Is Raw Sea Salt worth adding to your diet?

[ankhepiphan]

Hello All,

I came upon this site during some research, and wondered if raw sea salt would be more beneficial than taking mineral/vitamin supplements. Does anyone have additional insight to this product? It seem like something the body would readily utilize for optimum health.

- Ankhepiphan
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http://www.sunrisefarms.org/celticsalt.htm

Natural Raw Sea Salt is the most basic condiment as well as a staple food. This sea salt is obtained from the evaporation of the ocean's water, simply and without artifice. No synthetic mineral supplement can equal the wealth of minerals that natural Sea Salt supplies, regardless of how rich its content or how precisely it is formulated. This is real sea salt!

(Natural Raw Sea Salt) is harvested in Brittany, near the Celtic Sea, in the northwest of France. Cold, active north sea currents, large tides and other marine and climatic conditions offer the advantage of a unique mix of minerals. It is this combination of minerals that gives Sea Salt its special qualities. Common salt lacks many trace minerals provided by Sea Salt because, during the refining process, these minerals are removed.

BASIC ROLES OF SEA SALT

Our bodies contain three internal oceans that closely resemble the ionic balance of ocean water. Each one of these complex solutions surrounds and circulates through our body: 1. Blood Plasma; 2. Lymphatic Fluid; and 3. Extracellular Fluid. Comparative analysis shows that these fluids are very similar to sea water in their chemical composition. From the moment of conception, humans are never without need for salt. In the salty environment of amniotic fluid, the human embryo grows over 3 billion times in weight. Medical and biological facts indicate that humans need salt in order to perform basic physiological functions. Sea Salt is the salt of Life!

(Natural Raw Sea Salt) is considered to be a strong alkalinizer and provides renewed energy. An acidic body condition is believed to contribute to many sicknesses and alkaline foods are considered powerful remedies for hemorrhaging, severe burns, physical trauma, acute infection, shock from an illness or surgical intervention, or
very deep emotional stress. In conditions like these the body's need for extra potassium was traditionally provided by administering small doses of an isotonic salt solution made from natural Light Grey Sea Salt dissolved in water. Salt, the universal necessity, always was and is appreciated as an effective medicine, used alone as an energizer, detoxifying agent, or in conjunction with healing plants.

PRECIOUS MINERALS WORKING TOGETHER: CO-ACTION

Proper electrolyte balance in the body is achieved by maintaining a relatively high potassium content inside the cell and a high sodium concentration in the fluid outside the cell (extracellular fluid). Though potassium and sodium are the two electrolytes found in greatest concentration in the human body, many other elements are required for normal physiological function. Trace elements, found in ocean water and in natural Sea Salt, work to maintain proper function of the body's systems. This unique combination of nutrients plays an important role in safeguarding good health. If any one element is left out or diminished, a link in an important chain will be missing and the whole organism will suffer. These elements work to regulate optimum body function by ensuring that our internal oceans are never shortchanged of trace nutrients.

BUT, ISN'T (Natural Raw Sea Salt) BAD FOR YOU?

Scientific research reveals that there are actually very few salt-related health problems. A healthy, active lifestyle demands a sufficiently reasonable salt intake. Table salt, which is a harmful chemical, sodium chloride (NaC1), is responsible for raising blood pressure and causing heart problems. All side effects, warnings, and
bad press based on medical research have been done with refined, white table 'salt'. Your very blood requires actual salt to function. Your cells must be bathed in a sodium-based, extracellular fluid. When the cells of a mammal are deprived of sodium, they literally explode attempting to equalize inside and out.

WHY DO WE NEED (Natural Raw Sea Salt)?

Because the body runs on salt. Without properly balanced salt we run out of electrolytes and our 'batteries die out'. Refined table salt, even so-called 'sea salts' from health stores which are mostly sodium chloride, promote pathological calcification and a breakdown of cellular tissue. When people talk about 'salt' they overlook the fact
that there are approximately 82 other elements in natural Sea Salt which serve as a buffer to protect you from the harshness of pure sodium chloride. Nature put those buffers there to make sure our bodies could use the sodium properly, and to ensure that once it has been utilized, it will be eliminated completely and quickly through
the kidneys. Raw Sea Salt is completely unrefined to ensure proper bodily utilization.

DON'T WE GET MINERALS FROM OUR FOOD?

