Salt and the use of salt in diet is highly controversial in the modern world. Health Advice is shouted at us from the mass media, health departments, and doctors the world over. Eat less salt and less fat, or you’ll get heart disease! Take drugs for this and drugs for that! Millions die young following this kind of propaganda advice. The opposite, however, is true, if you actually look at the science involved and use a little common sense.
To preface this article: you may be surprised to see me writing on health-related issues. The truth is that health and wellness are passions of mine. It should also be kept in mind that these things strongly relate to my other main topics on spiritual and metaphysical issues. It is impossible to separate the human energy body from its physical counterpart. Ignore either one and the other suffers accordingly. And this includes the building blocks of life, food and nutrients.
The truth is that processed table salt and cooking salt are very unhealthy, but that natural unprocessed salt is essential for good health. It is not the amount of salt in your diet, but the type of salt you eat that matters. Refined salt can make you very sick and shorten your life in the long term. Natural salt will improve your health in the long term.
Pay the extra few pennies and buy the best quality natural salt you can find. Pink Himalayan salt is available from most supermarkets. More exotic versions can be obtained from health food stores, like Dead Sea Salt, etcetera.
The best information I have found on salt comes from Dr. Mercola’s website. This is a fairly short read and fully referenced to major science studies (real ones) in support. If you have been programmed to believe that all salt is evil, then you need to read this carefully and then to examine where your belief comes from – real science or propaganda?
I have long thought that the world appears to be run by insane people with little to no common sense. And because of this, I tend to do exactly the opposite of health advice I hear from the mass media, health departments, and medical propaganda – with a dash of common sense of course.
The studies that modern health advice concerning salt comes from are based on the highly refined salt used in processed food.
Following is a quote from Mercola’s article…
“Processed (table) salt, on the other hand, contains 97.5 percent sodium chloride and the rest is man-made chemicals, such as moisture absorbents and flow agents. These are dangerous chemicals like ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate. A small amount of iodine may also be added. Some European countries, where water fluoridation is not practiced, also add fluoride to their salt.3 In France for example, 35 percent of table salt sold contains either sodium fluoride or potassium fluoride, and use of fluoridated salt is widespread in South America. Besides these basic differences in nutritional content, the processing—which involve drying the salt above 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit—also radically alters the chemical structure of the salt. So, while you definitely need salt for optimal health, not just any salt will do. What your body needs is natural, unprocessed salt, without added chemicals.”
Below, I have taken the liberty of copying parts of a fairly extensive comment from this article, that says it all. You can read the original on Mercola.com through this link.
[Comment from Mercola.com quoting user, Jamnjim]
Just from my own personal experience, cutting back on or eliminating salt from your diet is a bad idea. You can identify several things I did wrong in 1994 to cause my heart attack: 1) WAY too much cardio-intense exercise, 2) Eliminated all FAT from my diet, 3) Went vegetarian, 4) Took STATINS to lower cholesterol, 5) Was working 1 full time job and 3 part time jobs (not enough sleep), and 6) Was consuming 3 times the daily allowance of fiber a day. This fiber was mostly bran fiber which is the most TOXIC and DEADLY of the processed fibers you can eat. It is so toxic most animals will turn their nose up at it and look at you like your crazy.
However, none of that was as drastic or detrimental as eliminating salt from my diet! My doctor (MD) at the time insisted that my blood pressure problem was due to too much salt intake. He never understood that I worked outside a LOT and that I exercised a LOT and I sweated a LOT as a result. I told him that when I removed salt from my diet for more than 3 days that every muscle in my body would go into SEVERE cramp mode. It was extremely painful. He insisted that I needed Potassium. I could take a bottle of Potassium Picolinatea a day and it did no good. Just one salt pill and problem solved.
Well, I was determined to lower my blood pressure so I listened to this idiot and followed his orders. I had a heart attack at age 29 as a result. Then I was fired from my job because I couldn’t do the labour anymore! Hence, I lost my INSURANCE! That was Divine Intervention. Losing my insurance saved my life. Since I had to pay CASH for medical services I sought a real professional (PhD) who spent his entire life researching this kind of stuff. It blew me away that EVERYTHING he said was the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the MD’s were telling me. By age 33 I was competing in a triathlon. I’ve never been back to a doctor for another physical/checkup and I never will again.
In many cases, I would 3rd degree the doctor. I would point out a flaw in their logic in hopes of spurring some sort of educated debate where they would prove me wrong with their genius minds. 9 times out of 10 they would turn and walk away. An assistant would come and escort me out of the building and they would tell me to go find a new doctor. I would even BEG for them to answer my questions and they would walk away.
Losing my INSURANCE opened new doors. I was actually able to seek advice from people who actually did research on the advice they were giving (something INSURANCE won’t pay for). They welcomed me with open arms. They told me the truth. When I listened to them and tried their advice it worked. I could not get this advice from doctors that accepted payments via insurance.
To understand the reasoning behind this standard medical advice, and many other types of popular health advice, I have one thing to say. Follow the money. Who benefits from the generation of millions of sick people that need to love on drugs and surgeries??? The answer is obvious. Pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment. These are far more interested in profits than true science and the improved health and longevity of the population.
I refer to my article, The Catch Basket Concept, here. Scroll down a page or so on my blog and you’ll find it. Examining and rearranging your core spiritual and metaphysical beliefs is Part One of the message. Part Two is to examine your beliefs concerning the world around you.
I’d like to jog your memory about a few things here.
First, remember what happened (and is still happening) to the big tobacco companies. Remember how, for the past hundred years, they used junk science to ‘prove’ that tobacco smoking is not only safe, but actually good for your health.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470496/
And here is more current information concerning the ongoing legal argument on passive smoking. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446866/
Secondly, remember the massive court battle between the AMA and Chiropractic. See http://www.yourmedicaldetective.com/public/237.cfm for information on what happened, and in many ways is still happening.
The above links show just how far companies will go to generate profits and to protect themselves. Please do not think that this same MO is not also used by other large companies and associations. The truth has nothing to do with it. It is all about ‘what can we legally get away with’. And let’s not forget the mad scientists that rule the world that I mentioned earlier. What if these mad scientists had a depopulation agenda? What better way to depopulate the world than to give out bad health advice. This not only drives many people to an early grave, but it is done in such a way as to be extremely profitable!
The main health challenge we face today is discriminating between real science and junk science. The problem is that a great deal of junk science has been grandfathered into our civilization, like the idea that salt is evil and must be reduced. Because of this, if you mention to other’s that real salt is actually good for you and does not need to be reduced, people get emotional and start yelling and throwing things at you. It is better to demonstrate the truth to people by doing things yourself so they can observe the results. This is the same with many things that are accepted into the ‘official narrative’, and not just on matters relating to diet and health.
Expect more health-related articles in the future.
RB.
[Disclaimer: (Disclaimers are necessary legal protection that must be used when anything you put into print and share in a public place, including blogs and websites and newsletters, may contradict the establishment in any way, shape or form – RB) The information on this article is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of general knowledge and information from the research and experience of alternative health practitioners and scientists. You are urged to make your own health care decisions based upon your own research, and in partnership with a qualified healthcare professional.]
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