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Table salt has absolutely no benefit to the health of the body. However, the body requires salt in order to function properly and low-salt diets can actually do more damage than most realize.

The Terrors of Table Salt

Alive #217, November 2000

Unrefined sea salt or natural rock salt, also known as "real salt" supplies important minerals to our diet. In fact, the liver cannot function without salt. It helps speed up recoveries from serious illness and acts as a scavenger-purging the body of toxins. Refined and processed table salt, however, should be eliminated from every health conscious kitchen for the following reasons:

• It retains fluids. One ounce (28.35 grams) of table salt retains up to one pound (0.45 kilograms) of water. Fluid retention is not only uncomfortable, it tires the heart.
• It acidifies the blood, which offers an open invitation to heart problems, hypertension, liver illnesses, neuralgia, rheumatism and gastric ulcers.
• It damages and depletes enzymes, upsets the sodium/potassium balance, creates an acidic stomach and inhibits digestion.
• It overstimulates the nervous system by activating the adrenal glands.
• It increases perspiration and decreases muscle contractility–including the muscles of the heart.
• It creates arrythmia from its abnormal impact on nerves and helps harden arteries and other tissues. It also fosters calcium and fatty deposits on the artery walls.

North Americans consume two to three times more salt than they should. Refined salt is consumed in heavily salted foods like potato chips, popcorn, salted peanuts, canned food, candies and salted cereals. Refined salt puts a huge burden on the kidneys, weakening them until they can no longer function.

Still the body needs minerals that are found in unrefined salt. Deficiencies, can lead to kidney infections, respiratory aliments and healing retardation. In its natural state, salt has at least 100 other minerals and trace elements which lead to a healthy diet. It stabilizes blood pressure. A deficiency of total salt minerals makes the body fight harder to survive and makes blood pressure go up. Whole unrefined salt causes leeks and dandelions to turn into diuretics. By bathing and rubbing skin with its granules, natural salt helps the skin to function as an elimination organ.