I gave up salting my food years ago, because of these comments The Bear made about salt.
“Salt is a simple chemical, sodium chloride, a mineral substance mined from where it has been deposited from weathered rocks or pools of seawater. It can be found contaminated with a wide variety of additional compounds, depending on the source it is derived from. Some kinds may also be toxic- as well as unhealthful, as is pure salt in all its forms. Human commerce in salt began with the use of vegetation as a major item of human food. Only herbivorous animals will seek out and consume salt- because sodium is lacking in all terrestrial plant tissues. Carnivores do not need any salt. Your taste for salt on meat is learned behavior only.
Salt is an addiction. It is culturally induced by the need to add some salt for flavor in vegetables. When I gave up salt, the only food that I ate which seemed to need salt was eggs, but after a few years this passed- unsalted butter made the difference- without that added fat eggs are definitely very bland. Take care to only buy and use unsalted butter. Salt in butter is there as a preservative, thus the level is very high. Unsalted butter is a bit more expensive because only very fresh cream can be used to make it, whereas soured cream, neutralized with soda is used to make ‘regular’ butter that is then preserved with salt. The very best and tastiest butter possible is made at home by shaking pure cream, and separating the resulting delicious near-white butter from the whey.
Taking in more salt than you body needs is very, very bad for you. If your sweat tastes salty, you have too much intake. Both the skin and the kidneys dump salt, but cannot ‘change gears’ quickly. Both organs are affected by passing salt. The salt content of sweat and urine can go down to a few parts per million, to conserve the saline balance of the body’s tissues. It only takes about one ounce of any meat/day to supply all the sodium your body requires for normal saline balance.
I sometimes sweat so proficiently that I need to drink 3 or 4 liters of water in less than an hour. I have no effects of low salt, and my sweat is never salty. I used to watch the other kids in ballet class scarfing salt tabs, while I just drank water, my shirt was very wet, but dried out normal but theirs were rimed with a heavy white salt crust, indicating that the massive excess of alt was simply being dumped. If they did not eat the salt tabs when drinking water, they fainted.
If addicted to salt, just like with any other addiction, when you stop using, you will experience ‘side effects’, such as everything suddenly seeming tasteless and bland. If you persist, salt becomes vile-tasting, and food without salt becomes very tasty (but not (sodium-deficient) veggies are tasteless by nature, but which we are not talking about here).
It takes several days for your body to stop dumping salt through the skin and kidneys and begin conserving it, so when quitting, be aware of your salt balance- you may experience light headed-ness and the other classic signs of low sodium, if necessary take a tiny pinch- but try to stop all salt as quickly as you can tolerate it. Salt was a significant cause of my grandfather’s demise at 91 from kidney failure. I consider it a chemical poison. Only vegetarians have a salt-deficiency in their diet.”
“Fat from your diet, circulating in a body which is carrying excess body-fat stimulates body-fat release, supplementing and thus prolonging the time taken to consume the dietary fat. It also raises the metabolism. Salt interferes with this function, which is the reason not to add any salt to your food.”
“Chemical salt should always be avoided, it interferes with fat metabolism when the body carries an excess (salty sweat and urine). Most cheese has some salt, some have very little- read the label. If you are getting too much, your sweat will taste salty. It takes about a week for the body to stop spilling salt in the urine and sweat. Lightheaded-ness may indicate insufficient fat intake.”
“Salt is not good in your food, it is a chemical- and will damage your skin and your kidneys over time. It also interferes with fat metabolism. When I was a dancer, I used no salt in anything, I drank huge amounts of plain water during class, and never had a bit of problem, whereas the other dancers scarfed salt tablets like candy and still had problems- plus their clothes dried out with a heavy salt rime on them. The skin and the kidneys are forced to shed excess salt and cannot quickly stop, however if you eat at least 30 gm of meat a day you will get all the salt you need, the urine and sweat can go as low as a few parts/billion of salt to conserve it.”
“Skin aging is a result of three factors: Due to the multiple function of our outermost surface cover, Many things pass through it- oxygen is absorbed and carbon dioxide released, excess salt and many other substances are shed via sweat (sweating is good). In this regard the skin is like both a lung and a kidney. This is why you should bathe often (not necessarily with soap) to keep the skin permeable, avoid spending too much time in air conditioned places, and not ingest any extra salt. Salt is hard on the pores and ages skin. Insulin damages collagen and is the cause of stretch marks, wrinkles and sagging. Too much sun may induce skin cancers in susceptible individuals, reduces flexibility and also damages collagen.”
I found a couple of current articles that address problems with salt as well. “Can Salt Increase Calorie Intake?” and “How Salt Affects the Body”.
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