(Tom: I was sent this by a friend. I know the reference to vegetables containing less than 10% of the minerals they had decades ago is a generalisation. For some minerals the loss is greater, for some it is less than 10%. But it may be an average. That is why I add minerals to my bars and powders: http://www.fulvicminerals.com.au/)
The chemical and mineral compositions of our blood, and saline fluids have an amazing similarity to seawater. As an embryo in our mother’s womb, we are encased in a sack, filled with this saline fluid.
Seawater contains 84 mineral elements. These same 84 mineral elements are found in our bodies. Modern science has determined that 24 of these elements are essential for life, although many believe that a proper balance of all 84 elements in our bodies is necessary for good health. Whenever a dietary deficiency of any of these elements occurs, the cells in our bodies lose ions. A loss of ions in our cells causes imbalances, a breakdown of the cell regeneration and growth process, and loss of the cells themselves, which leads to nervous disorders, brain damage, muscle damage or illness. Therefore, it is vital to your health to have the proper mineral balance in the saline and ion composition of your blood and these compositions must be maintained within very precise limits. Many illnesses and poor health conditions have been traced to a deficiency of minerals, ironically the minerals that are found in sea salt.
The Modern Salt Making Process: The salt consumed today is made by several large industrial companies. The same salt is, for both, industrial use, and human consumption. 93% of their production goes for industrial purposes, 7% for food use. The process is started with salt, which is mined from large underground salt deposits that were left behind when the inland seas evaporated millenniums ago. Seawater, is also used for the production of salt which is then refined. This is where the problems begin, at least in terms of your health. The salt is refined to remove impurities, making it more attractive and uniform in appearance, and to extract most of the mineral elements. When the refining process is over the salt looks great, flows more easily out of your saltshaker, but 82 of the 84 trace elements have been extracted.
Why do the large industrial companies do this? The largest customer (industrial processors) who buys 93% of their product only requires a salt that contains sodium and chloride. They do not need the other 82 elements; and several of the minerals that are extracted have great commercial value. Therefore these elements are removed from the salt to be sold as an additional value-added by-product. Examples are Boron that is sold to make anti-knock petrol additives, and chemical fertilizers, along with Magnesium, which is sold to manufacturers of light metal alloys and explosives. The chemicals and minerals removed from salt are also used to make plastics. As a result of this unfortunate situation, what we now know as common table salt is only sodium chloride; all of the other beneficial elements have been removed.
Chemical additives such as aluminum hydroxide & aluminum silicate are then added to bleach the salt whiter and prevent water absorption while the salt is in it’s packaging, making the salt flow freely; iodine and iodine stabilizers are also added, but this is another interesting story. Why? Because the chemical additives, which prevent the refined salt from absorbing water, whilst packaged, also prevent the refined salt from being properly absorbed in your body. This is why we are constantly being told how harmful table salt can be.
These chemical additives present in refined salt cause it to be difficult for our bodies to absorb and process. As a result, deposits of refined salt build up in our bodies. Some of it may be deposited in the joints of our bones. If so, arthritic problems may eventually develop. Some may be deposited along the walls of our veins, arteries, lymph system ducts, or in our brain, urinary tract, sexual organs, or glandular system. This may eventually lead to brittleness of these areas, loss of function, high blood pressure and impairment of bodily vitality.
It is interesting to note that, fish from the ocean will die quickly if placed in a solution of refined salt and water. The sodium chloride, or table salt, as we know it, is actually poisonous to them.
Are you Salt Starved? Many of us definitely use too much salt in our diet. We crave it. This is because our bodies crave the 82 missing elements, which are absent from our table salt, and our bodies send the message to consume more salt. But the salt we consume doesn’t have these 82 elements, so our bodies send the message out again “eat more salt!” Thus a destructive cycle exists which leads us to again consume too much sodium chloride, which due to the refining process, cannot be properly processed by our bodies. This then allows harmful salt deposits to form in our bodies, and thus, great stress is placed on the overall function of our body as it struggles to operate without the other 82 missing elements.
Many of these 82 missing elements are only trace elements, and are therefore required, by our bodies, in only very small amounts, however, many believe that a deficiency of these trace elements contribute to many illnesses of today.
Minerals and Your Health: Originally our bodies received the minerals it needed from two sources; plants and salt. The plants received their minerals from the soil. We then ate the plants, as grains, vegetables and fruits: now let us look at what has happened. In the last 50 years or so, mankind has stepped in and interfered with the natural system, by introducing artificial fertilizers. Man learned that by applying artificial fertilizers, which contain only nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, he could cultivate larger areas of land, increase his yield per acre, and greatly improve his productivity. The problem here was that the eighty or so other minerals, which the plants took from the soil, were not replaced by the artificial fertilizer. So our soils have gradually become mineral depleted, which means that the plants grown in these soils are also mineral deficient. Studies have shown that the vegetables of today contain only 10% of the nutrition of vegetables grown 50 years ago.
If we can no longer get the minerals we need for optimum health from the plants we eat, and we no longer get the minerals we need from the refined salt we have been eating, what is to be done?
Many people have gone to mineral supplements to erase mineral deficiencies in their diet. These synthetic supplements cannot offer the complete range of minerals you need and are always less effective than consuming minerals in their natural form. Read the label of your mineral supplement. Do you read on the label that the mineral supplement contains 84 minerals? Probably not, therefore they are mineral deficient. Some mineral supplements have only 10 or 12 minerals in them. Many supplements provide minerals in forms that are not readily metabolized in your body, in addition, some minerals, especially certain trace minerals, can be harmful if taken artificially, in large doses.
This is why natural unrefined sea salt is so good for us! It comes in “precise dosages” that are perfectly matched to the mineral composition of our body. The minerals are in an organic form that is completely absorbable by our body, and you cannot take an excess dosage since all salt in excess of your needs is naturally expelled from your body.
Salt and Kidneys: The kidneys are greatly affected by the long-term consumption of refined salt. Natural salt assists bodily liquids to freely pass through all body membranes, including the kidney’s blood vessels and glomerulus. Refined salt, however, may restrict the flow of fluids, causing edema and chronic kidney problems. Eventually, insoluble crystals of haemoglobin form in the kidneys, possibly resulting in kidney failure.
Are You Convinced Yet? So maybe you will use natural unrefined Sea Salt from now on. The next issue is how to obtain a good quality Sea Salt. Choose carefully, for much of the salt sold as sea salt in your health food stores and elsewhere is also refined, and therefore not desirable. Read the label thoroughly, searching for salt that is unrefined and unprocessed. It is worth the effort! Foods cooked with natural salt taste better; you will be supplying your body with necessary minerals and trace elements, and your salt craving will be lessened.
Source: Salt Of The Earth
