Poll

How often do you add salt to your food?

Always
7 (30.4%)
Ocasionally
4 (17.4%)
Rarely
7 (30.4%)
Never
5 (21.7%)

Total Members Voted: 21

Author Topic: Do you use salt?  (Read 10405 times)

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JaX

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Do you use salt?
« on: April 02, 2009, 03:40:17 am »
Do you liberally use salt or do you follow Loren Cordain's advice and stay away from it?

Experienced any benefits from adding it to food (better digestion, etc)?

Offline Raw Kyle

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2009, 03:46:55 am »
Rarely because I usually just eat meat and sometimes fruit. I put salt on the last batch of jerky I made.

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2009, 05:17:57 am »
Well, a few  like Lex have claimed that salt was essential(presumably a zero-carb requirement?). I've never felt a need for it. Though, once when I was doing raw zero-carb(and failing miserably) I was feeling so dehydrated despite drinking vast amounts of mineral water(and urinating it all out shortly after) that I added salt to the mineral-water I was drinking as that's supposed to hydrate the body more effectively than salt-free water. Didn't work, though, for me, that time.
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Offline Michael

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2009, 05:59:00 am »
I had a period over a number of years when following the primal diet when I added no salt to my diet. 

However, since adding it back in 3 or 4 years ago I've found that I suffer less digestive problems, no longer had such frequent periods of weakness/shakiness etc.  I do suffer with adrenal problems which causes the body problems relating to salt regulation.  So, for me, I seem to do much better with it!

I add a generous pinch of Celtic sea salt to all of my meals which are predominately made up of fatty cuts of beef or lamb with marrow, when available, and a few vegetable flavourings (parsley, garlic, onion...)

I also find I enjoy my meals much more WITH added salt but suppose this may be due to acquired taste or addiction.
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Offline seesawsemiology

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2009, 08:57:52 am »
I had a period over a number of years when following the primal diet when I added no salt to my diet. 

However, since adding it back in 3 or 4 years ago I've found that I suffer less digestive problems, no longer had such frequent periods of weakness/shakiness etc.  I do suffer with adrenal problems which causes the body problems relating to salt regulation.  So, for me, I seem to do much better with it!

I add a generous pinch of Celtic sea salt to all of my meals which are predominately made up of fatty cuts of beef or lamb with marrow, when available, and a few vegetable flavourings (parsley, garlic, onion...)

I also find I enjoy my meals much more WITH added salt but suppose this may be due to acquired taste or addiction.

ive recently been having some of the problems youve mentioned here and have begun to think i may have some (hyper) thyroid issues. i also consume little to know salt so your post here intrigues me...
do you (or anyone else) know in detail if and why salt is helpful with these symptoms?

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2009, 08:15:48 pm »
For the past 1+ year I've been eating raw paleo with zero salt.  I drink coconuts and get hydration from fruits.  I actually don't look for salt.

2 weeks ago when my son went for a checkup with a new doctor who is a raw weston price dieter, he recommended salt to my boy.  My boy is a cooked food eater, he eats some raw meat with me. 

So here I am the parent who needs to try out this salt thing because the doctor ordered it on my boy.  I noticed the past 1 week I did a lot of salt on my meat, I didn't enjoy it.  It felt like work and I felt blah.  I can handle "some" minute quantities of salt, but not a lot of it.  I did try lemons + salt on my oysters and that combination tastes good.  But when I dip my oysters in vinegar, I don't like salt on it.

When I do partake in cooked meat, I think the salt helps somewhat.  But when the meat is fully raw it seems really strange to put salt in it.  I tried a salt rub on beef one time and I totally did not like it.  My little girl likes dipping raw beef in the pools of blood that collect on the plate.

My theory is if you eat bloody meat and hydrating fruits, you get fully hydrated.  If you must drink plain water, then you need salt with it because plain water is badly utilized.  If I'm forced to drink water I squeeze lemon or calamansi and probably add raw honey to make juice.

See the Water Cure website to measure the amount of salt you need with the amount of plain water you drink.  This is for water drinkers.  http://www.watercure2.org/

For non-water drinkers like myself and barefoot and charlotte gerson, maybe we don't need salt.  But I'm open to adjust.  Maybe there is a combination of eating that requires salt and a combination of eating that does not need salt.

I did not notice any improvement in digestion when I add salt.  I did notice I can eat more raw meat when I add a little salt.



Satya

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2009, 09:31:59 pm »
ive recently been having some of the problems youve mentioned here and have begun to think i may have some (hyper) thyroid issues. i also consume little to know salt so your post here intrigues me...
do you (or anyone else) know in detail if and why salt is helpful with these symptoms?


