Hi everyone!
I did not want to keep you waiting too long for the third part of our series about the life-affirming qualities of whole salt. So, I’m back and I think you will be surprised by some of what you learn today. Maybe it will take off some of the pressure you have been feeling about salt, but again, all of this applies only to whole-salt, not ordinary table salt.
Our body is still on the biochemistry auto-program it has been using for most of human evolution. Only in the last 10,000 years has human diet changed and our body is not coping well with the changes.
Our original Paleolithic Diet had approximately seven important characteristics, according to Dr. Mark Hyman, MD. In his book, “Ultrametabolism”, he outlines the work of Dr. Loren Cordain, PhD. who says our natural diet is one that is:
- low glycemic (i.e. not sugary) (sweetness only came periodically from fruit and a little honey, at times)
- high Omega-3 essential fats (from fish, wild plants and game)
- balance of fats, protein and carbohydrates, slowly-absorbed and only as they naturally-occur in foods
- treasure trove of vitamins and minerals from a wide variety of seasonal plants
- alkaline foods centered (plants — leafy vegetables and coconuts — were the mainstay of our diet) which kept our blood from being acidic, a condition which would have killed us
- naturally occurring sodium in foods and from ocean salt; each were in small amounts compared with today’s factory-food
- high fiber content – soluble and unsoluble types – depending on the plants eaten
N. B. I would also add pristine, natural water sources. The quality of our water now is nothing like what we had in Nature. That will be a new discussion, soon.
Meanwhile, we need to learn more about the benefits of whole-salt, while understanding it is a basic, foundational human food.
___ Whole-salt is vital to maintaining the structural integrity of your bones. The minerals supplied by whole-salt are what keeps your bones strong, and lack of these minerals causes bone to weaken and melt-way as osteoporosis. This threatening bone condition is caused daily, by: too little mineralization, too high protein consumption and too little alkaline water.
Bones are 27% alkaline minerals and 22% alkaline water. When your body is too acidic, pH in the blood must be maintained at all costs. So your bones are “robbed” of these vital alkaline minerals to maintain blood pH and our life. A better strategy is to reverse your daily acidity and not let it accumulate to the point of having to rob your bones. Excessive protein intake can add to tissue acidity.
___ Whole-salt is vital to getting a good night’s sleep, as it is a natural hypnotic. Of course, you can help yourself even further by having quiet time for at least the last half-hour before you turn out the light and by having a small, not sugary, snack before bedtime to help your blood sugar stay stable throughout the night. If you still use dairy, then this is the best time to use it. Dairy and other high tryptophan foods help initiate sleep.
___ Whole-salt aids the pancreas to release the alkaline buffering agents you need in the digestive process. Without these alkaline compounds, you could not digest your food at all. A burdened pancreas needs all the help it can get. Whole-salt is also helpful in metabolism by providing the raw materials you need to burn your food for energy inside your cells and thereby keep blood sugar levels normalized in your blood.
___ If you have persistent, dry coughs, try putting a little salt on your tongue to change this. Whole-salt is important in the prevention of the acidic conditions known as gout or gouty arthritis, too.
___ Whole-salt will help prevent spider-veins in the legs or varicose veins. These show weakness in your circulatory system. Pay attention.
___ Whole salt is vital for the proper operation of your salivary system. Saliva is an alkaline substance that starts your digestive process and takes a little of the burden off your pancreas to finish the job, later.
If you have too little whole-salt, you will have an excess of a too-watery form of saliva, almost to the point of drooling, because the saliva must lubricate your alimentary pathway to the stomach.
But, when your salivary glands sense there is too little whole-salt, they start triggering the storage of water in nearby tissues. This produces the famed double-chin (which is really a warning flag that you are deficient not only in salt, but interestingly, that you are dehydrated, too.) So, to reduce a double-chin, normalize your whole-salt and alkaline water or spring-water intake.
___ Whole-salt creates the ability for nerve and brain cells to operate and to communicate for every moment that you are alive.
Make sure that your salt has NO added substances. Aluminum silicates are often added to commercial table-salt to keep them flowing well. I have read that beans and some other foods contain some natural aluminum silicates in ionic form, but I do not know how the ratio of these naturally-occurring ones are in comparison to what is blithely added to salt, in factories, for the sole purpose of keeping it “flowing”. Most forms of aluminum are poisonous to our bodies, so I try not to ingest it as an additive.
