I love salt

[bachcole]

I confess that I really like the salt in chips and that I never really was all that crazy about the chips per se.  People need lots of salt, approximately as much as they enjoy, despite what the mainstream dieticians and nutritionists say.

[goodsamaritan]

What brand / kind of salt do you enjoy?

[Dorothy]

I love salt too. My favorite is one from Hawaii mixed with red algae.
You might like the website Watercure2.com. In that website the importance of hydration in treating most illnesses is addressed and how salt is needed for the water to be taken into the cells through osmosis.

[TylerDurden]

Most RVAFers hate salt. I find it particularly unpleasant.

Incidentally, this should have been put in the hot topics forum. I'll do that now.

[Dorothy]

Perhaps it's because I eat more plant foods than most RVAFers?

[White shark]

Salt is healthy. I use himalayan crystal salt, its full of trace minerals. But i dont think table salt is healthy.

[eveheart]

I confess that I really like the salt in chips and that I never really was all that crazy about the chips per se

Chips of what?

[TylerDurden]

Chips of what?

"Chips" in UK slang means "French Fries" in US slang. Though, I believe USers are thinking of "crisps" when they refer to "chips".

[HIT_it_RAW]

Try eating salt by itself. See how much you really like it... If you (for example) hate kiwi but love it when mixed with other stuff, in a minute concentration, can you really say you like kiwi?

I hate salt. It burns and destroys mucus membranes

[Dorothy]

I actually like eating salt by itself. Sometimes I will put a little in the palm of my hand and lick it up with my tongue. I do like to drink water after that though. I do this especially when I've been outside in the heat for a while and feel immediately better and am ready to go outside again. Without enough salt here in the triple digit heat I can't stay outside long at all.

[bachcole]

When I say that I love salt, I mean that I will touch some salt with my finger, and then lick my finger.  But I generally only feel like doing that when I have been veggie juicing.  I think that veggie juice is sort of low in sodium, so that is why I am inspired to do this.

During my fast, I was lusting at some chips (like Doritos without the spice), and realized that it wasn't the carbs in the chips I wanted.  It was the salt.  So I started supplementing my raw juice/single egg/coconut oil fast with a dab of salt.

[goodsamaritan]

When I say that I love salt, I mean that I will touch some salt with my finger, and then lick my finger.  But I generally only feel like doing that when I have been veggie juicing.  I think that veggie juice is sort of low in sodium, so that is why I am inspired to do this.

During my fast, I was lusting at some chips (like Doritos without the spice), and realized that it wasn't the carbs in the chips I wanted.  It was the salt.  So I started supplementing my raw juice/single egg/coconut oil fast with a dab of salt.

Ah very logical.  Thanks for this nugget of info.

[jessica]

i love salt too, and agree that sometimes if i am not satisfied after a meal, just a bit of salt on the tongue will satiate my appetite

[PaleoPhil]

A positive take on salt, FWIW:

BIL 2012 - Dave Asprey - Bio Hacking, Longevity Via Salt
(Warning, there were technical difficulties during the video, though he got through the presentation.)

[AlphaCog]

The Salt Deception

A saline IV bag has 9g of NaCl(per litre). Patients in the hospital receives up to 3 IV bags a day. That's more than 30g of NaCl per day if one includes eating which is more than 13 times the RDA(1500–2300 mg NaCl).

I heavily salt my drinking water(more than 7g salt per litre). I don't get dehydrated and I get all the trace mineral goodness, and I think I ate less food because of it. Personally I think not having enough salt will tax the kidneys more than slight overconsumption.

[Chris]

Salt is part of the our diet. I never measure how much salt I use per day. It's always done by taste. I use Himalayan Salt and I buy it by the bag. I never bought into the hype that salt was bad for us. Now, processed salt with all the minerals taken out, then add  back inorganic Iodine. That can't be all that healthy for us. Natural unprocessed Salt is the best option. Very interesting video PaleoPhil. Thanks for posting.

[eveheart]

I am fascinated with the information on both the Asprey and Salt Institute videos. What perked up my ears the most was the correlation between low salt intake and insulin resistance. I've listened to both videos several times and I'm having a major a-ha! moment, along with a lot of anger at "my government" and "my medical profession." I've increased salt intake for a while now, but the importance was not made clear until I listened to these two videos.

[Dorothy]

So others don't have to look it up 1 teaspoon = 5.69 grams of salt.

Ideal daily dose stated in above video according to studies was 10 - 15 grams of salt.

That means TWO TEASPOONS OF SALT a day!

That's a lot of salt. I've been sprinkling it on my food because my body likes it and wondering if there was something wrong with me. Looks like my body just knows better than the government.

[Chris]

I've been sprinkling it on my food because my body likes it and wondering if there was something wrong with me. Looks like my body just knows better than the government.

