Salt

[Guest guest]

> ----- Original Message -----

>

>

> Now, the question bears asking....why are we told to get our potassium UP

> and our sodium chloride DOWN? Do we crave table salt because we don't get

> enough sodium naturally in our deficient veggies? Would our craving for

> table salt go down if our veggies contained enough NaCl?

Hi Barb,

This is just my personal opinion....

I believe that the manufacturing processes that most American foods are

subjected to severely deplete any potassium that might be present in real food.

Then, significant amounts of sodium chloride are added. So people eating the

SAD (standard american diet) tend to eat lots and lots of sodium and very little

potassium. It's my opinion this is the reason that we are told to get our

potassium up and our sodium down.

I believe that many, if not most, dietary recommendations are based on the

assumption that people are eating the SAD. I haven't come across any

nutritional studies that use people eating real, whole foods as the baseline.

It's my belief that people who eat real, whole foods naturally get less sodium

and more potassium than people eating the SAD.

So I don't worry about it. I simply eat real whole foods. I use a less refined

salt than " table salt " (real salt, unrefined sea salt, himalayan salt -

whichever is at hand), and I salt to taste. I simply don't worry about it. I

also don't crave salt like I used to.

Interested personal note - before I switched to real, whole foods, I had a

significant amount of edema (fluid retention). I took a diuretic five days out

of every seven days. On the two days when I didn't take it, I would gain

anywhere from 8 to 15 pounds of fluid weight. It would then come off over the

next few days of taking the diuretic. This went on and on, with doctors just

giving me diuretics and ignoring my requests to find a cause for the fluid

retention. They figured if the drugs did what they were supposed to do, what

difference did a cause make (aaarrrggg!).

Now, five years later, eating a real, whole foods, NT diet and salting my food

to taste, I have little to no fluid retention. The exception is when I slip up

and start eating processed foods. Then I begin retaining fluid again. Get back

to eating right - shazam - no fluid retention.

I love how eating real, whole food works!

Terri

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[Guest guest]

Hi Terri,

I totally agree with your personal opinion!

Just thinking out loud, I know that sometimes a body craves addictive foods,

although salt is a mineral so technically I guess isn't a " food " .

What I'm questioning though, is that particularly in conventional farming,

Potassium chloride aka muriate of potash, produces yield, but sodium does no

such thing. (Apparently chloride of itself can give crops a boost in the

right conditions.)

We live in fear of putting sodium chloride on our ground because we think it

will " burn, " however potassium chloride is an extremely powerful " salt. " K

is used to get the yield, while the animals eating the plant go begging for

sodium and the excessive K readily moves up into the plant.

I read something recently that said pregnant women were encouraged to eat

all the celery they want but to avoid table salt. Celery is apparenlty a

very high sodium veggie, and yet it has no deleterious effect. Just like so

many other minerals, some alchemy in the plant makes the sodium good for us.

I believe it's entirely possible that a little salt on the ground in the

right circumstances, may actually enhance our health by counterbalancing all

the K that is typically applied. Let the plants sort out the sodium and the

chloride, which IS a necessary nutrient for plants. Get the K and the Na in

balance and it appears to promote intestinal health.

One thing I've noticed recently is how much I am beginning to enjoy the

prominent flavor of celery in my veggie juice. BTW have you ever noticed

how bitter some celery is? Also noticing that in grocery store zucchini -

excessive K? I hate to say it but manure rich organic amendments can shove

soil K off the charts. Anyway, I wonder if my increasing additions of

celery to the juice are beginning to satisfy a fundamental craving for Na.

The rate of Redmond salt our consultant is calling for to topdress the

pasture this fall is 150 lb/acre. That amounts to about a half cup for 100

sq. feet. Given our high rainfall, ready leaching is likely to take place,

but we should get good sodium levels for animal health and drive down the

health-threatening excessive K levels during the grazing-haying season.

We'll also be putting Redmond salt on the garden this year.

Barb

This is just my personal opinion....

I believe that the manufacturing processes that most American foods are

subjected to severely deplete any potassium that might be present in real

food. Then, significant amounts of sodium chloride are added. So people

eating the SAD (standard american diet) tend to eat lots and lots of sodium

and very little potassium. It's my opinion this is the reason that we are

told to get our potassium up and our sodium down.

