Salt and your health
Salt has become a staple part of the Western diet now for some people. Many people believe that it is important to include table salt in their diet to be healthy and habitually add it to their food. However, even at an early age, I was educated that this is not true. I was told by a then well-known Sydney physician (specialist doctor) that I was not to have salt in my house, neither for myself nor my guests, as it is a poison. To confuse matters, there are different kinds of salts that the body does need in order to remain healthy. It is important, though, to understand which salts we are talking about when we come out with such a general statement as the body needing salt.
Remembering that food sustains not just our physical body but also builds on our energy and wellbeing, we need to also take into account that processed salt (sodium chloride) is energetically dead. This type of salt is chemical and it takes a lot of energy for the body to metabolise chemical table salt in order to keep the fluids in the body balanced. Water that could be more useful in other cells is then used to metabolise and neutralise the salt, taking it away from these other areas. It takes about 20 times the amount of salt you have eaten to neutralise the chemical in your body and whilst your body is busy doing this continually you could be developing cellulite, arthritis, gout or even bladder and kidney stones.
Part of the problem with salt is due to the fact that sometimes you are not consuming just salt but a mixture of salt and chemicals and even sugar. Once the salt has been taken through the process of making it into a substance such as you find in the supermarket shelf, often any value it may have had in terms of having any trace minerals has been stripped out. That process could differ depending on which country you are in. What happens once you eat this salt is the fluid balance of your body can become imbalanced and it can lead to inflammation of the tissues and cause you to retain fluid. In most cases, couple that with the fact that people don’t drink enough water and all of a sudden people start to pile on the kilos in fluid. If you want proof of that, try not eating salt for a few weeks and making sure you drink between one and a half and two litres of water a day. Guaranteed you will lose a kilo or two and it will just be in fluid that your body has been holding. Salt is also sometimes a factor in leading to high blood pressure and heart issues.
One of the reasons we don’t need to eat added salt these days is because salt is added to so many things. If you eat takeaways or packet food, drink soft drinks and eat snacks, odds are that you are getting an overload of salt in your system. Start to read labels. You will be surprised how much salt is actually in your food.
Having said all this, it needs to be said that there are “good” salts. These good salts are tissue salts, of which there are 12. They are mineral salts found in the body and for this reason are often called cell salts. They are known as the Schuessler biochemic cell salts and work homoeopathically in the body. These cell salts (in brief) are: calcium fluoride, which assists with skin and joints; calcium phosphate for bones and teeth; iron phosphate for an immune booster; potassium chloride, which is really what we mean when we say that a lack of salt could cause cramps and is used for mucous control; potassium phosphate for the nervous system; potassium sulphate for a healthy metabolism; magnesium phosphate for healthy muscles; sodium chloride (natural salt not chemical) to regulate fluids; sodium phosphate also for the metabolism; sodium sulphate to detox and purify; silica for tissues, skin and hair; and calcium sulphate for the joints.
As an example of how these salts work, let’s look at potassium phosphate, which is for the nervous system and helps build it up. I would give this to someone who perhaps suffers from panic attacks and, because these salts are so gentle a remedy, I would recommend perhaps 3-5 chewable small pills a day. I would combine this with other supplements such as Bach remedies, vitamins, meditation and some energy work to assist the person to have a stronger nervous system, be less toxic, have less inflammation and build up their body with proper nutrition, while helping them clear the fear, trauma and emotional pain from their energy system. In this way these “good” salts can be used to help people in many different areas of their Health.
If you are interested in seeing which salts could assist you, then you need to speak to your natural practitioner. In the meantime, one of the best things you can do is to start to change your habits and take table salt off the table while increasing the amount of water you drink.