Great Quote Dorothy! I got a chuckle from that one. It makes you wonder who the FDA is working for? I thought they were suppose to protect us, instead of hindering us! It's scary if you believe everything that's out there! Thank God for free thinkers in this world. Seems like we're being fed more propaganda from our Government everyday. Next thing you know they'll be spying on our phone calls, internet activity, and emails. 

[Alive]

Here is a radio report on the latest science that it is good to eat salt (at least for the typical person on a SMD that have been studied):

The science of salt
The advice that salt is bad for us and that we should limit how much of it we eat is one of the key public health messages out there. But does the science behind all these warnings really stack up? Science writer Gary Taubes doesn't think so. (22?11?)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thiswayup/audio/2522047/the-science-of-salt.asx

[raw-al]

I can't eat salt without some kind of bad reaction.

However, for some people it is a Godsend and there are many shades of grey in between

[svrn]

Salt is great food...for plants.

For me it is a serious irritant and I try to avoid it as much as possible.

If you want to know what salt is really doing to your mucous membranes on the inside then pour some on the mucous membrane of a slug. What happens to your mucous membranes is no different.

I hear it helps people who eat a lot of plant foods but you shouldnt be doing that in the first place. When I went really heavy on the animal foods my cravings for salt went down big time.

Sorry but I dont think eating rocks is the healthiest thing for a human to do.

[van]

When salt as described as toxic or an irritant, it's usually described as a concentrated source with water removed.  But with the water and salt ( minerals left in a natural balance ) intact, whole oceans supporting life beyond imagination thrive perfectly. 

[PaleoPhil]

As Lex pointed out in 2010, salt is used by the body in making HCL for stomach acid: http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/primal-diet/salt-and-hydrochloric-acid/?action=post;quote=30844;last_msg=31217

I haven't seen studies on salt or betaine HCl supplements and stomach acid production, but to me it makes more sense to consume the elements that the body uses to make HCl, like salts, than to give the body the HCl end-product (though some claim that betaine HCl supplements don't even contain HCl - http://huntgatherlove.com/content/betaine-hcl-whats-deal-does-it-increase-stomach-acidity-does-it-help-gerd-improve-digestion) and thus potentially signal to the body that HCl production is not needed.

Appropriate intakes of salt also appear to provide health and longevity benefits:

<<When Michael Alderman, a highly regarded epidemiologist and past president of The American Society of Hypertension scrutinized the [NHANES research data] in patients who were not overweight he reported that "the more salt you eat, the less likely you are to die." ... 

He examined the relationship between sodium intake and health effects in 3,000 patients with mild to moderate hypertension. In addition, his group measured sodium excretion, which is much more accurate than estimating dietary intake. At the end of four years, they found that those who consumed the least sodium had the most myocardial infarctions and other cardiovascular complications.

The reason for this is that when you restrict vital nutrients like salt (or cholesterol) all sorts of strange things can result. Low sodium diets can increase levels of renin, LDL and insulin resistance, reduce sexual activity in men and cause cognitive difficulties and anorexia in the elderly. Tasteless and dull low sodium diets can cause other nutritional deficiencies. Lowering sodium with diuretics to treat hypertension can cause similar problems.>>

Paul J. Rosch, M.D., Take the Latest Low Sodium Advice ... With a Grain of Salt, http://www.health-report.co.uk/sodium_chloride_salt_myths2.html

<<the decision to adopt a low sodium diet should be made with awareness that there is no evidence that this approach to blood pressure reduction is either safe, in terms of ultimate health impact, or that it is as effective in producing cardioprotection>>
Michael H. Alderman, MD, Salt, Blood Pressure, and Human Health, 2000, http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/36/5/890.full

<<In 2004 the Cochrane Collaboration ... published a review of 11 salt-reduction trials ... [which] concluded that "intensive interventions, unsuited to primary care or population prevention programs, provide only minimal reductions in blood pressure during long-term trials." A 2003 Cochrane review of 57 shorter-term trials similarly concluded that "there is little evidence for long-term benefit from reducing salt intake.">>

Animal blood contains salt (http://survivor-magazine.com/tag/salt). Few moderners consume much animal blood, unlike their ancestors. Even many people following so-called "Paleo" diets do not consume blood or use other ancestral sources of salt, such as salt lakes, mineral springs and mineral water, and further restrict their salt intakes, leading to intakes likely well below ancestral intakes.

[van]

I used 'HCL' tablets to good results.  I didn't follow the advice to take enough to get a burn in the stomach.   And then I tapered off gradually.  But then I don't know if I'd recommend it or not.  Might be more prudent to build up the amounts of meat one is eating, and to watch food combining.  For instance I notice that raw shredded coconut isn't good for me with a good size meat meal.