[Guest guest]

> Now, the question bears asking....why are we told to get our potassium UP

> and our sodium chloride DOWN? Do we crave table salt because we don't get

> enough sodium naturally in our deficient veggies? Would our craving for

> table salt go down if our veggies contained enough NaCl?

In anatomy class we learned that sodium is very important to the body. It plays

a vital role in muscle movement as does potassium, calcium, and magnesium. So,

basically, without sodium, you wouldn't be able to move properly.

The problem is that salt is MEANT to come with a bunch of other minerals, called

trace because we only need a trace amount of them. Most of mainstream medical

wants you to lower your sodium intake because of the THEORY that high blood

pressure is bad, and that sodium raises blood pressure.

My own very unscientific experiments with RealSalt brand salt seem to prove the

opposite since everytime my husband or I take some salt about an hour before

getting our blood pressure checked (2x a week when we donate plasma), our blood

pressure is actually lower than when we don't.

Does that make sense to you?

Roxanne

www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheFalcon.html

[Guest guest]

> Now, the question bears asking....why are we told to get our potassium UP

> and our sodium chloride DOWN? Do we crave table salt because we don't get

> enough sodium naturally in our deficient veggies? Would our craving for

> table salt go down if our veggies contained enough NaCl?

In anatomy class we learned that sodium is very important to the body. It plays

a vital role in muscle movement as does potassium, calcium, and magnesium. So,

basically, without sodium, you wouldn't be able to move properly.

The problem is that salt is MEANT to come with a bunch of other minerals, called

trace because we only need a trace amount of them. Most of mainstream medical

wants you to lower your sodium intake because of the THEORY that high blood

pressure is bad, and that sodium raises blood pressure.

My own very unscientific experiments with RealSalt brand salt seem to prove the

opposite since everytime my husband or I take some salt about an hour before

getting our blood pressure checked (2x a week when we donate plasma), our blood

pressure is actually lower than when we don't.

Does that make sense to you?

Roxanne

www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheFalcon.html

[Guest guest]

Roxanne, It makes me think that a lot of research is based on fundamentally

flawed models. There is the tiniest squeak out there that it's not the

sodium but the chloride in salt that is the culprit. I have run across so

much amazing stuff in recent days to suggest that salt supplementation for

livestock just does not do the same job as when Na and K are brought into

some semblance of balance within the forage plants. My numbers are still

shakey but I'm working on it.

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Barb

In anatomy class we learned that sodium is very important to the body. It

plays a vital role in muscle movement as does potassium, calcium, and

magnesium. So, basically, without sodium, you wouldn't be able to move

properly.

The problem is that salt is MEANT to come with a bunch of other minerals,

called trace because we only need a trace amount of them. Most of mainstream

medical wants you to lower your sodium intake because of the THEORY that

high blood pressure is bad, and that sodium raises blood pressure.

My own very unscientific experiments with RealSalt brand salt seem to prove

the opposite since everytime my husband or I take some salt about an hour

before getting our blood pressure checked (2x a week when we donate plasma),

our blood pressure is actually lower than when we don't.

Does that make sense to you?

Roxanne

www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheFalcon.html

[Guest guest]

Roxanne, It makes me think that a lot of research is based on fundamentally

flawed models. There is the tiniest squeak out there that it's not the

sodium but the chloride in salt that is the culprit. I have run across so

much amazing stuff in recent days to suggest that salt supplementation for

livestock just does not do the same job as when Na and K are brought into

some semblance of balance within the forage plants. My numbers are still

shakey but I'm working on it.

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Barb

In anatomy class we learned that sodium is very important to the body. It

plays a vital role in muscle movement as does potassium, calcium, and

magnesium. So, basically, without sodium, you wouldn't be able to move

properly.

The problem is that salt is MEANT to come with a bunch of other minerals,

called trace because we only need a trace amount of them. Most of mainstream

medical wants you to lower your sodium intake because of the THEORY that

high blood pressure is bad, and that sodium raises blood pressure.

My own very unscientific experiments with RealSalt brand salt seem to prove

the opposite since everytime my husband or I take some salt about an hour

before getting our blood pressure checked (2x a week when we donate plasma),

our blood pressure is actually lower than when we don't.

Does that make sense to you?

Roxanne

www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheFalcon.html

[Guest guest]

For you guys that have had salt 'discretions'. How long did it take your BP to

get back to normal?

Thanks

Phyllis