Is salt a cause of high blood pressure ? Is sea salt, such as Celtic or Himalaya salt good for us because they have minerals in them? What does the scripture mean when the Lord talks about his people being the salt of the earth and if we are not obedient to him we are as the salt that has lost its savor and needs to be cast out? Is he saying salt (the right kind ) is good for us ?

Long before the earth was full of the pollutants that surround us today, great seas covered much of the land, particularly in North America.  As the seas dried up and condensed, they left salt deposited in the earth.  Volcanic ash covered and sealed up some of these salt deposits, leaving behind a rich resource of healthy salt, full of minerals and nutrients, including iodine.

Salt has long been a significant element.  Jesus called His followers “the salt of the earth.”  During His ministry and for centuries before, salt was a medium of exchange, recognized for its flavor, its healing properties, and its rarity.

What has given salt such a bad rap?  Frequently I get patients coming into my office who have been placed on a salt-reduced or a salt-free diet.  They complain of flavorless food that has lost its appeal.  They remark that their blood pressure is too high.  They perhaps had swelling in their limbs or were dehydrated, and salt was labeled the culprit.

But just as there are different qualities of water, or different levels of air quality, there are different qualities of salt.  Some grocery store items that are labeled “salt,” in fact, I would not call “salt” at all-they are filled with sugars (yes-sugars!) in the forms of dextrose, and silicates are added to prevent drying or caking.  Other additives can make regular table salt toxic. Particularly when our health is marginalized, we would do well to examine what makes a high quality salt, and get something that will do our body good.

The standard salt that you buy in a round box at the store is usually of a lesser quality.  You can test the value in the salt you use by noting its effect on your body.  My wife has had problems with swelling (edema) in her limbs in the past, but when she uses healthy salt, the swelling goes away.  Similar reports come from people who have high blood pressure, but who use healthy salt with a light hand.

Robert Thompson, M.D., writes, “In my practice, I have discovered that the average patient has only 10%-20% of the normal intracellular sodium content in spite of normal blood tests.  That’s why I tell them with confidence, based on tissue mineral analysis results, that they are making a big mistake when they boast that they ‘hardly eat any salt.’  I call this The Sodium Lie.  Almost all of us need more sodium. . . .These oceans (and sea salt deposits of dried ocean beds), by some miracle, contain a supersaturated solution of all the minerals found in mammals and humans in the perfect balance and concentrations we need for good health, except sodium.”

The book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, says that “Salt is a most essential ingredient 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.”

I personally believe that as cultures consume the processed food (including salt) that is prevalent in ‘civilized” cultures, their inhabitants begin to suffer from malnutrition.  This poor nutrition gives us illness in the form of bleached, “enriched” flour, bleached sugar, bleached silicate and sugar-containing salt, along with a host of boxed and canned poor food.  Our poor nutrition also sparks an inflammatory, swelling response, a strong indicator of obesity in our populations today.