By Health Educator Sylvester Johnson, Ph. D. Applied Physics For personal consultation service, please see

Salting the wound

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  Table salt (NaCl) is an “anti-life” antibiotic preservative. NaCl is a condiment in a form that the body cannot utilize to buffer or neutralize acid ash (An Apple a Day? Is It Enough Today by M.T. Morter ISBN 0-944994-07-5).
  
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  Water follows salt. Until the body manages to eliminate it, NaCl holds 96 times its weight in water in the tissues (1 ounce salt6 pounds water3 quarts). This increase in water in the tissues causes swelling.
  
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  NaCl hitches a ride in the blood. Unfortunately this hitchhiker does damage during the ride, such as worsening hypertension, osteoarthritis through swelling, which can worsen inflammation and pain, as well as increasing both mental and physical stress. The heart has to force blood through swollen tissues, via constricted blood vessels and capillaries, increasing the chance of stroke, atherosclerosis and heart attack. Excessive NaCl worsens all chronic and degenerative disorders. The mouth salivates copiously in response to salt in food to dilute toxic NaCl, dilution making it less corrosive to delicate tissues in the mouth. Common complications of pregnancy include swelling, edema, and hypertension, worsened by salt.
  
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  NaCl creates a vicious cycle since it causes thirst for more liquid due to the amount of water salt holds in the tissues. If the drink contains salt, one becomes thirsty yet again. If any food, supplement, or stimulant creates tremendous thirst, the body is crying out for water to dilute a toxin that was in the food.
  
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  With frequent usage of NaCl, the salt sensors on the taste buds become ever duller, so that ever more NaCl is needed to stimulate them enough to yield a “salty” flavor.
  
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  Mighty minerals: Farm animals commonly gnaw at fence railings when they are not getting enough minerals, displaying “pica” for anything that may fool the body into feeling that it’s getting minerals. Humans display pica for anything that contains sugar or salt that fool the body, hence the “can’t stop at one” cravings for junk food, popcorn, chips and chocolate. The USDA maintains that the vast majority of Americans is deficient in minerals. Hence the vast market for junk food. Instead of sugar or salt, one could supplement the range of major and trace minerals that one needs (“Vegetarian Mega Minerals” by Nature’s Life, and “Colloida Life Trace Minerals” by Source Naturals).
  
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  Dried dulse (palmaria palmate, a red sea vegetable) that has not been rinsed with fresh water contains concentrated potassium chloride (KCl) and NaCl in about a 5 to 2 ratio of K to Na, as well as occasional grains of sand that erode teeth. To avoid the inorganic iodine, the salts and sand, but retain the organic minerals, one can rinse the dulse until it tastes bland or eat Eden’s rinsed and sun-dried nori, or supplement minerals. The dulse is much more tender than the nori.
  
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  Salt is one of the strongest dehydrators (drying agents) of all cells including skin, since water in cells gets partially drained to dilute the blood, reducing the concentration of NaCl as the blood moves through the body toward the kidneys. Before NaCl gets eliminated, it and its associated water clog intercellular spaces, causing edema. Drinking seawater continuously kills via dehydration in a matter of days. Consuming one ounce of salt is the standard method of committing suicide in many Eastern cultures.
  
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  High intake of NaCl causes cell proliferation in the stomach, with resultant increased risk of cancer (Dr. Gaynor’s Cancer Prevention Program, by Mitchell L. Gaynor, MD, ISBN 1-57566-526-3, pg 205). The leading cancer in Japan, where the diet is high in NaCl, is stomach cancer.
  
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  Many prepared sauces including tamari and soy sauce, as well as other processed foods, usually contains huge amounts of NaCl. The amount of NaCl in processed foods can be estimated. Most unrefined plant-based foods naturally contain very roughly a half mg or slightly more of Na (sodium) per calorie in raw form. As a guideline, if salt is listed in the ingredients, the excess Na represents added NaCl. Since an atom of Na weighs about the same as one of Cl, the excess Na gets doubled to find the weight of added NaCl.
  
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  In contrast to NaCl, after digestion the beneficial Na and other minerals in whole, unrefined plant-based foods such as celery can be transported as part of small molecules called colloids to storage locations. The body in its wisdom can draw on these stored minerals as needed, for example to buffer and eliminate acid ash, rather than getting shocked by large doses of ionic minerals such as NaCl. Thus Na ingested as part of plant foods gets utilized more evenly and slowly than NaCl. Cravings for NaCl will decrease if one eats plenty of veggies, since all veggies contain some organically-bound Na and chlorine.
  
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  A “chem-20” blood test includes Na, but from a mix of both plant-based sources and NaCl. The middle of the “normal” range may not promote health, rather only be “normal” for the possibly high NaCl-consuming reference group used to find that range. Therefore Na toward the low end of the range may be more advisable.
  
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  More than 1000 mg of calcium gets eliminated for every teaspoon of salt consumed. High salt intake creates a craving for fats (pg.451, Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens ISBN 1-55643-285-2).
  
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  Much less Na is lost to sweat than is rumored. NaCl is included in athletic drinks to encourage consumption as the body struggles to dilute the poisonous NaCl. Water regulations allow 60 mg Na in the form of NaCl per liter of soft water.
  
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  To get a handle on salt intake, a small covered plastic salt/pepper shaker can be purchased from a cooking or camping store. The outdoor stores also sell little shaker caps that can be snapped onto the plastic cylindrical canisters that hold some types of film. Photo development stores usually have a bag of such canisters saved for recycling. One could put less than a quarter teaspoon in each day, then carry the small canister. (A teaspoon of coarse salt holds about 5.2 grams of NaCl, or about 2040 mg of Na. For very fine crystals, a teaspoon may hold the commonly published 6 grams of NaCl, with 2400 mg of Na.) Anyone with hypertension, osteoporosis, or under stress may wish to add less, or use none at all, especially if processed foods are eaten. The risk for heart attack and stroke starts climbing for blood pressure readings above 115/70.
  
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  To enhance the flavor of foods without much or any salt, how about using fresh lemon or lime juice, or organic parsley flakes, organic apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s), green onions (scallions), or onion powder? Cooked and refined foods require enhancements to give flavor, since the refreshing living food flavors were destroyed.
  
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  All that said, unfortunately, people challenged by some disorders may need to consume a small amount of NaCl. I’m one of those people. Please see “Diuretic disorders” and “Organic minerals”.