Without salt, life is impossible. Salt is as important as oxygen and water. Back before 450 BC, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, recognized the healing powers of salt for infections, clearing congestion, and curing disease of the spleen. Salt was a preserving agent when there was no refrigeration.
Yet salt is given a bad name by the media, organizations like the American Heart Association, American Diabetic Association, and so-called health experts such as conventional doctors and dietitians. The medical profession will tell you that healthy adults should eat no more than 2300 mg daily. That is roughly one level teaspoon. Doctors will even prescribe a low salt or no-salt diet for heart patients and various other illnesses.
The restriction may even include vegetables like celery and other vegetables high in natural sodium. Hospital patients on general diets are allowed to choose whatever food they wish, many of the items are loaded with sodium. Does that mean that unless you have a special condition, salt is OK?
Salt is made up of a chemical compound called sodium chloride. This compound consists of 40 percent sodium (NA) and 60 percent chloride (CL). The average person consumes 4,000 to 6,000 mg. of sodium per day; heavy users, 10,000 mg.
Besides salting our food, much more salt is ingested through eating snack items such as chips and pretzels, consuming smoked and cured meats, and eating hunĀ¬dreds of processed foods in bottles, cans, and packages. Ask just about anyone and they will tell you that salt is bad for your health, yet the American pubĀ¬ic is very addicted to it and seldom can they refrain from using it.
ā¢ If salt is so important, why the discrepancy in views? I will attempt to address these issues in the next couple of editions.
