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Better Health Update #56 - Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist

Celtic Sea Salt

Salt is paradoxical. The Bible lists nearly 50 references to salt - many of them, positive references, such as the requirement of adding salt to a grain offering (Leviticus 2:13). Yet in our contemporary culture, salt is generally regarded as a health-robbing food additive linked to cardiovascular and other diseases. Historically salt has often been a medium of exchange, due to the high esteem in which it was held. Yet I personally have regarded salt as a "junk food" to be avoided since writing my first book in 1976. Animals, no matter how much mineral content they may derive from the vegetable matter they graze on, instinctively seek out natural salt licks to complete their diet . . . Or they die. So, we're confronted with the simple question: Is salt good or bad?

The answer is "both." - it depends on what kind of salt we're talking about. Just as there are different kinds of sugars (good and bad) and different kinds of flours (good and bad), there are both good and bad kinds of salt. Although it should have been obvious, I missed an important health truth for 25 years by failing to apply one of my own definitions to salt.

JUNK FOOD DEFINITION

In my booklet, The Junk Food Withdrawal Manual, I describe "junk food" as dead (as opposed to being living), refined (as opposed to being whole, and adulterated (as opposed to being pure). By this definition there is both a natural food salt and a junk food salt. From a health and nutrition point-of-view we have an "evil trinity" of three "whites" - white sugar, white flour, and white salt - all of which fit the junk food definition of dead, refined, and adulterated.

SALT REFINING PROCESS

According to the Diamond Crystal Salt Company table salt goes through an eight step refining process:

1. Brine enters a series of heaters which elevate the temperature to 290 degrees under high pressure.
2. Heat supercharged brine goes into a "graveler" filled with cobblestones to remove impurities.
3. Pressure is lowered via a series of "flashers," cooling the brine to 226 degrees, allowing crystallization to begin.
4. Salt crystals form in a large evaporator pan with the wet salt being automatically raked into a large well.
5. This wet salt then goes into a centrifugal separator removing remaining brine.
6. The salt then goes into a rotary dryer, making the salt perfectly dry.
7. Magnetic screens are then used to separate the salt into different sizes.
8. After screening, different sizes of salt are stored in their respective bins.

High heat processing kills the salt; removing 82 of the 84 minerals found in sea water refines the salt, and the addition of harmful additives to prevent moisture absorption and caking adulterates the salt. Regarding this last step in the making of a "junk food," the most commonly used additives are alumino-silicate of sodium or yellow prussiate of soda. Aluminum compounds are highly toxic, having been associated with Alzheimer's Disease and other conditions. Corn sugar (dextrose) has also been a typical additive to salt to keep it free-flowing - kind of a "double whammy" - adding sugar to your salt - just what you need!

MOTIVATION FOR SALT REFINING

It's not too hard to see that the processing of salt renders it a "junk food." To understand the motivation, however, one need only follow the money. The primary use of salt is not as a food additive, but for industrial purposes. Only 7% of salt manufactured goes for food; the other 93% goes to industry. Industry requires chemically pure sodium chloride for manufacture of explosives, chlorine gas, soda, fertilizers and plastics. Since refined table salt is formulated specifically for industrial and chemical usage, scant concern is given to its toxic effect on human biology.

Of course the trace minerals originally in salt are quite valuable. Manufacturers can sell off the other 82 elements found in sea water, leaving only sodium and chloride, and make a lot of extra money. The resulting refined table salt still tastes salty, though like white sugar or white flour it is missing most of its original nutrients.

SO-CALLED "SEA SALT"

Many people think they've solved the salt problem by buying "sea salt" at their health food store. For all practical purposes, "sea salt" is essentially the same as regular table salt - it is a refined salt. All the term "sea salt" really means is that the salt was derived from sea water. In almost all cases, it is totally refined! Furthermore sea salt is:

1. Mechanically harvested from dirt or concrete containments with bulldozers and piped through metallic pipes.
2. Exposed to very high heat which cracks its crystalline structure.
3. Refined of virtually all its essential minerals.
4. Adulterated by chemical additives used to make it flow freely, bleached to a white color, and iodized to unnaturally high levels.

"Sea Salt" sold in health food stores generally comes from the same salt refineries as the regular supermarket table salt. It is 98%+ sodium chloride. The term "Sea Salt" is a deceptive misnomer. However, there is a natural, healthful sea salt without these problems.

CELTIC SEA SALT

Celtic (pronounced kel-tic with a hard "c") Sea Salt has been produced by the same hand methods of "salt farming" off the Brittany Coast of France for centuries. It is naturally air and sun dried in clay ponds and gathered by hand with wooden tools such that it has a living enzyme content. It is unrefined so it contains all 84 elements found in sea water. It is unadulterated with no anti-caking additives or bleaching. This is the historic way salt has been produced for thousands of years. This is the kind of salt spoken of so favorably in the Bible.

Unlike table salt, which is 97.5% sodium chloride and up to 2.5% chemical additives, or "sea salt" that is 98% + sodium chloride and up to 2% other minerals, Celtic Sea Salt is only 84% sodium chloride and 16% other minerals. This dramatically changes the effect of the salt in the body.

