Salty Deception: What Your Salt Cravings Really Mean

---By BodyEcology.com

New Salt Study Proves to be Misleading

“Experts” say that 90% of Americans are eating way too much salt, which puts them at serious risk for heart disease and stroke. Scary statistic, don’t you think? Well, what we believe to be even more frightening is that you actually may need more salt than you consume daily. More of the right kind of salt, that is. 
 
Making sure that you consume adequate amounts of mineral-rich sea salt is crucial to your wellbeing.

Processed Foods are Laden with the Wrong Salt

As we all know too well, the foods in our American diet are heavy processed. The “salt” used in these foods is not actually salt at all. It’s really refined sodium, with added bicarbonates, chemicals, sugars and preservatives. The refining process strips the essential minerals (60 trace minerals) from the salt. Many of the preservatives in table salt (or iodized salt) are not required to be listed on the container and include ferrocyanide, magnesium carbonate, and aluminum hydroxide. High levels of aluminum are believed to be a major factor in the prevalence of Alzheimer's in the U.S.
 
The bottom line, if you are eating the standard American diet, then you are getting too much sodium, and you are getting it in a form that destroys your health.
 
The good news is that food companies have agreed to lower this unnatural sodium in many of their products. Though this will take time, it is a necessary step.
 
In this age of increased heart disease and hypertension, we absolutely agree that you must eliminate refined salt but, if you truly want to improve your health – you must understand the importance of real sea salt in your diet.

Get The Good Salt

High quality sea salt is rich in minerals that (when used properly) nourish your thyroid and adrenal glands, keep your blood alkaline and even increase the healing powers of other foods.  In fact, sea salt is the most alkalizing food on the spectrum of acid/alkaline.  Good sea salt is not simply a condiment, but an essential part of a healthy diet. 
 
The Body Ecology system of Health and Healing uses sea salts medicinally to help restore balance in your body.

Medicinal Uses of Sea Salt

• It nourishes your thyroid and adrenal glands; your most important organs for creating energy
• It alkalizes your blood so that diseases like candida cannot thrive
• It balances acidic foods like animal proteins, nuts and seeds, grains including buckwheat 
• It adds a contracting energy to balance out expansive foods like carbohydrates, natural sugars, oils and algae
• It helps balance and add contracting energy to vegan, vegetarian and raw vegan diets (which are expansive in nature) . 
  

Craving Salt?

There’s a genius within you that understands what foods are best for your body and even what foods combine best with each other for balance. If you’re accustomed to a diet that has “addictive substances” like sugar and caffeine then you are going to crave more sugar and caffeine. Your also much more likely to crave sugar if your diet doesn’t contain any healthy fermented foods. That’s because your inner ecology (the healthy microorganisms, bacteria and yeast that live in your gut) won’t be in balance.
 
Thankfully, when you begin to clean up your digestion, your gut feelings about what to eat become clearer. As you become healthier you can start to trust your cravings. Cravings in a healthy body…that is not addicted to sugar, caffeine, casein and gluten...will let you know when there is something missing from your diet. 
 
Salt cravings can be an important clue or sign that your thyroid and adrenal glands may be in need of minerals. If you satisfy those salt cravings with refined (mineral-depleted) table salt and processed foods, you will continue to weaken these vital organs. But, if you choose high quality sea salts instead…salts that contain an abundance of naturally balanced minerals…you will quell those cravings and help restore health to your adrenals and your thyroid.

We love the mineral-rich sea salts from Selina Naturally. They recently introduced us to the healing powers ofHawaiian sea salt, a very nourishing salt that we’ve never before had available to us. This special Hawaiian salt from deep sea water contains ionized sodium, ionized chlorine, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and selenium, plus many trace elements such as copper, iron, zinc, manganese and chromium, which are missing from common surface water.

Salt and Your Body’s Ecology

Body Ecology’s Principle of Balance teaches us that food has energetic properties that create expansive or contracting conditions in your body. Salt is very contacting in nature. When you eat a lot of salty food, you’ll immediately become too contracted. To create balance you’ll then start to crave expansive foods like carbs with sugar. Movie theatres benefit from the Principle of Balance. They sell you salty popcorn knowing that soon you’ll be running back to the concession stand for a sweet sugary soda. To learn more about expansive vs. contractive foods, read: A Review of the 7 Key Healthy Eating Principles as You Approach 2007.

Your inner genius also naturally wants to sprinkle alkalizing salt on more acidic foods like nuts and seeds, animal proteins, salmon and chicken. Your amazing body is constantly working to achieve this type of balance. 

How Much Is Really Too Much?

The Principle of Uniqueness tells us that we all have different needs for sea salt. Just as one size does not fit all of us, we don’t all need the same amount of salt each day. Some people are very sensitive to sodium, while others (especially endurance athletes) need more salt to function. In general, men need more than women, and children under the age of two need almost none.

Ladies, pay attention to your salt intake as you follow your monthly menstrual cycle. Cut way back on salt afterovulation. You don’t want to eat a lot of salty foods after you ovulate or you will become too contracted. When the time comes for the lining of your uterus to be shed you’ll find that you feel uptight and irritable. If you eat less salt and your body is in balance, your uterus will relax and the lining will be easily cleansed away. 

Also be careful of eating too much salt during the days of your period. If you eat too much salt then, it can stop the flow of blood and you will not have a complete cleansing as nature intends. After the lining is shed, you can then increase your use of sea salt a bit to bring on a smooth ovulation. Being a bit more contracted at this time helps your ovaries contract to release the egg.

Experts recommend between 1600 mg and 2400 mg of sodium per day for adults, as a general guideline (1 teaspoon of salt provides about 2000 mg of sodium). 

At Body Ecology we say to follow your own intuition and cravings as long as you use only high-quality, mineral-rich sea salt to satisfy your salt needs. Listen to your body, and you'll take in the amount you need as your body seeks balance. (It’s important to know, however, you cannot correct a mineral deficiency with sea salt. you’ll need to take extra minerals too.)

Too much of any one food can cause imbalances and then health problems. Learn and practice The Principle of Balance...one of Body Ecology’s seven Universal Principles...and you’ll soon be enjoying just the right amount of sea salt for you.

Looking for another natural way to reduce your risk of hypertension? Try fermented beets.

 

Posted via email from WellCare