Today's Daily Health Tip



Salt: Refined or Unrefined?
by Baseline of Health Staff

In today's market, we now have two distinct choices when it comes to salt: unrefined and refined. Unrefined salt (sea salt) is 97.5% sodium chloride (with up to 14% of that being moisture content in some brands) and 2.5% consisting of some 50+ other trace minerals.

Refined salt is also 97.5% sodium chloride, but the other 2.5% no longer consists of trace minerals, but rather, chemical additives.


Unrefined salt is at heart sea salt, but can come from two sources: either freshly dried from the sea, as in Celtic Sea Salt, or mined from ancient inland ocean beds as in the Himalayan Salt and Real Salt brands. In either case, the salt is a naturally occurring complex of sodium chloride, major minerals such as calcium and magnesium, and a complete complement of essential trace minerals. This is the form of salt the body recognizes and is designed to use.

Refined salt, on the other hand, is a manmade creation of the last century that contains anti-caking chemicals and added iodine. Iodine was added for people who lived inland and at one time did not benefit from natural iodine found in seafood. Truth be told, all refined table salt is actually sea salt at heart, either refined from the sea or found in salt mines created by ancient seabed deposits known as halite. Refined salt is processed at high temperatures, altering the molecular structure of the salt and removing the beneficial trace minerals. The human body doesn't like it.

Unfortunately, you can't rely on fruits and vegetables any more for your trace minerals: they just don't contain them. Even organic fruits and vegetables are largely deficient, unless the grower goes to the extra expense of remineralizing the soil. In the end, you have to supplement either with unrefined sea salt or with a trace mineral supplement. Of course, we can all agree on one thing: a healthy diet is a diet in moderation.

Refined salt addiction is perhaps as prevalent and subtly dangerous in modern society as drug addiction, poor diet, and a sedentary lifestyle. Excess refined salt increases appetite and decreases bone density. The bottom line is unrefined natural sea salt is as essential to life as oxygen, water, vitamins, proteins and essential fats -- in conscious moderation of course. The health benefits of unrefined salt must not be overlooked based on an overgeneralization in salt guidelines.

Not all sources of sodium and salt are the same. As far as the body is concerned, there is no connection between the chemically-cleansed sodium chloride table salt you buy in the supermarket (which is also added to virtually every processed food you buy) and the mineral rich organic unrefined sea salt available in health food stores. One can kill you; the other heals you. In fact, it's essential for life.

Of course, everyone can agree that just like anything else, salt or sodium should not be consumed in excess. (But then again, that's true of water and oxygen as well.) Which brings us back to why the AMA came out with a warning at all: Americans are consuming ever higher amounts of sodium, up to 6,000 milligrams a day, instead of the recommended 500 to 2,000 milligrams per day. These high amounts, in a form that is unfriendly to the human body and with no ancillary trace mineral benefits, are what lead to serious health problems. However, this is not necessarily the heart of the debate.

The issue is that the AMA is against all forms of salt, a broad-brush condemnation designed more for media sound bites than to truly advance the cause of health.

This is a point echoed in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration article "A Pinch of Controversy Shakes Up Dietary Salt":

"Now modern technology has made salt readily available and at a price almost anyone can afford. As a result, many of us take salt and its merits for granted. But scientists keep salt in the news by debating its role in a healthful diet. At times, discussion and controversy threaten to obscure salt's importance and to confuse thoughtful consumers."

So let's examine the true nature of salt to gain an understanding of how different types of salt act in our bodies. And let's also examine some real health issues connected with salt; and finally, let's talk about how to choose and balance salt in your diet.


Brief History of Humans and Salt



"Worth its weight in gold" is an expression that served well for salt in ancient times. The history of salt is sprinkled with piracy, war, economics, religion, and health. In fact, the next time you contemplate your current salary, consider that the very word "salary" is derived from the Latin word sal because Romans often received their pay in salt. If this is hard to accept, consider that during the Age of Discovery, Africans and European explorers traded an ounce of salt for an ounce of gold -- even-steven. Around 110 BC, salt trade was so valued that salt piracy was punishable by death. And Mahatma Gandhi even used salt as major leverage against the British Empire in 1930 when he led thousands of people to the sea to collect their own salt in order to avoid the salt tax imposed by the British.