Minerals are present in food (though many foods are vastly depleted), but Sea Salt effects how your body handles, and what it does with those minerals. Salt effects digestion. Take potassium for example. You can eat many potassium-rich foods but it will do you little good unless you are taking Sea Salt as well. Your body cannot properly digest raw vegetables without salt. People used to eat a salty soup before a meal to enhance digestion. Salt re-enriches your saliva so your body can manufacture the proper digestive juices to break down the complex carbohydrates, celluloids and chlorophyll from the vegetables which contain potassium. Salt actually creates hydrochloric acid.

(Natural Raw Sea Salt) CREATES HYDROCHLORIC ACID.

Hydrochloric acid is made from the hydrolysation of chlorine. The chlorine comes from the essentially balanced sodium chloride we find in Sea salt. Those who preach a 'no-salt' diet are incorrect: they should know we are salt-based creatures: tears, blood, sweat are salty? They should rather say a 'no refined sodium chloride' diet.
Vegetarians need proper Sea salt more than anyone to aid digestion; add salt and they start digesting properly; no more burping their greens. They can now get more nutrition from their meals. When using the high mineral-balanced Sea salt, I would say you can now get up to seven times the nutritional value out of vegetables by
increasing food's potency and enhancing the positive effects of nutrients, re-enriching saliva, and creating hydro-chloride acid.

HOW DOES A 'SALT FREE' DIET HARM US?

The general rule of osmosis when it comes to bodily functions is that water goes wherever salt goes. If we do not replenish our body's salt reserves, we throw off that vital balance of salt and water that keeps us functioning normally. Your body will begin to secrete or retain water more quickly in order to raise the level of sodium concentration in the bloodstream. Signs of too little salt in the diet may take the form of sweating profusely and loss of appetite, extreme fatigue followed by muscles that become sore and stiff and begin to twitch. Finally, insomnia and perhaps convulsions in extreme instance.

Without proper salt, the cells cannot regenerate and they have no energy. The cells actually take sodium from the saline fluid surrounding them and convert the sodium to potassium to create energy and cool down the body. As the body sweats, it loses electrolytes as well as salts and fluids. Proper salt replenishes these supplies.

Denying yourself of the proper salt worsens every problem in which cell repair and rejuvenation must occur to maintain body function. This is the single, most important biological fact that must be considered when talking about Sea salt and deprived of this vitally balanced saline solution, the cells degenerate and age.

HOW DOES (Natural Raw Sea Salt) COMPARE TO SEA SALTS AT THE HEALTH STORE?

Sadly, those 'salts' can be just as harmful as refined, white, sodium chloride (table salt). In fact, many come from the same refineries. Sea salt is moist; dry salt indicates that the magnesium has been removed, because magnesium clings to water. Salt from salt mines and ancient sea beds are not fit for human consumption. Thousands of years of rainfall through many geological layers will deplete vital minerals from these deposits. Most of the elements are driven down far below the salt line, hence destroying the delicate, natural balance of minerals, gases and moisture found in the living waters of the ocean, where Sea salt is harvested annually. Salt deposits will either have too many minerals, or not enough. Because Sea salt has a perfect balance of the essential trace minerals and gases the body requires, people find they use about one-third the amount they would use with other 'salt's.

THERE ARE THOSE THAT SAY SALT CAUSES HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.

Again, the term should be 'sodium chloride', not salt. Sea salt actually stabilizes blood pressure, whether high or low. How? Because it is the primary cleanser of our veins and arteries keeping our 'transmission lines' clean since it has the ability to clear plaque. Proper salt in the bloodstream will actually cleanse the blood vessels and ensure normal circulatory flow. Oil and salt work together as a team - salt breaks up grease. Chefs have known for centuries that if they add oil alone to food, it becomes 'greasy' and indigestible; but, if they add salt, it breaks up the bonds of the oil giving it a wonderful taste and consistency. Sea salt helps to digest and emulsify natural oils - the two ingredients compliment each other. (Natural Raw Sea Salt) does the same thing in our bodies having the ability to scour the artery walls clean.

HOW DO I USE (Natural Raw Sea Salt)?

It is a food and should be treated as such. In cooking or baking, use only 2/3 of what the recipe calls for or salt to taste. Sprinkle it lightly over raw fruits and vegetables and prepare for a taste sensation. You may also dissolve and drink small quantities in a glass of water 2 or 3 times a day.

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All information given based on the works of Jacques DeLangre, Ph.D., Biochemist.

 

[dj]

I also am curious about where the truth lies in regard to salt supplementation. For what it's worth, I've worked out a few guidelines that I use before jumping in with both feet.

