I'm standing up for salt!

OK....So those of you who have worked with me as a trainer, and those of you who have debated with me know that often times I show how this body stuff can be "counter intutive"... The crazy thing is generally those thoughts are on the mark....it works. So here is another example of how things might work if we didn't diddle around with it.

Let me explain.... In a recent eight-year study of people with high blood pressure found that people on low-salt diets had more than FOUR times as many heart attacks as those on normal salt diets.1

Huh? you say, that doesn't make any sense.... again, let me explain.

• Salt maintains the electrolyte balance inside and outside your cells and natural salt contains vital minerals your body needs.
  


• Here are just a few more of the many benefits of salt…
  


• Stimulates salivation and helps to balance and replenishes all of the body’s electrolytes
  


• Provides renewed energy
  


• Gives you a high resistance to infections and bacterial diseases
  


• Supplies all 82 vital trace minerals to promote optimum biological function and cellular maintenance
  


• Balances alkaline/acid levels in the blood
  


• Restores good digestion
  


• The natural iodine in salt protects against radiation and many other pollutants
  


• Aids in relieving allergies and skin diseases
  


• Eliminates toxins in the body to help prevent infection
  

You would think with all the negative press on salt, how could this be? (hint: follow the money.)

When I was in school we were taught that salt causes high blood pressure and you read about the evils of salt everywhere you turned. The reason doesn’t appear to be science but that there’s just not much money in naturally occurring salt compared to proprietary foods and drugs.

There’s a lot of money in altering your food. But here’s the catch – first they have to convince you that the natural food we’ve been eating for eons will kill you – now you have to buy their new-fangled package of modern substitute food.

Even so, when I looked at the results used to justify the "salt is bad" campaign I was confused- now more and more research is coming to the forfront suggesting why salt might not be as bad as we thought in fact it just might be the opposite of what you'd heard.

Here’s a summary:
A health outcomes study in Finland, reported to the American Heart Association, revealed that no health benefits could be identified and concluded “our results do not support the recommendations for entire populations to reduce dietary sodium intake to prevent coronary heart disease.”2

A ten-year follow-up study to a massive Scottish Heart Health Study found no improved health outcomes for those on low-salt diets.3

An October 2007 analysis of a large Dutch database published in the European Journal of Epidemiology documented no benefit of low-salt diets in reducing stroke or heart attack incidence nor lowering death rates.4

But what you need is the real “Salt of the Earth”

Standard table salt is not only highly refined—it’s chemically cleansed and unfriendly to the human body. Unrefined sea salt, on the other hand, is a naturally occurring complex of sodium chloride and a complement of essential trace minerals. This is the form of salt your body is designed to digest—the kind of salt that’s been around since humans first walked the earth. Refined table salt, on the other hand, is a modern invention, artificially designed to look white and pour easily. Your body was never meant to absorb it.

Natural salt is a source of 21 essential and 30 accessory minerals that are essential to our health. That’s why I use sea salt. It’s unrefined and packed with all the trace elements the ancients prized for maintaining health and vigor.
Here are just a few of the key minerals and elements you’ll find in most sea salts:

Chloride
Chloride, along with sodium, regulates the acid/alkali balance in the body. It is also necessary for the production of gastric acid which is a component of hydrochloric acid (HCl).

Iron
Necessary for cell function and blood utilization. It's used to make hemoglobin, which carried oxygen in the blood. Blood loss is the most common cause of iron deficiency.

Sulfur
Found in all cells, especially in skin, connective tissues, and hair. Inadequate dietary sulfur has been associated with skin and nail diseases. Increased intake of dietary sulfur sometimes helps psoriasis and rheumatic conditions.

Calcium
Necessary for the formation and maintenance of bones, blood coagulation, and heart, nerve and muscle function. Calcium depletion can result in a number of symptoms, most notably osteoporosis which results in decreased bone mass and increased chances of bone breakage.

Copper
Copper facilitates in the absorption of iron and supports vitamin C absorption. Copper is also involved in protein synthesis and an important factor in the production of RNA.

