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What do you know about SALT?

zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

Salt tends to make me more satisfied with the taste of big salads for a meal. Is it good/bad? Anything I should know about eating a salty salad?

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  • Blue_EyesBlue_Eyes Raw Master

    Salt, Sea Salt is very very important for your cells!! If you do not get enough with water your cells cannot use the water efficiently.

    Do not use regular table salt, it is completely dead. Your body needs about 1/4 tsp for every quart of water you drink for proper absorption.

    so get your water and salt intake for each day you should consume half your weight of water a day in ounces for example if you weigh 100 pounds you should drink 50 ounces of water each day. that is not including anything else you drink.

    Your taste buds tell your body what is coming in and so they can get ready to use it. If your taste buds say tea or koolaid or whatever is coming in your body will respond differently than if it says water. Your Cells CAN tell the difference.

  • zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

    Hey Blue Eyes! I’m from Champaign! We should have a meetup sometime! (you could look at my myspace at http://www.myspace.com/maggierevolt)

  • Blue_EyesBlue_Eyes Raw Master

    I would love to!! I was hoping to meet someone close around here. Monday I will be going out on the road with my trucker husband not sure how long I will be gone. I will also not have access to the internet while I am gone. Still saving up for a laptop.

    I tried your site but it would not come up said page not found.

  • bananaboybananaboy Raw Superstar

    Oh no….here we go again.

    At risk of offending the many salt addicts on this forum…salt or soduim chloride is an inorganic mineral. Only plants can assimilate inorganic minerals like sodium chloride in the soil. Humans cannot, irregardless of what everyone here says and that includes all your fancy salts like Himalayan and Celtic Sea Salt. Humans need organic sodium and we get that from fruits and veggies.

    Salt is toxic. If it wasn’t, you’d be able to eat a bowl full of it with no ill effects. Just try putting a little salt on an open wound. The stinging sensation should give you a clue that salt is to be avoided.

    One ounce of salt causes the body to hold six pounds of excess fluid. That explains the quick weight loss when salt intake is reduced. Unfortunately, most of us are salt addicts, and are born that way thanks to the salt addictions of our parents. The salt addiction is transfered to the unborn child through the blood of the mother.

    We have the food industry to thank for this addiction, as most prepackaged and canned food contains excessive amounts of salt in order to make their tasteless junk more appealing. Let’s face it, how long would a company last selling only unsalted potato chips?

    I admit that I sometimes get a craving for something salty. But like sugar, caffeine, chocolate, these cravings are not because our bodies need these things. It is because we are addicted to them.

    Now, excuse me while I run for cover.

  • Blue_EyesBlue_Eyes Raw Master

    Did I say to use an ounce of salt. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO You need to study up on the human body.

  • bananaboybananaboy Raw Superstar

    Blue Eyes, I never said you did. Just stating a fact regarding water retention in the body and excess dietary salt. Which I’m sure everyone knows as it is common knowledge. By the way, I have been studying physiology, anatomy, and nutrition for over 25 years.

  • Blue_EyesBlue_Eyes Raw Master

    You need to read “the bodies many cries for water”. without salt you will dehydrate with to much you will dehydrate. to much is toxic but too little is deadly as well.

    a 1/4 tsp of sea salt and a glass of water will stop my mild asthma attacks and my pulmonary doctor is all for it. In fact he takes my blood every time I go in and lets me know if I am low on sodium. He just said that table salt is bad.

  • bananaboybananaboy Raw Superstar

    Blue Eyes, Yes, I have that book. But you know what…the only water I drink is a glass first thing in the morning to help flush the bowels and perhaps a glass in the sauna. I am never thirsty because of my high water content diet of raw fruits and vegetables. The water in raw fruits and veggies is natures purest water and contains sodium in the correct amounts as provided by nature. I am certainly not dehydrated and it has been more than 20 years since I ate the SAD diet with all its salt. And at 51 years old I am thriving with no added salt.

    Again, it is not salt we need, but organic sodium from fruits and veggies.

