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Is A Salt Substitute The Answer to High Blood Pressure? |
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Is A Salt Substitute The Answer to High Blood
Pressure? Hypertensive (high blood pressure) patients are being told to stop salt intake and use salt substitutes. Is that good advice? Is a Salt Substitute really healthier for you? Is it the salt or something else creating their hypertension? In past society's salt was valuable for its health properties but something changed in the modern processing of it since those days of old. Salt was used as currency during the Roman rule. Roman soldiers were paid in salt. The Latin word sal is the root for the English word salary. Based on this, I'm sure you have heard the familiar phrase that a person is "worth their salt", meaning worth the wages they receive. Real non-chemicalized salt intake is absolutely necessary to survival and don't you forget it! Our medical world continues telling people that their blood pressure problem can be eliminated by using salt substitutes. Now an eight-year study of a New York City's hypertensive population found those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those on normal-sodium diets - the exact opposite of what the "salt hypothesis" predicted. (1995) What they didn't study was the salt substitutes and how they fit into the equation! Hence we don't have the complete picture. Our regular table salt no longer has anything in common with the original crystal salt of those long ago days. Salt is now mainly sodium chloride and not actual salt. The common commercial table salt used by most people for cooking has only 2 or 3 chemical elements. Seawater has 84 mineral elements, referred to as electrolytes, that were originally found in salt. Our body requires those 84 elements for total health. A healthy body's blood plasma should consist of those very same 84 elements identical to seawater. Common table salt consumed by most is deficit of 81 elements and containing health altering byproducts from the processing, which means our body is becoming weaker, imbalanced and more susceptible to diseases. Table salt produced by the early pioneers was of excellent quality and contained those unadulterated elements. But man, in looking for something more convenient ended up decimating salt's true elements of health. Real Kosher salt is most usually an additive-free coarse-grained salt, used by Jews in the preparation of meat. It is also used by gourmet cooks who prefer its texture and flavor. Flavor from the 84 elements necessary for our body! While most salts start out as salt, they don't always end up that way. Normal table salt begins as a saline solution. Then after processing and kiln drying at temperatures in excess of 400 degrees, its natural state is changed and nearly all trace minerals are lost. Then processing chemicals are added such as Silico Aluminate, Potassium Iodide, Tri-calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Carbonate, Sodium bicarbonate, and yellow prussiate of soda just to name a few. These are added to bleach the salt, prevent caking, and aid in free-flowing so your salt will flow free even on rainy days. But what are they doing to your body? The funny thing is that the Food & Drug Administration usually let companies leave their processing aides off of their ingredient lists, as long as the material is being used in a small-enough concentration to fit their specifications. Yet when you consume refined table salt in large quantities you are consuming large quantities of those same chemicals. Did you know that two of the inorganic chemicals used in processing salt is also used to make many consumer related products, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic? I don't know about you but I really don't want to eat any part of PVC... Other additives are anti-caking agents such as calcium silicate, magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate, and other compounds. They are insoluble in water, which not only prevents them from forming clumps in humid environments (thus keeping the soluble crystals of sodium chloride separate), but also explains why water becomes slightly cloudy when salt with these additives is dissolved in it. These are all odorless and flavorless substances and contribute nothing to our body but what do they do once inside our body... We can only guess as studies have not been done to tell us... Now to answer the question; "are salt substitutes better?" Salt substitutes are supposed to be free of sodium but are they? Is sodium the whole problem? Not really... Some are free of sodium and some aren't but all have potassium chloride, which is dangerous to the very ones who seem to be consuming it for health reasons. Salt free diets are usually recommended to those who have hypertension and/or heart problems. Making this dangerous to the very ones who are taking heart and hypertension medications in conjunction with the salt substitute and mixing those medications with those ingredients... Listed below are the top salt substitutes and the amounts of potassium and sodium in each. *No Salt -- 1/4 tsp.: 650 mg. Potassium/0 mg. sodium *Morton's Lite Salt -- 1/4 tsp.: 350 mg. Potassium/290 mg. sodium *Morton's Salt Substitute -- 1/4 tsp.: 610 mg. Potassium/ 0 mg. sodium *Cardia Salt Alternative -- 1/4 tsp.: 180 mg. Potassium/ 270 mg. Sodium As you can see Potassium chloride is a common ingredient in salt substitutes. Too much potassium can be harmful if you have kidney problems or you're taking certain medications to treat high blood pressure or heart failure. Potassium-sparing diuretic drugs causes your kidneys to retain potassium. Just about every person with hypertension or certain heart diseases is given a diuretic drug! If you take a potassium-sparing diuretic and use a salt substitute containing potassium, too much potassium can build up in your body. Possible side effects include potentially life-threatening kidney failure and/or heart rhythm disturbances and even death. If you wish to use a salt substitute make your own! 1 tbsp. black pepper Place all the ingredients in a small electric
coffee grinder, spice grinder or blender. Makes about 1/2 cup. Compliments of Reader's Digest "Great Recipes for Good Health," www.rd.com How do I get around this whole problem? I use sea salt, no aluminum or contaminants as it is simply salt dried and ground as it comes from the sea. Same flavor results in your taste buds but without the contaminates from the extraction process as in regular salt. Be healthy and wise at the same time. *** Lena Sanchez Author of "Handbook Of Herbs To Health & Other Secrets," "Antibiotic Alternatives To Preventing Mega Bacteria," & "Dangers & Secrets Doctors Refuse To Tell You." Found online at http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com
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