Potassium
Stimulates nerve impulses and muscle contractions. It regulates the body’s acid-alkali balance, stimulates kidney and adrenal functioning, and assists in converting glucose to glycogen. It's also important for biosynthesis of protein.

Zinc
Required for growth, immune system function, sexual development and the synthesis of insulin. Proper zinc metabolism is needed for wound healing, and carbohydrate and protein metabolism. It is considered an antibacterial factor in the prostatic fluid, and may contribute to the prevention of chronic bacterial prostatitis and urinary tract infections.

Silicon
Silicon is necessary for normal growth and bone formation. With calcium, silicon is a contributing factor in good skeletal integrity. Silicon is a main component of osteoblasts, the bone forming cells. Silicon may help to maintain youthful skin, hair and nails.

Sodium
Sodium regulates the pH of intracellular fluids and with potassium, regulates the acid/ alkali balance in the body. Sodium and chloride are necessary for maintaining osmosis and electrolyte balance.

Magnesium
An important mineral because it aids in the activation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the main energy source for cell functioning. It also activates several enzyme systems and is important for the synthesis of RNA and DNA. Magnesium is necessary for normal muscle contraction and important for the synthesis of several amino acids.

Cobalt
Cobalt is essential to the formation of vitamin B12

Switching to sea salt is easy to do. You can find it in most supermarkets, health food stores—even on line.

Still worried about Sodium? Bring it into Balance Naturally.

More important then the amount of sodium in your diet is the ratio of sodium to potassium. Recent research suggests this ratio is critical. While many studies have focused on high sodium content in the diet, it appears that problems with hypertension may be related more to an inappropriate ratio of sodium to potassium.

Sodium has a special relationship to potassium. Sodium is the major electrolyte outside the cells, and potassium is the major electrolyte inside the cells. These two elements work together to maintain fluid balance, transmit nerve messages and control muscle contractions. The body monitors the amount of salt and potassium in the bloodstream, as the body has no mechanism for storing electrolytes. When a shortage of either exists, the body secretes hormones that drastically reduce excretion of electrolytes and fluids.

If you’re worried about your sodium levels you can bring them into balance by making sure you get enough potassium in your diet. Potassium helps neutralize the effect of sodium on your blood pressure, lowers your risk for stroke and heart attack, even prevents the bone loss that can lead to osteoporosis. (Notice that sea salt is rich in potassium.)

You can eat many potassium-rich foods but it will do you little good unless you are consuming adequate sodium as well. Your body cannot properly digest raw vegetables without salt. People used to eat a salty soup before a meal to enhance digestion.

Salt re-enriches your saliva so your body can manufacture the proper digestive juices to break down the complex carbohydrates, celluloids and chlorophyll from the vegetables which contain potassium. Without salt no digestion is possible.

Unfortunately, you probably aren’t getting enough potassium through your diet alone. On an average day, the typical man gets about 3,000 mg – women closer to 2,300 mg. For optimum health, the recommend amount is around 5,000 mg of potassium per day.

It’s easier than you think. Most people think bananas are the best source, but you might be surprised. Cantaloupes, raisins and avocados are all rich in potassium.

Here’s a table of potassium-rich foods. Try adding a few of them to your diet…

(click on the graph to make it bigger)

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1 Alderman et al. “Low urinary sodium associated with greater risk of myocardial infarction among treated hypertensive men.” Hypertension. 1995. 25:1144-1152. See hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/6/1144.

2 Valkonen, V-P. “Sodium and potassium excretion and the risk of acute myocardial infarction.” Presented October 15, 1998 to the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Dallas, TX (unpublished).

3 Tunsall-Pedoe. “Comparison by prediction of 27 factors of coronary heart disease and health in men and women of the Scottish heart health study cohort study.” British Medical Journal. 1997. 315:722-729. See Table 6, age-adjusted hazard ratios. Online at bmj.com/cgi/content/full/315/7110/722.

4 Geleijnse, Johanna M., et al. “Sodium and potassium intake and risk of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality: the Rotterdam Study” Sept 28, 2007. Sept 25, 2008. http://www.springerlink.com/content/1032k6374735085u/fulltext.pdf