    Cheers

  • zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

    You look great in your picture jgfergus! I aspire after you :) I feel within myself that I shouldn’t be eating salt, but as a poor student I can’t afford to go raw like I’d like to… that means using salt to curb cravings.

  • beanbean Raw Newbie

    zinfandel, you’re a poor student? So am I! We should start a club! I wonder how many other students are on here… I’m curious, though- I had my levels of stuff checked (vitamins, minerals, etc) and the naturopath who did it said I was low on sodium. She mentioned that most people get it in the foods they eat because processed food has salt in it, albeit the wrong kind, but that I should add a little more sea salt into my diet to balance out my system. I think she was concerned about electrolytes, but she definitely said I was low on sodium. Now, I eat primarily raw, and there’s no shortage of actual food coming in- I’m definitely eating enough. Probably too much, but that’s another topic. If I was getting enough salt from natural produce and fruit, wouldn’t my sodium levels be fine?

  • jgfergus: Have you ever thought of starting a blog and sharing all that you know? Going 20 yrs no SAD, getting most of your water from fruits/veggies, and looking as good as you do, I know you’d have some good stuff to share.

  • The peace sign and wallpaper should tell you that picture was taken in 1973!

    I’m going to investigate this. I know that animals in the wild will lick salt to satisfy a sodium depletion, and they are not subject to mis-cravings like we peeps are…

  • I found the link Why We Don’t Drink Salt Water and although I don’t agree with all of her logic, she makes some good points.

    I am going to investigate further. Basically, though, it looks like sea salt is NOT sodium chloride. It’s sodium, chloride, magnesium, and 80 other minerals that evolved over 4 billion years in the ocean to sustain life. Sea salt is composed of minerals from the ocean waters which have been transformed by microorganisms, algae and plants into organic nutrients; these in turn are bioavailable to animals of the sea and land. Table salt is probably dead in this regard and is likely somewhat toxic.

    Salt is one of the basic human tastes that have been identified, so I would say it’s rather necessary.

    EDIT: I also found the info below, but without references, so take it with a grain of…yea

    Sodium, in the form of sodium chloride, plays an important part in the primary processes of digestion and absorption. Salt activates the first enzyme in the mouth, salivary amylase. At this stage, sodium exposes food to the tastebuds – a reason why food has always been salted “to taste” – it also helps start digestion by breaking down food. In the parietal cells of the stomach wall, sodium chloride generates hydrochloric acid, one of the most important of ail digestive secretions.

    If potassium is in excess in relation to sodium, the body’s enzyme pathway loses its ability to produce hydrochloric acid. Thus most diets, but especially vegetarian and grain diets, require slightly more salt in order to prevent an excess of potassium over sodium. With salt present, the acidity of the partially digested food is able to trigger off some needed natural sodium bicarbonate, derived from the supply of sodium chloride, as well as enzymatic and bile secretions from the gall bladder and pancreatic ducts. Without salt no digestion is possible.

  • ras-saadonras-saadon Raw Newbie

    We do need salt, it is vital for our body, without we cannot exist, but the amounts SAD people consume are far far far beyond our needs and that excess salt is very harmful to us, we got all of our needs from the food we eating(assuming you have a good diet), no need for extra salt, I almost never add salt to anything I eat for almost 4 years now and it tastes great! actually if I do add even just a bit it tastes way to salty, many times when I eat a salt it has such a nice taste that remind me of salt that I wonder if I actually had some in or not, but it is vital to all life, wild jungle elephant actually dig up salt&mineral deposits with their drunk, pump it with water and drink it, and after they open the way many other jungle animals come and use it as well, many researchers say that without they doubt if they will survive, also some humans communities living in harsh desert environments dig up salt deposits and use it, but again, if you have a good balanced diet you do not need to add salt.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    Cooked foodists are not only eating hugely excessive salt but they are also eating refined, totally junk table salt. The kind of salt in fast food sure ain’t no sea salt.

    I believe salt is vital. I found that Himalayan salt is so good, it even beats regular sea salt, which is supposed to be from the world’s polluted oceans according to HimalaSalt. But, anyway, I wouldn’t put more than several pinches in your salad because that could be harmful, but I’m not an expert. I absolutely love that salt.