The Importance of Salt

One point everyone can agree on is that the body needs sodium chloride to function.
If we look at the big picture for a moment, we can recognize that:

• A human embryo develops in salty amniotic fluid.
• Our developed human bodies possess three distinct fluid systems - blood plasma, lymphatic fluid, and extracellular fluid -- all salty fluids.
• As a main component of the body's extra-cellular fluids, salt helps carry nutrients into the cells. It also helps regulate other body functions, such as blood pressure and fluid volume, and works on the lining of blood vessels to keep the pressure balance normal. The concentration of sodium ions in the blood is directly related to the regulation of safe body-fluid levels.
• 0.9% sodium chloride in water is isotonic with blood plasma. It is known medically as normal saline. It is the mainstay of fluid replacement therapy that is widely used in medicine in prevention or treatment of dehydration, or as an intravenous therapy to prevent hypovolemic shock due to blood loss.
• The propagation of nerve impulses by signal transduction is regulated by sodium ions. (Potassium, another metal closely related to sodium, is also a major component in the same body systems).
• Sodium is an energy carrier. It is also responsible for sending messages from the brain to muscles through the nervous system so that muscles move on command. When you want to move your arm or any muscle in the body, the brain sends a message to a sodium molecule that passes it to a potassium molecule and then back to a sodium molecule etc., etc., until it gets to its final destination and the muscle moves. This is known as the sodium-potassium ion exchange. Therefore, without sodium, you would never be able to move one muscle of your body.

Salt VS Sodium



Although the words salt and sodium are often used interchangeably when it comes to nutrition, they are not the same. Salt is sodium chloride (NaCl) and Sodium (Na) is, well, just sodium -- a soft metal occurring in isolation only on the periodic table of elements or in a lab.

While it is correct to say that our bodies need sodium, nature has not designed sodium as a solo player but offers it in a complex consisting of natural salt and essential trace minerals, as well as providing it in a variety of foods. Some foods naturally high in sodium/salt are fish, eggs, nuts, prawns, crabs, lobsters and seaweed (Note: all of these natural sources of salt are also natural sources of iodine.) Other naturally occurring sources of sodium (although not quite as high) are celery, carrots, cauliflower, pineapples, jackfruits, and even fresh cow's milk. And then, of course, there is pure, natural unrefined salt -- the salt once worth it's weight in gold and the focus of this newsletter.

So, with all these great natural sources of sodium, why do we have refined table salt?
Good question.


A Modern Misconception about Salt

Much like the story of refined flour it seems to come down to aesthetics and economics.

• Unrefined salt tends to be off-white or gray in color, whereas refined table salt is bright white. It's prettier.
• Unrefined table salt tends to clump in the presence of moisture and be unusable in shakers. As for table salt, what's the slogan for Morton® Salt? "When it rains, it pours."
• Since unrefined table salt tends to clump in the presence of moisture, grocers and suppliers have to eat the cost of salt that has to be pulled from shelves when it becomes unsellable. Not so with refined salt that doesn't clump. In other words, refined salt is more profitable.
• Refined table salt has added iodine to make up for the nutrients lost in refining.
As a point of comparison, here's the story of white flour.
• White flour is "prettier" than brown flour, aesthetically more appealing.
• White flour bakes lighter in texture because it has no bran.
• White flour doesn't spoil because all the beneficial oils have been removed, which means it lasts far longer on the grocer's shelf than whole wheat flour. Again, economically more profitable.
• White flour is "enriched" to put back a small amount of the nutrients lost in refining.
• And white flour products are now getting added fiber (sawdust in some cases) and essential fatty acids to improve their nutritional profile.

Salt and flour have suffered the same fate. The process of turning naturally occurring non-white salt into the white-powdery-easily poured table salt involves a distinct trade-off between health and aesthetics/profitability.

And there's one other financial reason for the dominance of refined salt in the market. Only 7% of salt goes for food; the other 93% goes to industry. Industry requires chemically pure sodium chloride for manufacture of explosives, chlorine gas, soda, fertilizers and plastics. In effect, table salt represents a "cheap" production overrun.