One of the first things I look at is whether the information is backed with research that you can access and evaluate. It seems like most of the faddish stuff I see is sold by hearsay - someone writing about how good something is, giving a few individual successes, and maybe citing some reports or research, and maybe also even including what sounds like a good line of reasoning for why the stuff is good for you and not harmful.

However, -- unless I can find original research or a very good source reporting on the original research, I'm very skeptical of all the other sales pitches - I've been lied to a lot, and I'm still just figuring that fact out.

Even with original research, whether it's good science or distorted science will depend on many factors I'm not especially qualified to evaluate - who's paying for the research? what's their payoff or incentive or bias in the results, how well is the research designed and run, can it be replicated, etc etc. --- and, is the summary or information attributed to the research supported by the results of the research?

So far, regarding salt supplementation, I'm trying to use common sense and caution until I get more verifiable data. -- I think daily multivitamin multimineral supplementation is a good idea regardless of salt intake. I think using sea salt in place of table salt (NaCl) makes good sense. I just can't understand the point of using high salt supplementation, though. There are too many physiological processes it can screw up, starting with the kidneys. And so far, nothing I've seen has convinced me it won't tend to screw up some of the intricate processes regulated by various salts in the body.

That's not terribly scientific, I know, but it's the approach I'm using till I figure out a better method.

 

[Rabelais]

I think using sea salt in place of table salt (NaCl) makes good sense. I just can't understand the point of using high salt supplementation, though.

I worked with a brilliant but eccentric chemist and formulator of nutritional supplements for a few years. He stated that the sodium chloride intake in the American diet was so out of balance that it inhibited cellular mitochondrial function. He stated that the natural potassium/sodium ratio in the body should be 20/1, but in Americans that was reversed. I therefore agree that high salt supplementation is probably not the best idea, unless one is regularly engaged in a very strenuous activity, in high heat, for extended periods of time.

I am fortunate in that almost every store here has a wide variety of natural local sea salt available. It is all that I keep in my home. When I lived in the states I used a product from Utah called Redmonds Real Salt. It is mined from ancient seabed deposits. It is a very good product. _http://www.realsalt.com/about.cfm I still occasionally have a bag of it sent over in my "care packages" from home.

 

[Johnno]

I use this one, Murray River Salt flakes which are a pink colour. Really nice on eggs from time to time. I bought a 250gram pack which should last me 10 years or so! I use it very sparingly like Chilli.

http://www.rivermurrayshop.com.au/Giftshop.htm

The "Fleur de sal" you get in France is also delicious.

 

[Snowalker]

I use a Sea Salt product called "Celtic Sea Salt" but I would like to suggest that to focus on one element of the diet such as "salt" is to lose sight of the over arching relationship that we have with the food chain. By "food chain" I am referring to everything including the soil in which the food is grown. One of the best books on this subject is "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. Pollan does a masterful job of describing the relationship between the scientific reduction of food components (nutrients) and the increasingly disease ridden Western diet. It is this very act of reductionist thinking that creates the illusion that we can figure out and master the creation of food. We can't and the incidence of disease in the developed countries where industrial food production is rampant should make that pretty clear.

The thrust of Pollan's argument is not to focus on "supplementing" those things that are missing but to move away from industrialized food altogether. Not an easy task but we, as members of Western Society, have little choice if we want to maintain our health. However, even if we decide to abandon processed and adulterated foods being cranked out by the likes of Archer, Daniels, Midland, Kraft and Kellogg's we must recognize that we are all malnourished and must, at least until we can obtain real food, supplement the nutrients that are missing from the food we have been eating.

The approach to nutrient supplementation therefore should follow the same advice. Eat whole nutrients! Your question about sea salt can be easily answered using this concept. Purchase seas salt that are made with as little processing as possible. It won't matter what brand it is as long as you have enough assurance that their methods are true. Another good example is algae such as Spirolina. This is a whole food that is very nutrient rich. Bee pollen is another whole food loaded with nutrients and enzymes.

Bottom line. If highly processed food isn't good for you then processed supplements won't be either.

 

[ankhepiphan]

I think it's facsinationg that seawater is almost identical in composition to human blood plasma. Just maybe raw sea salt with its correct human electrolytic balance and neccesary trace minerals which we do not receive from our foods anymore, might be surprisingly beneficial when added to the diet. Sometimes thinking out the box may lead to wonderful discoveries.

 

[Ocean]

When I was working at the Royal Stud Farm an English friend who was in charge of the Royal Dairy Farm came to us complaining that his dairy herd's milk quota had diminished to almost nothing. His herd of Jersey cows had simply stopped producing milk. He was very worried. It was hot, very hot and the cows were losing a lot of electrolytes in sweating, trying to keep cool.