I look at over-the-counter medications (check antacids, especially) and I do not apply it to my skin in deodorants. I ask you to please reconsider using it as cookware, too, if you still do. (What we use as the metal in our pots and pans does leach into the food, especially in more acidic type recipes. That is one reason why people use cast-iron, as its metal’s contribution is healthier. Surgical-grade stainless steel is OK, but recycled stainless steel is a mixed bag-of-tricks.)
The perceived “need for free-flowing” is not an issue with whole-salt. Instead, the whole-salts are usually crystalline when purchased. Get a little salt mill, grinder or mortar and pestle to grind the crystals to the fineness you desire at the time of use. This takes a second or two, only. If you want to make a supply of ground whole-salt, then keep it in a simple wooden box where it can adapt to the humidity. In the past, the Grain and Salt Society have carried these boxes (all supply links are in “So, Is Salt Bad For You?” posting below).
I sincerely hope that this will encourage you to find whole-salt offline or online and to respect it for the miracle food it truly is.
Best to all — Em
References:
(c)2007 Em https://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
If you want to use my article or quote from it, please use the complete copyright citation and my website address. Thanks!
This was very interesting, I have never heard of whole salt.
I will give it a try.
I’m just hearing about this type of salt. The one we all really need. I’m upset to think of the table salt we’ve all used all our lives is more than likely the real problem behind Alzheimers, etc etc etc. A real shame that no one changes a problem when found out there is one. What organization does look out for the common good? There will be one in a day not to far off. A government that will do away with cheater and liar’s. That has to be done by God himself. Daniel 2:44 for now I want some of this salt.
I cannot find whole salt offline. Why?
Dear Herman,
You should be able to find “whole salt” labeled as Celtic sea salt and any grey salt from Brittany is whole. Other sea salts may be from acceptable areas, but Mediterranean salts are less ecologically sound.
Regular table salts may be land-based or ocean based, but as they are stripped of their minerals, they are unacceptable. If the label just says “sodium chloride” and / or has minerals to make it free-flowing, that’s NOT acceptable salt.
Thanks for your question.
Best Regards,
Em
What foods have whole-salt ?
Is Tuna or Anchovy one of these foods ?
Where can I get some ?
Thank you and if you can send, please do.
Regards
Robert
Dear Robert,
“Whole salt” is my own term. You won’t find it called this in the marketplace. The healthiest “sea salts” qualify as whole-salt, but not every sea salt is.
Use Google to get the information for Celtic sea salt from the Grain and Salt Society; this is whole-salt. You can get it online from them. Trader Joe’s (if you are in America) has a celtic grey salt which is likely a good salt from Brittany.
The “salt” that manufacturer’s add to foods is rarely a whole-salt; it is usually just sodium chloride (all that remains from whole ocean salt after they have “refined” it). What refining means is they strip-out the valuable minerals whole-ocean-salt contains and sell them, individually, for larger amounts of money to the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and manufacturing sectors.
Regular table-salt is NOT what our bodies need and it is harmful, especially in pre-made deli and factory food quantities.
The salts which NATURALLY occur in foods are generally healthful, but, for example, anchovies are salted-down in the preservation process, so that is NOT naturally-occurring salt! Canned tuna also has added salt which is just sodium chloride.
Just buy the whole, ocean salt from Brittany (“Celtic Sea Salt). Use it sparingly, too, but at least it is pristine and a whole-food.
you say to use the whole salt sparingly, what amount is sparingly? i have had uncontroled dieabetes. got it under
control by basically not eating–that’s a bitch! i’m possibilitity
lined up for a liver transplant. i have hep “C” which caused cirroshes “?” and a cancerous tumor on the the liver.
Shalom, Gary!
To answer your first question, use sea salt (“whole salt”) in a normal way. Food should not taste salty. Aim for no more than 1 teaspoon per person per day, as a TOTAL of any in your own food or commercial food. Realize that “salt” in processed foods will be the “bad” kind, so eating your own homemade food is always best.
But, as you note, you have a lot to deal with at the moment. I hope that there is someone who can help you, especially with meals.