Two Salts

In today's market, we now have two distinct choices when it comes to salt: unrefined and refined. Unrefined salt (sea salt) is 97.5% sodium chloride (with up to 14% of that being moisture content in some brands) and 2.5% consisting of some 50+ other trace minerals. Refined salt is also 97.5% sodium chloride, but the other 2.5% no longer consists of trace minerals, but rather, chemical additives.



Unrefined salt is at heart sea salt, but can come from two sources: either freshly dried from the sea, as in Celtic Sea Salt, or mined from ancient inland ocean beds as in the Himalayan Salt and RealSalt brands. In either case, the salt is a naturally occurring complex of sodium chloride, major minerals such as calcium and magnesium, and a complete complement of essential trace minerals. This is the form of salt the body recognizes and is designed to use.

(Note: a case can be made that mined salt is actually purer than fresh ocean water salt since the inland beds, unlike ocean water, have been sealed off from all pollution -- particularly manmade -- for millions of years.)

Note: much of the salt labeled "sea salt" is actually refined table salt unless the package is clearly labeled "unrefined." (This is also true for Kosher salt!)

Refined salt, on the other hand, is a manmade creation of the last century that contains anti-caking chemicals (with very important health consequences as we shall see in a minute) and added iodine.

Iodine was added for people who lived inland and at one time did not benefit from natural iodine found in seafood. Truth be told, all refined table salt is actually sea salt at heart, either refined from the sea (brine sourced) or found in salt mines created by ancient seabed deposits known as halite. Refined salt is processed at high temperatures altering the molecular structure of the salt (not good) and removing the beneficial trace minerals. The human body doesn't like it.

Refined and unrefined salt act and react differently in our bodies.


Fundamental differences

Unrefined sea salt

• Natural salt is a prime condiment that stimulates salivation and helps to balance and replenish all of the body's electrolytes.
• The natural iodine in these salts protects against radiation, atomic fallout, and many other pollutants.
• Unrefined sea salt supplies all 92 vital trace minerals, thereby promoting optimum biological function and cellular maintenance:
• Here is a partial list of the minerals found in unrefined salt and their function in human metabolism:
• Sodium: Essential to digestion and metabolism, regulates body fluids, nerve and muscular functions.
• Chlorine: Essential component of human body fluids.
• Calcium: Needed for bone mineralization.
• Magnesium: Dissipates sodium excess, forms and hardens bones, ensures mental development and sharpens intelligence, promotes assimilation of carbohydrates, assures metabolism of vitamin C and calcium, retards the aging process and dissolves kidney stones.
• Sulfur: Controls energy transfer in tissue, bone and cartilage cells, essential for protein compounds.
• Silicon: Needed in carbon metabolism and for skin and hair balance.
• Iodine: Vital for energy production and mental development, ensures production of thyroid hormones, needed for strong auto-defense mechanism (lymphatic system).
• Bromine: In magnesium bromide form, a nervous system regulator and restorer, vital for pituitary hormonal function.
• Phosphorus: Essential for biochemical synthesis and nerve cell functions related to the brain, constituent of phosphoproteins, nucleoproteins and phospholipids.
• Vanadium: Of greater value for tooth bone calcification than fluoride, tones cardiac and nervous systems, reduces cholesterol, regulates phospholipids in blood, and a catalyst for the oxidation of many biological substances.
Refined table salt
• Inorganic sodium chloride upsets your fluid balance and constantly overburdens your elimination systems, which can impair your health.
• When your body tries to isolate the overdose of refined salt you typically expose it to, water molecules must surround the sodium chloride molecules to break them up into sodium and chloride ions in order to help your body neutralize them. To accomplish this, water is taken from your cells, and you have to sacrifice the water stored in your cells in order to neutralize the unnatural sodium chloride.
• This results in dehydrated cells that die prematurely.
• Refined table salt contains added iodine, which may indeed have helped eliminate the incidence of endemic goiter, but has conversely increased the incidence of hypothyroidism.
• Refined table salt lacks all trace minerals.
• Refined salt contains anticaking agents such as ferrocyanide, yellow prussiate of soda, tricalcium phosphate, alumine-calcium silicate, sodium aluminosilicate. All work by preventing the salt from mixing with water, both inside the box and inside the human body. This prevents the salt from doing one of its important functions in the organism: regulating hydration.
The problem of excess salt in the diet
Salt and Water
• Fish survive by excreting large amounts of salt through their gills. Humans excrete salt through their kidneys. But there is only so much salt that can be urinated away, and salt-sensitive individuals excrete less sodium than normal.
• Potassium neutralizes the negative effects of sodium. The more potassium you have in your diet, the more sodium you can have without any negeative health consequences. Not surprsingly, natural sources of unrefined salt contain postassium; whereas refined salt does not.
• If the body can't reduce the salt, the next best way to hit the right level is to increase the amount of water. This causes the body's extremities to swell up.
• If you're not drinking enough water, the body finds the extra water it needs by robbing its own cells. In extreme cases, neurons shrink and begin to stretch; brain and spinal membranes may begin hemorrhaging. The brain shrinks. Too high a concentration of salt in the body can lead to irritability, muscle twitching, seizures, brain damage, coma, and sometimes death. Usually, though, the results aren't quite so drastic.
• Dr. Myron Weinberger, an Indiana University medical school professor who authored the salt sensitivity study, says that given the "horrendous excess of salt that we end up with every day," some individuals can't get rid of it all, especially those born with subtle kidney problems that may go undiagnosed. Part of the problem is the chemical attraction between sodium and water.
• Hypertension
• High levels of sodium in the diet combined with low water consumption leads to hypertension. "Every grain of salt that is retained in the body carries with it 20 times its weight in water which increases the (amount of) fluid in circulation," Weinberger said. "If you think of the blood vessels as piping, as you push more fluid in them, then the pressure goes up."