  • troublesjustabubbletroublesjustabubble Raw Newbie

    jgfergus-Can you make a post of your diet? I’m really curious what you eat. Do you not make any dressings? I could live salt free but I put some in my salad dressing and I love it. I think I do get to much salt. I’m only about 80% to 95% raw. Right now I’m going 100% for a month though and would like to try to do it as naturally as possible.

  • I agree with JGfergus.. fruits and veggies have all the sodium that you need. When I need a salty treat, I like to munch on celery.. maybe for your salads, you can substitute grinded celery seed.

    You can also make your own salt seasoning with sesame seeds and a mixture of different types of seaweed!

  • Zinfandel- Don’t use salt to curb cravings. Have you ever noticed it never actually curves your cravings? You always want more salt, and more salt. This is because you are getting inorganic mineral salts (as jgf stated, they are unusable by the body. aka toxic). If you want to curb your salt cravings, eat a head of celery. Tell me how satiated you are afterwards.

    Blue_Eyes – “Salt, Sea Salt is very very important for your cells!! If you do not get enough with water your cells cannot use the water efficiently.” What happens when you get water from the sea? You know, salt water? It will dehydrate you, causing you to need more water. Why does it dehydrate you? Because salt absorbs the water and the rest is use to protect your cells from the inorganic, toxic salts such as sea salt, and rock salt. Our bodies can not process inorganic salts, whatsoever. Yes, it is very important to get salts into our body (salt lines the outerwall of the cell, and potassium (which is a form of sodium) is on the inside of the cell), but it needs to be in the form of digestable organic salts which come in the form of fruits and veggies, as JGF said. He is not mistaken what so ever, more research should be done on your part towards the “study of the human body”

    JGF- right on! Don’t hold back in speaking the truth.

    Mr.Mickmaster- Yes sea salt has all of those minerals, but so does all of our plants and veggies. Sea salt is extremely inorganic sodium. You have everything right on, but which form of salt (Na) we need to have in our bodies. It is organic,plant based, digestable salt.

    Meloe- sea weed has the same inorganic salts that you will find in the ocean :) ocean foods are not made for human consumption. I mean, fresh seaweed straight from the ocean tastes so absolutely great! And, it has no toxins from all of the run off from factory farms (fish and animal), waste sites, nuclear power sites, sewage, etc! Go and pick some fresh seaweed and let me know how great it appeals to your body! Or in that case, how gnarly it is. lol

  • But seriously zinfandel, sea salt/rock salt never satiates your body. You always want more. If you are craving salt that bad, honostly have some celery or anothe high sodium plant. I use to dislike celery with a passion, until I cut salt out. It tastes like candy and actually satiates my salt needs, unbelievable huh? When I consume a little bit of salt (I work at a raw gourmet restaraunt and they believe in sea salts) I instantly feel dehydrated, and my body craves water and salt. It’s just never ending though, it took me a while to figure out that my body was craving organic salt (plant based), not inorganic (sea salt/rock salt). Untill I figured it out, I would be on a never ending binge of salty foods. Check it out, do your body good!

  • Hi folks – Well, it took a little research, but with what I found, I have to disagree.

    First, I think there is some confusion about the term inorganic sodium. Inorganic means that there is no carbon in the molecule. That doesn’t have anything to do with assimilation or anything like that. From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium ): Sodium is an “essential element for animal life. As such, it is classified as a ‘dietary inorganic macro-mineral.’”

    Sorry TofL, there is no such thing as “organic” salt in terms of biochemical definition.

    The International Food Information Council states that the “daily amount of sodium sufficient to meet the needs of most healthy people is 1,500 milligrams per day (3,800 milligrams of salt) for 19- to 50-year-olds with normal blood pressure ( http://www.ific.org/publications/reviews/sodium… ).” Looking at the naturally-occurring sodium in fruits and veggies consumed by rawbies reveals that most are in the 2-3 mg range, which means one would have to eat about 500 grapefruit, for example, to reach that minimum ( http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/books-phd… ).