I don’t know which hemisphere you are in. If it is summer, then be sure to eat LOTS of fresh, mostly raw, fruits and vegetables as at least 80% of your food and only an alkaline water or pure spring water (at least 64 oz. a day).
If it is winter where you are, keep up a wide variety of vegetables, lightly steamed, and some salads, as the bulk of the 80%. Have very few fruits and then only the most alkaline like persimmon, papaya, pineapple and mango.
I have no idea how much you can afford for food, but understanding that you must regain your alkaline pH, IN YOUR TISSUES, is critical and there are many articles in my archive where you can learn more.
Some foods which produce alkaline pH are not expensive.
Regardless of season, I would be using seaweed, sea vegetables, sea salt and organic sprouts as part of every meal. These are very alkaline pH producing. If you are on blood-thinners, then discuss using seaweed with your physician so they can recalibrate your doses, as seaweed is Nature’s blood-thinner, as well as Mega-Mineral supplier
Other alkaline foods are: fresh lemon and lime, quinoa, umbeoshi plums (Eden Brand), pumpkin seeds, sweet potato, daikon icicle radish, burdock root (also helps to detoxify), watermelon (always eat all melons away from other foods by 20 minutes), raspberry, tangerine, grapefruit (if your meds allow) and nectarine.
More alkaline foods: use cinnamon (also helps with diabetes), poppy seed, cashews, garlic, kohlrabi, asparagus, kale, parsley, endive, ginger root, broccoli (unless thyroid problems), broccoli sprouts (regardless), potatoes (must eat skins), pumpkin, avocado, apple (with skin – must be organic), olive and berries.
Use olive oil and hemp oil (no cooking) to get your critical essential Omega-3 fats, along with organic walnuts.
Soak almonds in water overnight and slip-off skins. Air dry and use. Sprinkle on hemp seeds and sesame seeds every chance you get, for vegetarian protein. Try to stay vegetarian, unless you are Blood Type O (in which case have a few meals a week of organic, free-range, grass-fed animals, only).
Do not use dairy. Use dark green leafy vegetables, instead, to get your calcium.
Stay away from other grains; they acidify.
Get a properly-trained naturopathic physician (write back if you need to know how to judge that) or a holistic MD, who incorporates nutritional therapy and other alternative medical therapies.
Discuss with your physician about using Milk Thistle to support your liver.
DO EAT. You body needs to be able to repair itself. Diabetes and cancer and all other dis-ease has the SAME root — cells which are too pH acid and which cannot release their toxins fast enough or well enough or both.
As for the Hep. C, the bacterium can only live in a pH acidic tissue. Get alkaline, then you can’t be a “host”. But, any liver damage it caused, needs guided nutrition to heal.
In a debilitated state, people often do well on juices, but they must be vegetable juices! For a diabetic, fruit juice is an absolute no-no, especially when ill.
If you cannot afford the spring or alkaline waters, Dr. Batmanghelij, MD recommended a tiny pinch of sea salt per quart of water. No tap water will ever equate molecular-structure wise with spring water, but at least by adding the sea salt, you will have better pH water. Tap water is usually pH acidic, otherwise.
There are MANY alternative medical therapies to use on cancer. And, your liver may still have a lot of its innate regenerative capacity. Read more about the work of Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, MD in New York City; The Gerson Institute in Southern California; Dr. Stephan Ripich, ND in Sante Fe, New Mexico; Dr. Robert Rowen MD in Santa Rosa, California, Dr. Carol McMakin DC Vancouver, Washington, Master Chun Li, Minneapolis Minnesota (and Mayo Clinic) Silver Forest Chi Gung. And I know more.
If you are overseas, then do comparable research. In Germany and Switzerland, especially, there are good alternative physicians (I can mention a few). In Australia I can mention Dr. (Sandra?)Cabot, MD – famed alternative liver specialist.
I hope this helps. Please keep us updated. L’Chaim!
Em
This is so informative. Thanks for sharing it. A small note to say that I asked at Trader Joe’s today about Celtic salt, and was told that they no longer carry it. I found something else at a different store (“Real Sea Salt”) which should be an improvement for now, but I will keep looking for what you describe.
I think the closest commercial term for “whole sale” is “pink sea salt”. These salts vary in color but are not white. I found a source online for Himalayan sea salt that is nothing but the mined salt from an ancient sea bed.