Conclusion:

Choosing and balancing salt in your diet.

Unfortunately, you can't rely on fruits and vegetables any more for your trace minerals: they just don't contain them. Even organic fruits and vegetables are largely deficient, unless the grower goes to the extra expense of remineralizing the soil. In the end, you have to supplement either with unrefined sea salt or with a trace mineral supplement. Of course, we can all agree on one thing: a healthy diet is a diet in moderation.

Unfortunately, refined salt addiction is perhaps as prevalent and subtly dangerous in modern society as drug addiction, poor diet, and a sedentary lifestyle. Excess refined salt increases appetite and decreases bone density. Hmmm!

The bottom line is unrefined natural sea salt is as essential to life as oxygen, water, vitamins, proteins and essential fats -- in conscious moderation of course. The health benefits of unrefined salt must not be overlooked based on an overgeneralization in salt guidelines.


In that light, I recommend:

• Use unrefined sea salt (RealSalt, Himalayan, Celtic, etc.) instead of refined table salt.
• Use it in moderation.
• Read labels and back way down on sodium in packaged foods.
• Minimize fast food consumption since most fast food is off the charts when it comes to sodium.
• Avoid salt-based household soft-water systems. They can significantly increase the sodium levels in your body.
• Hydrate sufficiently (but not to excess).
• Keep your kidneys functioning properly. Twice a year (more often if you have kidney problems) use a bottle of chanca piedra or a kidney flush formula.

Addendum 28 Sept 2011
A study released in July of 2011 and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine strongly reinforces Jon Barron's position that the major problem with sodium intake is not with the sodium itself, but with the sodium/potassium ration in the body. Balancing out higher intakes of sodium with higher intakes of potassium is likely to negate any negative effects.1 And in fact, reducing your consumption of sodium too much may have negative health consequences.

Salts that Heal and Salts that Kill

Unrefined Ocean Sea Salt versus Refined Salt - Table Salt

NaCl (98%) + 80 elements(2%) - versus - pure NaCl (99.9%)


Ocean water is currently an average of 3.5% (by weight) percent dry matter. Dry ocean salt is composed of 80 elements - minerals.

Salt is an essence of Life.
Natural Salt is an essential element in the diet of not only humans but of animals, and even of many plants.

Use of natural salt is as old as human history. Natural Salt is one of the most effective and most widely used of all food seasonings and natural preservatives.

Natural salt is a source of 21 essential and 30 accessory minerals that are essential to our health.

According to some sources, other elements are up to 5% of dry ocean salt.

Refined salt contain only 0.1 - 0.5% other elements.


The salt flats of Guérande, one of France's National Treasures.

