The Importance of Natural Unrefined Salt

Throughout history, salt has played on important and effective role in the existence of mankind, which far extends beyond its vital role as a food seasoning and natural preservative. This may sound like a contradiction given that modern research has for several decades pointed out the negative impact salt has on our health. However, there is an important distinction to be made here. The majority of research regarding salt has been limited to refined white salt (sodium chloride) and not natural unrefined salt. You may be asking yourself is there a difference? My answer, “You bet your blood pressure there is!”

The problem is not so much with salt itself, but the type and amount of salt we are ingesting on a daily basis. Our bodies need salt to function properly. Unfortunately, the refined table salt that we are eating in vast quantities is in fact harmful to our health in so many ways. When some people refer to refined salts as a “white poison”, they may not be too far off the mark.

The Vital Role of Salt

Every process, from the simplest to the complex, in our body needs salt or its inherent chemical elements in ionized form. Salt plays an essential role in:

• Stabilizing irregular heartbeats.
• Extracting excessive acidity from the cells, particularly brain cells.
• Balancing sugar levels in the blood.
• Generating hydroelectric energy in cells.
• Nerve cell communication and information processing.
• Food particle absorption in the intestinal tract.
• Preventing muscle cramps.
• Stopping excessive saliva production.
• Maintaining the firm structure of bones.
• Regulating sleep.

Salt, along with water, play a crucial role in regulating the water content of the human body. Water’s role is to control the water content of the interior of the cell and to cleanse and extract the toxic wastes of the cell’s metabolisms. Salt’s role is to push some water to stay outside the cells, thus maintaining the balance between how much water is outside the cell in relations to what is inside.

Simply put, your continued good health is dependent on this balance continuing and unrefined salt is the player that ensures that is going to happen. Yes, I said unrefined salt. Unrefined salt contains around 84 chemical elements that are essential to our body’s health. We need all 84 of those chemical elements. Do you know how many elements refined/table salt has? Only 2 or 3 chemical elements. Not exactly good news, but it does get even better. In exchange for giving up those 80 or so essential chemical elements, you get to digest potassium-iodide, sugar, aluminum silicate and an anti-caking ingredient such as silicon dioxide which is the primary ingredient found in sand. Yummy! Now, there is no current medical research available to suggest that these particular additives, in and of themselves are dangerous when eaten. Usually the problem arises from how much and what type of salt is being consumed daily.

Too much of a bad thing

Generally, our bodies only require 0.007 ounces of salt daily in order to function properly. A miniscule amount, but surprisingly, many of us are not getting that amount in our diets. Instead we are eating massive amounts of sodium chloride (refined table salt) – between 0.4 and 0.7 ounces of the stuff daily. Unfortunately, our body can only rid itself of between 0.17 to 0.25 ounces of sodium chloride through the kidneys on a daily basis.

In fact, our body actually sees refined table salt as an aggressive cellular poison, an unnatural and unwanted intruder, that needs to be eliminated as quickly as possible to minimize any potential damage it may do. This in turn causes our organs to work double-time to rid itself of the poison. It tries to isolate the salt by surrounding it with water molecules to ionize and neutralize the sodium and chloride. This takes much needed water from for the proper function of our cells. Water taken from cells means cells become dehydrated and die. Thus, refined salt build up in our body that is unsuccessfully purged can contribute to a multitude of medical problems including edema, high blood pressure, arthritis, gout, and kidney and gall bladder stones.

Unrefined salts

Natural, unrefined salt is as the name implies naturally occurring in the seas and oceans of the world. True unrefined sea salt is produced from un-separated sea salt and tends to be slightly darker in color and often damper in consistency. The pretty white stuff you see sold under the label of “sea salt” is the top layer of salt that is produced during the harvesting of salt. It is obviously better than refined table salt, but if you truly want the benefit of natural unrefined salt, then you want the darker colored, slightly damp unrefined salt products. Look for products that are clearly labeled “unrefined, no additives added”. Only sea salt that is hand harvested and let to dry in piles by solar evaporation can be called natural.

One of the best unrefined sea salts is grey salt. It is also known as Sel Gris or Celtic Sea Salt and is found in the coastal areas of France. Harvested by hand, it tends to be more expensive than other sea salts. However, it is important to remember that you do not need a lot of salt on a daily basis (.007 ounces) in order to ensure your body functions properly. Therefore, a small amount added to one of your meals will accomplish what you need it to do.

Read the labels

Sea salt is becoming more and more readily available in supermarkets and health food stores. Sadly, many of these products are misleading when advertised as sea salts because they are in essence refined like table salt. Sure, it may have come from the sea, but the manufacturer probably:
• harvested it with machinery -- true unrefined sea salt is harvested by hand to ensure better purity.
• Put it through artificially processing stripping away many of the naturally-occurring chemical elements; and/or
• Added chemical additives to make it more attractive to the average consumer.

So, be sure that you thoroughly read the labels before purchasing any salt products. Knowing what you are buying can make all the difference between ensuring your body is getting what it needs and pumping unnecessary or useless substances into your body.

Salt is an intrinsic part of our diet and overall survival. When used moderately, it is worth its weight in gold. So, invest in a quality unrefined salt and feel confident that the next time you reach for the salt shaker or bowl that you are actually doing something good for your body.

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