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Salt: What is it good for? Absolutely…something!
Let me give you a little history on the subject.
The first recorded written history we have on salt is around 4700 years ago in the Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu, the earliest known treatise on pharmacology published in China. It speaks about over 40 different kinds of salt, extracting procedures and putting it into usable forms. Egyptian art from around 1450 BC records salt making details. Ancient Greece used salt as an exchange for slaves, creating the term “not worth his salt”, when a slave didn’t work out as planned. Poland and England used special rations of salt for payment given to Roman soldiers called Salarium Argentum, which is where we now derive the word “salary” from. There are more than 30 references to salt in the Bible. In Africa between the 13th-16th century, the salt trade was so popular that salt was equal in trade and value for weight with gold. When salt lost its “saltiness” it was then used in the making of roads as it helped to bind dirt and clay together making the roads more passable and smooth.
Human plasma contains approximately 0.9% salt (sodium chloride) in order to maintain electrolyte balance necessary for blood circulation. That means that without proper amounts of salt in our bodies, we die.
Salt has been used and is still used as an antibiotic, has anti-microbial functions, is a taste enhancer, a taste suppressant, a mediator of water activity, a regulator of texture, mouth-feel and juiciness, it’s used as a food preservative for meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, it delivers flavor, makes food taste good, moderates bitterness and intensifies sweetness, just to name a few of its many functions.
So, does that make salt bad or good? A little of both.
When your body has all the salt it can handle (the body depends on a very specific balance that cannot be altered without consequences), it has to get rid of the rest. How does it do that? It flushes it with water through your kidneys.
So – you need plenty of water in your system to spare the amount you need to flush out the excess salt. Too much water being used = dehydration and a new set of issues: you need a specific balance of water in your system to survive and now you have a new salt to water balance to contend with in your body if you lose too much water.
All this affects your heart that must beat stronger to assist the kidneys in the flushing of your kidneys. This is really not a big issue if you are already fit and getting plenty of exercise (you may recall that I have written about the efficiency of the body and the way muscles help you in all the body’s action besides actual movement) but what if you are in “less than ideal condition?” You will just tax your body more and this can lead to problems.
The problem with salt in your diet is… it is everywhere! You can find salt in ice cream, in all your canned foods (remember – it is a preservative), in most processed foods (it is used as part of the process both for the desired texture or consistency as well as a preservative).
Also – you may not recognize many of the foods you like without the salt flavor that you assume is supposed to be there. Without that saltiness you think, “something is missing” which is really something that should never have been there from the start.
Weaning yourself from salt is a good habit to start today and a great habit for your body!
via Blogger http://chiropractic-lane.blogspot.com/2013/07/salt-what-is-it-good-for_31.html
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