Is a Salt Free Diet wise?

Salt is one of the most essential ingredients of the body. In their order of importance, oxygen, water, salt and potassium rank as the primary elements for the survival of the human body. The onset of high blood pressure is directly related to a sodium-potassium (”see-saw”) imbalance in the body. Unfortunately, most people’s salt intake is too high. Provided your kidney function is normal and you are NOT on high blood pressure medication yet, potassium supplements will most probably solve your high blood pressure problem. I can speak from experience.

Now what if you’re on a salt free diet? The precaution to keep in mind is loss of salt from the body when water intake is increased and salt intake is not. After a few days of taking six to eight or 10 glasses of water a day (which has many advantages!) you should begin to think of adding some salt to your diet – especially if you take potassium supplements. For every 10 glasses of water, one should add to the diet a good pinch of salt (preferably unpro-cessed sea salt or Himalayan/”Pink” salt) per day. If your skin or ankles start to swell, reduce the salt intake for a few days, but increase your water intake until the swelling in the legs disappears. Remember to increase exercise as well. 

If the body is overloaded with potassium, histamine production in the body will increase and will manifest as some sort of ‘allergy’. One study states that people got rid of long-standing asthma attacks by a simple advice: limit orange juice intake (high potassium content) per day and replace it with water.  The role of histamine in water regulation of the body is actually more important than we realize. So if it isn’t life threatening, think twice before you take antihistamine medication. A vast majority of very frequently used medications are either directly or indirectly strong antihistamines. The strongest variety is found in antidepressant drugs. Many antidepressant drugs are antihistamines…and antihistamine medication will strongly affect the immune systems of the body at the level of the bone marrow. Consult your naturopath, homeopath or a health shop for better options, e.g. 5-HTP, Serotonin / Dopamine or SAMe supplements. 

Have you ever given it a thought why salt is mentioned in the Bible more than twenty times but no mention is made of calcium, magnesium or potassium? No wonder that there is increased evidence to prove that water and salt plays a primary function in cancer prevention…

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