Lex has already answered this question here:

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/journals/andrew%27s-journal/msg9558/#msg9558

We need both sodium and chloride in the diet.  Chloride is obviously part of HCl.  And:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloride
"Chloride is a chemical the human body needs for metabolism (the process of turning food into energy). It also helps keep the body's acid-base balance. The amount of chloride in the blood is carefully controlled by the kidneys. Further reading:Renal chloride reabsorption

"Chloride ions have important physiological roles. For instance, in the central nervous system, the inhibitory action of glycine and some of the action of GABA relies on the entry of Cl- into specific neurons. Also, the chloride-bicarbonate exchanger biological transport protein relies on the chloride ion to increase the blood's capacity of carbon dioxide, in the form of the bicarbonate ion.

"The normal blood reference range of chloride for adults in most labs is 95 to 105 milliequivalents (mEq) per liter. The normal range may vary slightly from lab to lab. Normal ranges are usually shown next to your results in the lab report."


http://vitanetonline.com/forums/1/Thread/688
"Deficiency of chloride is rare. However, when it does occur, it results in a life threatening condition known as alkalosis, in which the blood becomes overly alkaline. A tedious balance between alkalinity and acidity is in constant flux, and must be vigilantly maintained throughout the entire body. Alkalosis may occur as a result of excessive loss of sodium, such as heavy sweating during endurance exercise, and in cases of prolonged vomiting and diarrhea. Symptoms include muscle weakness, loss of appetite, irritability, dehydration, and profound lethargy. Hypochloremia may result from water overload, wasting conditions, and extensive bodily burns with sequestration of extracellular fluids. In a situation in which infants were inadvertently fed chloride-deficient formula, many experienced failure to thrive, anorexia, and weakness in their first year of life.3"

For people who eat no salt, plant, or seaweed matter, getting enough chloride can be very difficult.  Whereas sodium is found all over.  Also, sea salt has magnesium and other trace minerals too.  Thus, it is not some poison in reasonable quantities (which depend on activity level).

I sweat hard at a minimum of 1 hour a day 3 days a week practicing martial arts.  A moderate amount of naturally occurring sodium, potassium and chloride is absolutely necessary for superior health.

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2009, 09:34:44 pm »
I started adding salt back into my diet when someone receommeded that it helped them with night time muscle cramps which I was experiencing as well.  It did seem to help but to be truthful I have no idea whether the cramps were just a phase of adjustment or whether the salt did the trick.  

I find I like the taste of salt but not nearly as much as I did when eating cooked food or especially grains.  I think I've calculated that I add between 1 and 1 1/2 grams of salt to my food each day but then often skip a day or two - especially the day or so after I've eaten out and the steaks were over seasoned (sometimes to the point of being inedible and I have to send them back) which is common in restruants.  It seems from my experience that I must need some salt and my actual usage is driven by need.  One gram per day isn't much but it fully satisfys me on most occasions, and I find I don't even want that if I've had too much salt at a previous meal.

Never had digestive problems, though Dr. Barry Groves believes that salt is an important source of the chloride necessary for our bodies to make hydrochloric acid digestive juices.  I suppose the need for added salt depends on other sources for chloride that you might consume.  I would expect that those consuming raw sea foods would naturally get some salt in their diets directlly from their food.  If I remember correctly, Steffannson indicated that the Inuit drank brackish water which contains some salt and he believed that this was important to their health.

I've cut out all fruits and especially their juices, as well as all plant based fats and oils from my diet and my health has been much the better for it.  During my vegan years I believed these foods were critical for health.  The success of my current way of eating has now lead me to believe quite the opposite.  I think that our belief in the need for these foods is driven by custom, culture, and early eduction by parents, family, and politically correct do gooders.  Unfortunately these can be difficult if not impossible influences to overcome.

For the past 3 or 4 years my only beverage has been water.  I drink freely when thirsty and then drink until fully satisfied.  I pay no attention whatever to whether I'm drinking before, after, or during meals and let thirst be the driver.  I have never experienced a problem.

Lex

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2009, 01:14:51 am »
There are, of course, plenty of natural salts within raw foods, so, IMO, sea-salt/rock-salt is unnecessary.
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Satya

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Re: Do you use salt?
« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2009, 02:55:31 am »
There are, of course, plenty of natural salts within raw foods, so, IMO, sea-salt/rock-salt is unnecessary.


Chloride is not so easily found in foods.  Which raw animal foods provide ample chloride?  And just to be clear, sea salt is about 84% sodium chloride.  For people eating zero carb, as well as people getting heavy duty exercise or living in a hot climate, extra sources of this electrolyte may well indeed be necessary.

http://westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/mineralprimer.html
"Chloride is widely distributed in the body in ionic form, in balance with sodium or potassium. It helps regulate the correct acid-alkaline balance in the blood and the passage of fluids across cell membranes. It is needed for the production of hydrochloric acid and hence for protein digestion. It also activates the production of amylase enzymes needed for carbohydrate digestion. Chloride is also essential to proper growth and functioning of the brain. The most important source of chloride is salt, as only traces are found in most other foods. Lacto-fermented beverages and bone broths both provide easily assimilated chloride. Other sources include celery and coconut."