    We need sodium chloride, and the naturally-occurring sodium in foods is minimal and is not of the NaCl form. Last night I read that plants cannot absorb NaCl, contrary to what JGF said. They extract other forms of sodium from the soil. I can’t find that reference right now. Additionally, unless someone is eating somewhere in the 75% or more organic range, they are not getting sufficient minerals and if they live in a hot climate and are active like me, they require even more sodium.

    I don’t believe that our soils have close to the mineral content of the oceans. Sea salt contains 80 or more minerals in a combination that is optimal for life to evolve. Just because we can’t drink sea water doesn’t mean that sea salt is not good for us. Algae and other things from the ocean are great for us, like someone mentioned, and they comes from the ocean.

    BTW, Humans can’t drink salt water because the kidneys can only make urine that is less salty than salt water. Therefore, to get rid of all the excess salt taken in by drinking salt water, you have to urinate more water than you drank, so you die of dehydration ( http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio… ).

    I think that sea salt (not commercial table salt) added to your salad will help sharpen the taste and provide necessary nutrients occurring in optimal proportions to benefit living things, including loads of minerals that are probably depleted in our soils.

    Again, you see animals licking salt for a reason.

  • Another salt worth trying is Real Salt. It is mined in Idaho and containes good minerals as well and tastes good too. Check out their web site for more information. We also use their clay.

  • achin70achin70 Raw Newbie

    Mr. Mickmaster: Wow, thanks for doing the research. You answered a number of questions I’ve had about salt, including one about seawater.

    Anyway, all land animals seek out salt. Animals will go to great lengths to obtain salt in their diet, even risking death. Hunters have long use salt blocks to lure game into the open. Salt is lost in urine and sweat, and must be continually replenished. Hervibores in mountainous and inland environments are esp. susceptible to becoming deficient, since the soil is deficient in sodium in these areas.

    In applicable areas, herbivores seek out bogs, marshes and rivers for aquatic plants containing sodium. Closer to the coast, animals will eat salt blown grasses or kelp/seaweed.

    In the old days, not all humans had access to high-sodium foods like celery and tomatoes, and they likely had to actively seek out salt. With the development of modern transportation and refrigeration, people on a no salt diet in these areas might be able to get by, although I don’t believe this is ideal. :)

  • Right on. I don’t disagree that there’s sodium in some foods, but there are times we need more and I live in the desert and am pretty active, so I need extra salt.

    I also don’t think that a healthy person is hurting himself/herself by adding some high-mineral sea salt on a salad.

    BTW, salad and salt come from the same word, salary. Roman soldiers were often paid in salt. Salad means salted.

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    another something to consider. i personally think of spices, sea salt, etc. as “dirt.” i know that sounds weird, but i don’t consider small amounts of “dirt” on my food to be a bad thing. in fact i think it’s good not to have food that is too too “pure.” a little bit of something the wind might have blown on your salad is just fine by me. if you are by the sea shore you might even be inhaling your salt.

  • bananaboybananaboy Raw Superstar

    TreeOfLife, Is it not surprizing how many people here believe the lie about salt. As the saying goes…”If you tell a lie long enough, people are apt to believe it”. What is really disappointing is that the people who frequent this forum are obviously health crusaders searching for the truth, yet some have totally convinced themselves that poisons like salt are a beneficial food and have ignored common sense. Diehard salt addicts will of course dismiss what we say as speculation and opinion as we can see in this thread.

    If salt is so essential to the human body, why can it not be broken down into it’s components of sodium and chlorine by the body? Salt is a very strong, stable molecule. Salt enters the body as sodium chloride, it circulates as sodium chloride and it is excreted as sodium chloride. As is proven with the salty taste of your sweat. If salt is so essential, why is it excreted in the same form as it was taken in?

    Mr. Mickmaster, don’t worry about loosing salt in hot weather. Your body is very intelligent and has evolved for millions of years without eating salt. It does an excellent job of conserving sodium.