Unrefined sea salt contain 98.0 % NaCl (sodium-chloride) and up to 2.0% other minerals (salts) : Epsom salts and other Magnesium salts, Calcium salts, Potassium (Kalium) salts, Manganese salts, Phosphorus salts, Iodine salts, .. all together over 100 minerals composed of 80 chemical elements... Composition of crystal of ocean salt is so complicated that no laboratory in the world can produce it from its basic 80 chemical elements.


Nature is still better chemist than people.
This salt has been used since begining of life, by ocean plants, by animals and by people
(Percentage is referring to the percentage of dry matter. Salt can contain high percentage of water.)



Refined salt (Table Salt) is 99.9% NaCl (sodium-chloride), (chemical as clean as Heroin or White Sugar) . It almost always contain additives, like 0.01% of Potassium-Iodide (added to the salt to avoid Iodine deficiency disease of thyroid gland), Sugar (added to stabilize Iodine and as anti-caking chemical), Aluminum silicate.



Read here: What kind of additives are in food grade salt?
Refined (table) salt is used last 50-100 years (depend of the country).



Beware of "Sea salt" Labels

On the labels of many packaged food, in supermarkets as well as health food stores the name "sea salt" appears often. Reading this, we feel safe and reassured, thinking that when it comes to the salt part of the ingredients, all is fine...

But All Is Not Fine!

This supermarket or health food store "sea salt" has been totally refined. At its origin, it may have come from the sea, but:

1. It has been harvested mechanically from dirt or concrete basins with bulldozers and piped through metal conduits;
2. put through many degrading artificial processes;
3. heated under extreme heat levels in order to crack its molecular structure;
4. robbed of all of its essential minerals that are essential to our physiology;
These elements are extracted and sold separately to industry. Precious and highly prized by the salt refiners, these bring more profits than the salt itself.
5. further adulterated by chemical additives to make it free- flowing, bleached, and iodized.

To call what remains "sea salt" would be quite misleading.

In addition, harmful chemicals have been added to the processed, altered unnatural substance to mask and cover up all of the impurities it has. These added chemicals include free flowing agents, inorganic iodine, plus dextrose and bleaching agents.

Standard salt additives: Potassium-Iodide (added to the salt to avoid Iodine deficiency disease of thyroid gland), Sugar (added to stabilize Iodine and as anti-caking chemical), Aluminum silicate.


NaCl Crystal
Use of unrefined sea salt is as old as human history



Use of salt is as old as human history. Oldest records come from China. Some 2,700 years B.C.-about 4,700 years ago-there was published in China the PENG-TZAO-KAN-MU. A major portion of this writing discussing of more than 40 kinds of salt, including descriptions of two methods of extracting salt and putting it in usable form that are amazingly similar to processes used today.


How is Ocean Sea Salt Produced?

The ocean is allowed to flood huge, flat, shallow, beds and then the dam is closed to trap the water. The water is then naturally evaporated by the sun & this leaves a layer of sea salt. Dirty brown salt is on the bottom and pretty white salt at the top.

Since most people are used to white salt, they just skim off the top white salt & call it "sea salt". UNFORTUNATELY, the trace minerals are mostly in the brown stuff at the bottom.

Real Ocean Sea Salt is produced from unseparated salt. That is why it is slightly darker.

Celtic Salt, Muramoto Salt and Lima Salt contain also darker salt.

When producing table salt, other mineral salts are used for chemical industry, or are washed back into the sea, or are used for animals. If we humans just could eat as good as animals!?

Natural salt is not white and it is not dry. It is a little gray with minerals and feels damp or clumps in humidity.


How is Mineral Salt Produced?

Mineral salt is mined from thousands of feet below the ground surface in areas where there is a layer of mineral salts.

Mineral salt can also be harvested by pumping water deep underground in areas where layer of salt is discovered. Salty water that comes out, is then used in salt production. Process is called vacuum pan salt refining.


Origin of Salt Layers

There are two theories. One says that mineral salt is layer of salt created after evaporation of old seas. According to other theory, layer of mineral salt was created by chemical reaction.

Mineral salt is often in crystal form. It is transparent crystal, or light tan in color with little darker flecks. But, it can also be of many different colors. Not all mineral salts are rich in trace elements. Some are similar to ocean salt, other are not.

If you ask me, I prefer Ocean salt.

