Salt - guess what…..it’s a health food!

Salt will kill you, clog your veins, give you a heart attack, a stroke, drown your iPhone, burn down your house.

Yes indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking that salt was the worst thing ever put on the earth!

But wait….thousands of years ago, it was considered a gift from the gods. Such was its value that people were even paid with it. Over the last 40 years our salt consumption has dwindled to the point where we now consume about half the amount that was consumed traditionally. It was after all, one of the only methods of food preservation prior to refrigeration.

Why do we need salt in our diet?

• We need it to maintain blood pressure – yes, some folks who decrease salt in their diets have reduced blood pressure but some also have the reverse effect
• It’s really important for our nervous system – chloride is essential for brain development and neurological function and sodium is also important for our brains function.
• It aids metabolism and digestion – the sodium chloride in salt is a major source of the chloride component of hydrochloric acid in our stomachs. A proper level of hydrochloric acid is absolutely essential for proper digestion.
• It is also essential for the health and function of your adrenal glands – this is where many of your hormones are made and salt cravings are often a sign of poor adrenal health.

But salt is unhealthy remember!?

The most common type of salt will in fact, do a lot of those things listed above, perhaps stopping short of burning down your abode (I’m pretty sure it won’t anyway!).

This common table salt looks like tiny brilliant white cubes and is free flowing and not clumped together. This is highly processed sodium chloride – 97.5% Sodium Chloride and 2.5% additives to stop it absorbing moisture, to “iodise” it, and even to bleach it so it’s nice and pretty and white! In the case of the iodine, there are other much more efficient and natural ways of getting iodine into our bodies than consuming it with our salt. In the case of the moisture absorbants and anti-caking agents, they usually contain aluminium which is implicated in the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Processed salt is heated to 1200° F and this changes the chemical structure of the crystal turning it into the cube shape you recognise from the canister. The problem is, that your body does not recognise these newly formed crystals and has to work much harder and use more of its resources to process it. Unsurprisingly this type is used in almost all processed foods usually to mask other flavours and to appeal to our taste buds so we eat more. Insidiously, when you purchase low salt products, they often use MSG and other nasty flavour enhancing additives to make up for the lack of salt which is even worse for your health!

So which salt is healthy salt?

The healthiest salt you can get your hands on is Himalayan rock salt. These pink crystals have, as the name suggests, been mined from mines deep in the Himalayas in Pakistan. It’s pristine, unpolluted and comes from a source that’s around 250 million years old. It is 85% Sodium Chloride and 15% trace minerals and elements. It is becoming increasingly easy to get and once you’ve tried it, you’ll find it difficult to go back to any other kind. It has a much softer flavour than processed salt.

You can also use Celtic sea salt and for many years this was the preferred natural salt for those in the know, however with oceans becoming more polluted with mercury, dioxins, PCB’s and oil spills, it is difficult to guarantee the purity of this type of salt.

I purchase Himalayan salt crystals and dried seaweed to make my own iodised salt in my Thermomix. Seaweed is a wonderful source of highly absorbable iodine which is essential for thyroid health and detoxification. I rotate the seaweed varieties each time I make a batch (I use either kombu, wakame, dulse on rotation). First I powder the seaweed (could easily be done in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle), then I add the salt and wiz to a reasonably fine powder. Be careful if using a plastic bowled food processor as the salt crystals may cause damage. Use a mortar and pestle or make small quantities in a spice grinder. I use the equivalent of about a teaspoon of chopped up seaweed per 100 grams of salt

If this seems like too much work, you can buy a great pre-mixed version here.

The wonderful thing about using Himalayan salt is that you can use it to your hearts content (within reason of course - everything within reason!) It really is a health food. Your body understands it and knows what to do with it.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of Himaylan salt and salt in general, have a look at what of one of my favourite nutritionists, Cyndi O’Meara has to say here.

Also, have a look at this wonderful video made by Doctor Joseph Mercola. It goes for 12 minutes but it’s worth it!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Photo credits

• Salt Mausoleum - Dennis Jarvis via Compfight
• Crystals of salt - Kevin Dooley via Compfight
• Himalayan Salt - Ros Isbel

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