UNREFINED SALT'S EFFECT ON THE BODY

Our bodies possess three "internal oceans" that closely resemble the content of sea water: blood plasma, lymphatic fluid, and extracellular fluid. Celtic Sea Salt has that same mineral content as the oceans and these bodily fluids.

The salty amniotic fluid produces growth of the human embryo by 3 billion times! Life is dependent upon the presence of sodium, BUT not by itself. The sodium must be balanced out with other minerals like magnesium, calcium, potassium, and various trace minerals. Salt activates the salivary enzyme in the mouth - the very first enzyme in the digestive process. Sodium is required by the parietal cells of the stomach wall to make hydrochloric acid for digestion. From the moment of conception humans are never without a need for salt. But understand that we don't need toxic, refined table salt, but living, unrefined, and unadulterated salt like Celtic Salt.

CELTIC SALT AND HEALING

Celtic Sea Salt can profoundly affect healing of various ailments - simply by balancing out the body's intended mineral levels. Here are some examples:

1. Sinus or Bronchial Congestion - Celtic Salt has an affinity for mucous. It literally draws it out of the body. When you use Celtic Salt, particularly doing the Salt Cleanse below, you will greatly increase the mucous blown out the nose and coughed up.

2. Nourishing the Adrenals - Your adrenal glands run on sodium, but what they need is not the toxic refined sodium chloride table salt, but a whole, unrefined salt. A significant part of immune response comes from adrenal hormone secretions. But if your adrenals are weak and stressed out, they have nothing to give when you feel that cold or flu coming on.

3. Preventing Illness - More heavily salting food at the first signs of sickness can counteract the illness. Celtic Salt stimulates cellular energy and enhances resistance to infections. This may be due in part to Celtic Salt's beneficial effect on the adrenal glands.

4. Better, Longer Sleep - I've discovered from personal experience and that of clients that taking Celtic Salt at bedtime, as when temporarily doing the Salt Cleanse, generally results in longer, uninterrupted, more refreshing sleep.

5. High Blood Pressure - Everyone thinks high blood pressure is aggravated by salt. That's true and false. Refined, toxic table salt is an irritant to the body that can cause high blood pressure. Many people experience a lowering of blood pressure by using Celtic Salt.

6. Fluid Retention - Did you ever in your wildest dreams think someone would tell you that a special type of natural salt would reverse fluid retention? Using Celtic Sea Salt many people lose fluid weight from the proper balancing out of the minerals in salt. Eat refined sodium chloride only salt and you'll get fluid retention as the body tries to neutralize this toxin. Eat Celtic Salt and the body can be properly balanced out on its electrolyte minerals and release that retained water.

7. Trauma - Extra Celtic Salt can be beneficial for shock, severe burns (not externally), hemorrhage, surgery and physical trauma.

8. Other Conditions - This type of natural salt is also reported to help correct excess acidity, relieve allergies, relieve skin diseases, and restore better digestion through stimulating hydrochloric acid secretions.

THE SALT CLEANSE

While undergoing a severe respiratory infection I was encouraged to try a Salt Cleanse with Celtic Sea Salt to stimulate cleansing of mucous from the body. I recommend doing this from a few nights in a row up to perhaps a couple of weeks. It results in a major elimination of mucous both from blowing the nose and expectorating. Your sinus and respiratory passages will feel much clearer.

To do the Salt Cleanse take 1 teaspoon of Celtic Salt in 8 oz of warm distilled water. Drink this at bedtime.

Some observations:

1. This amount of refined, toxic table salt in a glass of water would act as an emetic - you would vomit. With the Celtic Salt it tastes great - like a salty broth - and feels perfectly all right on your stomach.

2. Drinking a glass of this salt water at bedtime won't necessarily cause you to have to get up during the night to urinate. I've found the opposite is true - you'll tend to have uninterrupted sleep.

3. Drinking this won't tend to make you particularly thirsty the way regular refined table salt would. Remember, regular salt is dead, refined, and adulterated . . . and therefore toxic to the body. Celtic Salt is food - it is nourishing to the body.

4. Though not 100% of the time, most of the time I've used the Celtic Salt this way at bedtime I've slept longer and woken up feeling great. The right kind of mineral balance in the body can do amazing things. With it's mineral content largely identical to blood serum and lymphatic fluid, it really is "the salt of life."

5. How long should one do the Salt Cleanse? Maybe only a time or two - maybe for two weeks or more in a row as I have done during a particularly rough respiratory infection. Listen to your body and you'll probably know if it feels right. If the Salt Cleanse doesn't feel as stimulating and refreshing as it did originally, you've probably had enough. If the phlegm coming up and out starts to taste and feel salty, you've had enough of the Salt Cleanse.

Salt has been treasured since the beginning of time for its life-giving properties. Begin experiencing the benefits of natural salt.

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this publication is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose illness nor prescribe treatment. Rather, this material is designed to be used in cooperation with your nutritionally-oriented health professional to deal with your personal health problems. Should you use this information on your own, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your constitutional right, but neither the author nor publisher assume responsibility.