Salt Intake is Vital

Salt is a vital substance for the survival of all living creatures, particularly humans. Water and salt regulate the water content of the body. Water itself regulates the water content of the interior of the cell by working its way into all of the cells it reaches. It has to get there to cleanse and extract the toxic wastes of cell metabolisms. Salt forces some water to stay outside the cells. It balances the amount of water that stays outside the cells. There are two oceans of water in the body; one ocean is held inside the cells of the body, and the other ocean is held outside the cells. Good health depends on a most delicate balance between the volume of these oceans, and this balance is achieved by salt - unrefined salt.

When water is available to get inside the cells freely, it is filtered from the outside salty ocean and injected into the cells that are being overworked despite their water shortage. This is the reason why in severe dehydration we develop an edema and retain water. The design of our bodies is such that the extent of the ocean of water outside the cells is expanded to have the extra water available for filtration and emergency injection into vital cells. The brain commands an increase in salt and water retention by the kidneys. This is how we get an edema when we don't drink enough water.

Initially, the process of water filtration and its delivery into the cells is more efficient at night when the body is horizontal. The collected water, that mostly pools in the legs, does not have to fight the force of gravity to get onto the blood circulation. If reliance of this process of emergency hydration of some cells continues for long, the lungs begin to get waterlogged at night, and breathing becomes difficult. The person needs more pillows to sit upright to sleep. This condition is the consequence of dehydration. However, you might overload the system by drinking too much water at the beginning. Increases in water intake must be slow and spread out until urine production begins to increase at the same rate that you drink water.

When we drink enough water to pass clear urine, we also pass out a lot of the salt that was held back. This is how we can get rid of edema fluid in the body; by drinking more water.

Not diuretics, but more water!! In people who have an extensive edema and show signs of their heart beginning to have irregular or very rapid beats with least effort, the increase in water intake should be gradual and spaced out, but not withheld from the body. Naturally, salt intake should be limited for two or three days because the body is still in an overdrive mode to retain it. Once the edema has cleared up, salt should not be withheld from the body.

Salt has many other functions than just regulating the water content of the body.


Seasalt’s Hidden Powers

The following information is from "Seasalt’s Hidden Powers" . You should get your hands on this book and the entire family should be educated on the facts of life.

The late French scientist Dr. Alexis Carrel kept a chicken heart alive for over 27 years by having the pulsating heart IN A SOLUTION OF SEA SALT, i.e. isotonic seawater. Dr. Carrel voluntarily ended the experiment after a third of a century, having proven that living cells can have physical immortality.

Professor C. Louis Kervran with his scientific research and formulas has been an asset to the scientific establishment and he was a candidate for the Noble Prize. Professor Kervran links us to the secret of immortality and reveals its prime source is trace minerals from seawater [and used in] remedies. Other physicians continued research and found fermentations of briny salt pickles, salted sour plums, and other salty fermentations to be powerful and effective medicines.

Dr. Jacques de Langre, Ph.D., who wrote the book "Seasalt’s Hidden Powers", states that naturally and properly sunshine-preserved sea salt is the difference between life and death, health and illness, social sanity and planetary panic and its elements are vital for proper body functions. That natural hand-harvested Celtic ocean salt alone helps to maintain life, neutralizes toxins and detrimental bacteria, and enhances all our organic function.

Sea salt contain 92 essential minerals and most all refined adulterated sea salts contain only 2 elements (Na and Cl. Biologically, 24 of these elements in real sea salt have already been proven necessary and essential to maintain and recover health. See Scientific American, July 1972: "The Chemical Elements of Life," by Earl Friden.

When dietary deficiency of trace elements occurs, cells lose the ability to control their ions—with dire consequences for humans. Even a minute loss of ion equilibrium causes cells to burst, nervous disorder, brain damage, or muscle spasms, as well as a breakdown of the cell-regenerating process and growth.

In the theory of acid and alkaline balance, chronic disease such as cancer is caused by the acidification of the blood, lymph and all cellular tissues. Real sea salt is one of the basic elements necessary part to correct this problem.

Natural sea salt [reconstituted seawater] 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. Refined salt does not allow this free-crossing of liquids and minerals, and causes accumulated fluids to stagnate in joint, producing edema and chronic kidney problems.

Salt is the single element required for the proper breakdown of plant carbohydrates into useable and assimiable human food. Only when salt is added to fruits and vegetables can saliva and gastric secretions readily break down the fibrous store of carbohydrates, etc.