We had recently discovered these sacks of sea salt at the market at the port and had decided to start introducing the sea salt into the diet of the horses. Within a week we saw an amazing improvement in their coat, energy level and all around well being. They were frisky and bounding around all over the place and the mares had lots of milk for their foals. We suggested to our friend that he should start feeding sea salt to his herd and sure enough within a very short time his cows started producing masses of milk, more than ever before.

After all these years, almost 20 now, the Royal Stud and Royal Dairy Farm still feed sea salt even though the English managers have been long gone, replaced by trained local people and the dairy herd is still regarded as one of the best in the region

 

[shijing]

There seems to be a lot of news recently about the following study linking salt with autoimmune disease:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11868.html

There has been a marked increase in the incidence of autoimmune diseases in the past half-century. Although the underlying genetic basis of this class of diseases has recently been elucidated, implicating predominantly immune-response genes1, changes in environmental factors must ultimately be driving this increase. The newly identified population of interleukin (IL)-17-producing CD4+ helper T cells (TH17 cells) has a pivotal role in autoimmune diseases2. Pathogenic IL-23-dependent TH17 cells have been shown to be critical for the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model for multiple sclerosis, and genetic risk factors associated with multiple sclerosis are related to the IL-23–TH17 pathway1, 2. However, little is known about the environmental factors that directly influence TH17 cells. Here we show that increased salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) concentrations found locally under physiological conditions in vivo markedly boost the induction of murine and human TH17 cells. High-salt conditions activate the p38/MAPK pathway involving nuclear factor of activated T cells 5 (NFAT5; also called TONEBP) and serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) during cytokine-induced TH17 polarization. Gene silencing or chemical inhibition of p38/MAPK, NFAT5 or SGK1 abrogates the high-salt-induced TH17 cell development. The TH17 cells generated under high-salt conditions display a highly pathogenic and stable phenotype characterized by the upregulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines GM-CSF, TNF-α and IL-2. Moreover, mice fed with a high-salt diet develop a more severe form of EAE, in line with augmented central nervous system infiltrating and peripherally induced antigen-specific TH17 cells. Thus, increased dietary salt intake might represent an environmental risk factor for the development of autoimmune diseases through the induction of pathogenic TH17 cells.

Most people seem to be jumping the gun and interpreting this as salt in general being bad for you (which doesn't make a lot of sense from an evolutionary perspective). But the following site appears to offer a more accurate interpretation of the study:

http://www.trueactivist.com/scientists-officially-link-processed-foods-to-autoimmune-disease/

Stick to Good Salts

Refined, processed and bleached salts are the problem. Salt is critical to our health and is the most readily available nonmetallic mineral in the world. Our bodies are not designed to process refined sodium chloride since it has no nutritional value. However, when a salt is filled with dozens of minerals such as in rose-coloured crystals of Himalayan rock salt or the grey texture of Celtic salt, our bodies benefit tremendously for their incorporation into our diet.

“These mineral salts are identical to the elements of which our bodies have been built and were originally found in the primal ocean from where life originated,” argues Dr Barbara Hendel, researcher and co-author of Water & Salt, The Essence of Life. “We have salty tears and salty perspiration. The chemical and mineral composition of our blood and body fluids are similar to sea water. From the beginning of life, as unborn babies, we are encased in a sack of salty fluid.”

“In water, salt dissolves into mineral ions,” explains Dr Hendel. “These conduct electrical nerve impulses that drive muscle movement and thought processes. Just the simple act of drinking a glass of water requires millions of instructions that come from mineral ions. They’re also needed to balance PH levels in the body.”

Mineral salts, she says, are healthy because they give your body the variety of mineral ions needed to balance its functions, remain healthy and heal. These healing properties have long been recognised in central Europe. At Wieliczka in Poland, a hospital has been carved in a salt mountain. Asthmatics and patients with lung disease and allergies find that breathing air in the saline underground chambers helps improve symptoms in 90 per cent of cases.

Dr Hendel believes too few minerals, rather than too much salt, may be to blame for health problems. It’s a view that is echoed by other academics such as David McCarron, of Oregon Health Sciences University in the US.

He says salt has always been part of the human diet, but what has changed is the mineral content of our food. Instead of eating food high in minerals, such as nuts, fruit and vegetables, people are filling themselves up with “mineral empty” processed food and fizzy drinks.