the body will rob from its own tissues to maintain homeostasis in the blood. Cachexia results as protein is pulled from the "less valuable" organs and tissues - preserving the heart and other vital organs until the very last. Cachexia is a well-known component of terminal or late-stage cancer, where the body is using protein to feed the cancer's insatiable appetite for glucose. But few people realize that cachexia is a common finding in strict "junk food" vegetarians also, where the body is robbing its own tissues to maintain a balance of protein in the blood. When the body cannot get enough of good usable protein it will "rob" from its own organs to fulfill that need. This is why strict "Junk Food" vegetarians can be easily picked out of a crowd of people ... for they are emaciated, pale (anemic) and wasting.
If salt is given during this low state of protein, then edema will result, since the protein is needed for osmotic balance. Perhaps, this is why vegetarians avoid salt ... at all costs. Edema may be caused by disturbances in any factor that governs the interchanges between blood plasma and interstitial fluid (IF) compartments. There are three disturbances (listed in Thibodeau): 1) Retention of electrolytes (especially sodium) in the extracellular fluid. 2) An increase in capillary blood pressure. And 3) a decrease in the concentration of plasma proteins caused by leakage into the interstitial spaces of proteins normally retained in the blood.
Thibodeau stated, "Plasma proteins act as a water-pulling or water-holding force. They hold water in the blood and pull it into the blood from the IF."
Now we already know that too much sodium will contribute to high blood pressure, especially when the sodium is not balanced with adequate amounts of potassium. Guyton adds, "Indeed, experimental studies have shown that at least three quarters of all the chemical
buffering power of body fluids is inside the cells, and most of this results from the intracellular proteins."
Fat Soluble Vitamins:
Salt is also used to emulsify fats. Our liver makes bile for that purpose also. Without salt in our diet, fats (and fat soluble vitamins - A-D-E-K) are not absorbed. Vitamins A and E are excellent antioxidants and are beneficial to keeping our skin and epithelium in good condition. Vitamin K is needed for platelet (clotting) function and vitamin D is essential for the proper utilization of calcium, one of the more important macro-minerals. Deficiencies in either of these essential fat-soluble vitamins would only decrease one's health and would not be acceptable. Salt is needed to ensure the adequate absorption of fats and fat soluble vitamins. Jacques de Langre, PhD stated, "Salt is required to emulsify fats and oils in order for them to be digestible. Hydrochloric acid is produced only if chlorine is present in the right ratio; this can be assured only if natural sea salt is used."
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