Once salt is dissolved and ionized, the salt possesses a definite reactivity, has full electromagnetic capabilities, and passes more easily into the large colon where it will have a sanitizing effect.

Table Salt: To further prevent any moisture from being reabsorbed, the salt refiners add aluminosilicate of sodium or yellow prussiate of soda as desiccants plus different bleaches to the final salt formula. After these processes, the table salt will no longer combine with human body fluids, it invariably causes severe problems of edema (water retention) and several other health disturbances.

In ancient Celts times, salt was used to treat major physical and mental disturbances, severe burns, and other ailments. Today biologists attest that seawater (also called 'mother liquor') restores hydro-electrolytic imbalances, a disorder that causes loss of immune response, creates allergies, and causes many health problems. Also the therapeutic effect of seawater is recognized and used by the best European medical professionals because of its effectiveness in so many situations.

Today people fear salt and we are witnessing a virtual ban on consuming products with high sodium contents and this is a major concern of biologists. The use of real sea salt-free diets are showing up in the reality of our modern world as society is coming apart. It is basically a starvation of macro- and trace minerals and biological deficiencies cannot be corrected by refined sodium chloride alone.

Celtic salt is a good product because it is naturally extracted by the use of sunshine. If one would re-dissolve salt in water in the proper ratio or combine it in the moisture of foods, its properties re-create the amazing powers of the "ocean" and bears an astonishing likeness to human blood and body fluids. During World War II, Navy doctors would use sea salt water for blood transfusions when blood supplies ran out and many lives were saved.


History

Dr. Langre mentions in his book that, "The Belgian historian Henri Pirenne observed that during the High Middle ages, the entire coast of the Atlantic was deserted and the entire continent was thrown into a Dark Age of human under-development. Historians tell us that it was caused to a great extent by the lack of salt in the human diet, the flooding of all salt flats having disabled every salt farm along the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The whole of Europe, therefore, suffered from a salt famine that was to last almost 500 years. The daily average ration fell to less than 2 grams per person and caused may to die from dehydration and madness. The extent of the salt famine reported by Henri Pirenne caused human flesh to be sold on the open-air markets and created an epidemic of crazed people who, to replenish their salt, drank blood from the neck artery of the person they had just slain. Quick to exploit this desperate situation for their own gain, the rulers of Europe grabbed the remnants of the salt stock and exacted exorbitant salt taxes.

Heavily burdened by tariffs and gabelles, common salt became a luxury but also caused mass population shifts and exodus, lured invaders and caused wars. Mined salt from the depths of the earth was substituted, but the lack of live and balanced trace elements in rock salt lowered the mental equilibrium and intellect level almost as much as the sheer absence of salt."


Sea Salt Directions

Dr. Langre, Ph.D. writes that, "Rare gases are locked within real sea crystals and began to release in contact of additional moisture and is effective in maintaining and restoring human energy. Note that Celtic salt should not be ground until used because as it is milled the salt releases a subtle fragrance reminiscent of violets, another telltale sign that gases, floral-like vital essences, are being released. Note that these elements are easily trapped and stored in a preparation called sesame salt and a recipe is given in the Seasalt’s Hidden Powers.

Real sea salt needs to be stored in an air tight container and kept in a dark cool place. The moisture has a tendency to settle to the bottom of the salt and the salt should be mixed before removing the salt for sure.

Real sea salt need to penetrate foods allowing the moisture of the fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. to liquefy the salt which activates it. If dry salt is used it enters the body in a non-ionized form and can creates thirst (a sign of being poisoned) and lessens its abilities because it is not being assimilated and utilized properly.

Sea water losses its properties of destroying bacilli if stored in bottles and when dries out.
A pinch of salt can be added to a small amount of water to dissolve to activate its powers and added to fruits, vegetables, grains to aid in better digestion of those items while helping to alkalize the body. Adding a pinch to water supplies adds alkaline properties and the mineral content. The minerals it contains are too valuable to ignore.


"Water: Rx for a Healthier Pain-Free Life".

Vital Functions of Salt in the Body

1. Salt is most effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeats and, Contrary to the misconception that it causes high blood pressure, it is actually essential for the regulation of blood pressure - in conjunction with water. Naturally the proportions are critical.

