Though in today's modern world we are warned about the dangers
of salt, in fact, salt is essential to life.
Salt is necessary not only for humans but for animals and plants
as well. Salt is required, along with water, to activate cells
in all plant and animal life. Bodies are able to endure periods
without food, but without both salt and water, living cells
quickly perish from dehydration.
Since the beginning of human civilization, the obtaining of salt
has shaped history. So important was salt that populations went
to war over rights to procure salt from abundant areas. So
valuable was salt that Roman soldiers were given a salarium--a
"salt allowance"--as part of their pay. This is the origin of
the word salary, which now applies to all of our wages for work.
The adult human body contains about four ounces of salt. Without
enough salt, muscles don't contract, blood doesn't circulate,
food doesn't digest, and hearts don't beat.
Our bodies lose salt all day long as water leaves the body in
the forms of perspiration and urine. Low salt levels in the body
can produce muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting and dizziness, and
eventually, a lack of salt can lead to shock, coma and death.
And so salt needs to be replenished in our bodies on a daily
basis.
QUANTITY AND QUALITY
There is no lack of salt in our modern diet. Processed foods are
heavily salted, so much so that many people get more salt than
their bodies really need. Too much salt can contribute to high
blood pressure and other common ills.
But the salt that is commonly sold as table salt and used in
processed foods is not the salt that our bodies need. Table salt
is a highly refined substance containing only sodium and
chloride. What our bodies need is natural unrefined salt made up
of all elements of the Earth--all the minerals and trace
elements that compose life. These same minerals and trace
elements are also found in the human body, as both natural salt
and the human body are but different forms made of the same
essential building blocks of life.
In order to maintain health, we need to replenish our bodies
with the substances that it needs. Our bodies need sodium,
chloride, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, magnesium, potassium,
calcium chromium manganese, iron, zinc, and many more minerals
and elements, yet ordinary refined table salt provides only
sodium and chloride. Without all the elements needed for health,
bodies quickly degenerate and become ill. Even if our bodies
have enough sodium and chloride, they can still be missing other
minerals and elements that are vital to life.
If our bodies are to have good health, it is essential to
include natural, unrefined, living salt in our diets, just as
nature intended.
THE SECRET ELIXER OF LIFE
In ancient times, the kitchen was the domain of women. It was
considered a sacred and magical place, where the alchemy of
women changed the character and form of raw ingredients to
fulfill their purpose as nourishment.
As a purveyor of natural living salt, I receive many letters
from satisfied customers who tell me how including whole,
unrefined salt in their diets have improved their health. This
letter also tells the story of the importance of salt in a more
traditional culture than our own.
"I have been taking the salt for the past few
months...incredible. I cannot do without it. My body, spirit and
mind function far more effectively. I find, that if for some
reason I miss taking it for a spell, the balance shifts.
"I spent some time in Kashmir (just before the war), and had a
wonderful experience with the salt.
"The women of the house I was connected to (I lived on one of
the boats nearby) came to me one evening, saying that they had a
special secret they wanted to share. They took me into their
kitchen, which was considered to be sacred ground. It was an old
house with earthen floors, and the whole kitchen, including the
oven, was all built of mud.
"They very reverently took me through to what was obviously a
secret, special place, and into what I can only describe as a
'cave' hollowed out in the mud. I saw what seemed to be a very
large rock, covered in hessian sacks. They very slowly removed
the sacks, all the time expressing obvious veneration and
revealed a HUGE pink crystal. 'This is salt,' they said in
broken English. 'You must have this... always. It is the elixir
of life. Find it when you go back to your world.'
"It wasn't until recently, as I was idly searching the internet
for something to assist me, that I very quickly found you.
"Anna West"
Today, when our bodies become ill, we look for a remedy. But
often the problem is that we have forgotten the basics. There is
nothing more essential to life than salt and water. They are
also essential to good health.
Read more about healthful salt at
http://www.HimalayanLivingSalt.com
About the author:
Hilde Bschorr is the Owner of Himalayan Living Salt, an online
purveyor of natural, unrefined, living salt products.
