Did you know salt was once a very precious commodity? Most of the ancient settlements and cities were created because of the salt trade.
Salt was also once used as currency. Imagine, buying two carrots for a pinch of salt! In fact, people were paid in salt. The word “Salary” comes from the Latin word for salt!
Salt was so essential that most of the earliest roads leading to Rome were created to carry salt! Thus adding a new spin to the line, “all roads lead to Rome”.
So, what is it about this; salt, that has caused wars and civilizations to grow and collapse? How is human history so intertwined with this stuff, that we now take for granted.
It can’t possibly be to make their morning omelets taste better. Was food so bad they needed to fight wars to make it taste better?
In truth, salt is essential for the human body to survive. Salt is made up of sodium chloride. It is known as an electrolyte and is essential for the proper functioning of nerves and muscle fibers. The body cannot transmit electrical signals without it.
Salt is so important that animals in the wild will often find places that are rich in dried-up salt and spend days licking the dried salt. These are called salt licks.
Salt regulates blood pressure and the Ph balance of the body. And here is where the “demonization of salt” starts.
How many times have you ordered food in a restaurant and said less salt? Or have you started having food with less salt at home? I know I have gone through that phase as well. Food starts tasting less appealing and bland. Yuck!
All because someone somewhere villainized salt for us. Saying have less of it, or else your blood pressure will shoot through the roof! Resulting in neurotransmission issues as well as bad tasting food.
Yes, Sodium from salt does increase our blood pressure, however, that is because our food is deficient in potassium.
Sodium and potassium work together in balancing the blood pressure. The table salt we get has no potassium in it.
In fact, most of the table salt is not produced from the sea as we might believe. Salt is industrially produced. So while it is a more pure form of sodium chloride. It lacks the minerals found in sea salt. Companies add anti-caking agents as well as other chemicals to the salt to make it flow easily.
Today all our processed food is laden with salt. Most of us exceed our salt requirements only from the processed food we eat. There is no getting away from this, except, not eating processed food.
If we stop eating processed food and limit restaurant food, we can take control of our salt intake in a very simple manner. With the use of Himalayan Pink Salt. This is salt mined in the Himalayas of Pakistan. It is not produced from the sea but from the mountains.
Pink salt has 2% of trace minerals like magnesium and potassium. So it is better at maintaining a blood pressure balance than normal table salt.
Another form of salt is Rock salt. This is also a land-based salt and is mined. People have a love-hate relationship with this salt. Some love the taste and others cannot stand it. Rock salt is very different from Pink salt.
It is critical we move away from the table salt to Pink salt or a mix of pink, rock and sea salt.
So your habit to improve your salt consumption is to go and buy a packet of Himalayan Pink Salt. Once the salt at home gets over, start using this. Don’t wait for the salt at home to get over as you might end up buying a regular packet of salt in a hurry.
This small change is what I call a passive habit. Once you have made this swap, you no longer have to actively think about it.
So use Pink salt and say bye bye to unsalted and tasteless food at home!