2. Salt is vital to the extraction of excess acidity from the cells in the body, particularly the brain cells.

3. Salt is vital for balancing the sugar levels in the blood; a needed element in diabetics.

4. Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in the body. It is used for local power generation at the sites of energy need by the cells.

5. Salt is vital to the nerve cells' communication and information processing all the time that the brain cells work, from the moment of conception to death.

6. Salt is vital for absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract.

7. Salt is vital for the clearance of the lungs of mucus plugs and sticky phlegm, particularly in asthma and cystic fibrosis.

8. Salt is vital for clearing up catarrh and congestion of the sinuses.

9. Salt is a strong natural antihistamine.

10. Salt is essential for the prevention of muscle cramps.

11. Salt is vital to prevent excess saliva production to the point that it flows out of the mouth during sleep. Needing to constantly mop up excess saliva indicates salt shortage.

12. Salt is absolutely vital to making the structure of bones firm. Osteoporosis, in a major way, is a result of salt and water shortage in the body.

13. Salt is vital for sleep regulation. It is a natural hypnotic.

14. Salt is a vitally needed element in the treatment of diabetics.

15. Salt on the tongue will stop persistent dry coughs.

16. Salt is vital for the prevention of gout and gouty arthritis.

17. Salt is vital for maintaining sexuality and libido.

18. Salt is vital for preventing varicose veins and spider veins on the legs and thighs.

19. Salt is vital to the communication and information processing nerve cells the entire time that the brain cells work - from the moment of conception to death.

20. Salt is vital for reducing a double chin. When the body is short of salt, it means the body really is short of water. The salivary glands sense the salt shortage and are obliged to produce more saliva to lubricate the act of chewing and swallowing and also to supply the stomach with water that it needs for breaking down foods. Circulation to the salivary glands increases and the blood vessels become "leaky" in order to supply the glands with water to manufacture saliva. The "leakiness" spills beyond the area of the glands themselves, causing increased bulk under the skin of the chin, the cheeks and into the neck.

21. Sea salt contains about 80 mineral elements that the body needs. Some of these elements are needed in trace amounts. Unrefined sea salt is a better choice of salt than other types of salt on the market. Ordinary table salt that is bought in the super markets has been stripped of its companion elements and contains additive elements such as aluminum silicate to keep it powdery and porous. Aluminum is a very toxic element in our nervous system. It is implicated as one of the primary causes of Alzheimer's disease.

22. Twenty-seven percent of the body's salt is in the bones. Osteoporosis results when the body needs more salt and takes it from the body. Bones are twenty-two percent water. Is it not obvious what happens to the bones when we're deficient in salt or water or both.

* The information on salt intake is taken from Dr. Batmanghelidj's book, "Water: Rx for a Healthier Pain-Free Life".


80 Elements dicovered in Sea Water

People who eat Refined salt develop craving for salt, because, salt that they eat is not satisfying their needs. Than they use more and more salt, in the desperate try to get what they need. Taking big amounts of refined salt (chemical) burden kidneys and adrenal glands that are very important for calcium utilization. Modern physiology has demonstrated that an excess of salt interferes with the absorption of nutrients and depletes calcium, while if used in a moderate doses, salt enhances calcium absorption and nutrient utilization in general.

It is known that absorption of calcium depends on the health of the kidney-adrenal function and that calcium metabolism is of essential importance for the health of the nerves, muscles, heart, vascular system, and bones. Simply. the whole body is dependant on Calcium uptake.


Low-Salt Diet a Risk?

London, March 12 - A low-salt diet may not be so healthy after all. Defying a generation of health advice, a controversial new study concludes that the less salt people eat, the higher their risk of untimely death.

The study, led by Dr. Michael Alderman, chairman of epidemiology at Albert Einstein School; of Medicine in New York and president of the American Society of Hypertension, suggests the government should consider suspending it's recommendation that people restrict the amount of salt they eat.

"The lower the sodium, the worse off you are," Alderman said. "There's an association. Is it the cause? I don't know. Any way you slice it, that's not an argument for eating a low sodium diet.

SOURCES
Natural salt is not white and it is not dry. It is a little gray with minerals and feels damp or clumps in humidity. It must be labeled UNREFINED, NO ADDITIVES ADDED.