Salt and you

Your heart, adrenals, liver and kidneys need salt to function, and you can’t digest food without it. 

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What’s more, salt:

• Carries nutrients across cell membranes into your cells
• Keeps calcium and other minerals soluble in your blood
• Maintains your body’s balance of fluids
• Regulates blood pressure 

 Most people don’t need less salt. 
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What they need is the right kind of salt, and more potassium. 
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That’s because potassium helps to keep sodium levels in check and optimizes blood pressure.
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Many western people eat too much processed salt and don’t get nearly enough potassium. 
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In fact, the American FDA estimates that about 75 percent of American salt intake comes from processed foods and from table salt added to food.
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How does that affect you?
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Table salt is processed at temperatures over 1,000 degrees. 
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This processing changes its chemical structure and strips it of its natural nutrients. 
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In addition, salt producers add anti-caking ingredients and bleach it.
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By the time it gets to your dinner table, it’s mostly sodium and additives – no nutrients whatsoever.
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A healthier kind of salt is sea salt. 
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It’s formed by the evaporation of sea water in sunlight. 
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As a result, it retains up to 82 vital trace minerals, including potassium, magnesium and calcium.
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You can lower your blood pressure and improve your health by consuming the right kind of salt and boosting your potassium. 
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Know how much salt is in your food. 
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Each teaspoon of salt is equal to 2,325 mg of sodium. 
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Does that sound like a lot? 
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Well the truth is, most processed foods have many times that amount. 
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One packet of dry onion soup mix contains over 3,000 mg of sodium.
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Even sweet foods which may seem like they would have no salt are packed with it. 
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A homemade pie crust can have over 1,300 milligrams. 
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Two small restaurant pancakes have more than 1,100 milligrams
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When you’re buying food, you can go beyond reading the sodium content on the label. 
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Processors have dozens of names they use instead of salt. 
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Luckily, most of them do have sodium in the name so you’ll know what to avoid. 
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But also look out for ingredients like metabisulfite, erythorbate, propionate and guanylate.
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Replace table salt with sea salt. 
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A lot of the sea salt you find in supermarkets is really just processed table salt. 
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Generally, if salt is white and pours easily, it’s probably processed. 

Natural sea salt is darker in color – because it’s dried in white and brown layers (and the brown layer has most of the nutrients).

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Your safest bet is to buy sea salt from a health-food store. 

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There are many kinds such as Mediterranean, Himalayan and Pacific and they all have slightly different tastes.

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Boost your levels of potassium. 

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The best food sources are orange-colored fruits and vegetables like apricots, cantaloupe, oranges, nectarines, peaches, sweet potatoes, and butternut and acorn squash. 

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Other good sources are black and kidney beans, spinach, Swiss chard, artichokes, bananas, kiwi, fish, meat, poultry and milk.

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The above ideas show you how to stop high blood pressure and cut your risk of heart attack and stroke

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And this is without worry, drugs, pain or wasted money.