    Many cultures never consumed salt by until white man and Europeans introduced it.

    If salt is so essential, why do the world’s premier healing institutes such as the Hippocrates Institute and the Gerson Institute dismiss salt as the toxic poison it is. I guess Dr. Max Gerson and Dr. Brian Clement do not know what they are talking about even after more than 50 years of clinical research.

    The thought of a salt shaker in the Hippocrates kitchen is laughable!

    Salt addicts….carry on with your little addiction if it gives you comfort. Just like the caffeine and heroin addicts.

  • beanbean Raw Newbie

    Ouch. jgfergus, isn’t that a little harsh? I don’t think salt is exactly in the same range as heroin, and there are plenty of worse things than a bit of salt in terms of comfort. If you did something someone else didn’t, would you want to be attacked for it?

    That being said, I personally love a bit of sea salt in my food. I don’t think a lot is that great,but I don’t think it merits the term “salt addict” either. I certainly do feel that it can have its benefits. Plus, it tastes great!

    You can call me a salt addict if you want, though. And if you feel best without salt, then that’s great, and what’s best for you. But I don’t think anyone likes to feel attacked. There is a lot of conflicting information, after all.

  • I agree with Jgf, although I have not been raw long, nor do I have the experience, if you educate yourself correctly on the diet and the reason for cutting out not only cooked food but all that was introduced within the cooked food world, you too would understand that any additives are addicting and toxic. Please take the time to visit www.rawfoodexplained.com to not only learn about salt, but many other things this website and many others suggest as RAW.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    Well, actually, there is such a thing as “organic” sea salt. Regular sea salt comes from the world’s polluted oceans and is therefore not completely pure. Himalayan sea salt, on the other hand, is not from polluted oceans apparently. I read this from HimalaSalt company:

    http://www.himalasalt.com/index.php?page=produc…

    Click on “Why HimlaSalt is best” on the left side of the page to see what I’m talking about.

  • I’m not disagreeing just to be disagreeable….really.

    So, I went to rawfoodexplained.com site and checked it out. Turns out the author, one TC Fry, wrote the article on salt. There were no references in it whatsoever. Additionally, Dr Fry was a Natural Hygienist, a philosophy that has no consensus on diet and on the International Natural Hygiene Society website presents four “Ulimate Diet Theories”, none of which is neither completely vegan nor raw…

    ...Dr Fry also passed away at 70 years of age….Hmmm

    I cannot find anything (with references) showing that salt is either toxic or undigestible. Salt dissolves readily into its constituent parts in water (or vinegar and oil) so that the sodium and chloride and other minerals are used by the body as needed. The sodium, chloride, and 80+ other trace minerals have been transformed by microorganisms, algae and plants into organic nutrients which are, in turn, bioavailable to animals of the sea and land.

    From CureZone :

    Natural sea salt allows liquids to freely cross body membranes, the kidney’s glomerulus’s and blood vessels walls. Whenever the sodium chloride concentration rises in the blood, the water in the neighboring tissues is attracted to that salt-rich blood, and the cells then re-absorb the enriched intra-cellular fluid. If they are functioning properly, the kidneys remove the saline fluids easily.

    Salt does NOT “circulate” in the body as sodium chloride! Please show me where you saw this. In liquids, salt is broken down into sodum and chloride ions. The salty taste you describe is a saline solution that the body held back in the extracellular spaces to help balance water and electrolyte levels. When it is no longer needed (such as when waking up in the morning or after the body’s fluid and electrolyte levels are balanced), it flushes out the excess.

    Loads of other health benefits of salt are described there, with some references.

    Europeans did not “introduce” salt to the rest of the world, as described in Salt Archives.

    BTW, I tried to check out Hippocrates Institute and couldn’t find anything online regarding their position on this. They were just trying to sell their program…

    Unfortunately, JGF, what you are saying is speculation until I see some facts…

    RawKid, yea, himalayan is best but so expensive…

    Peace to all.

  • I agree with jgfergus, I have a salt-free diet for 10 years and I am still alive!

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