You need salt to stay alive — so why does a can of Pringles make you swell up like a toad?

The answer lies in the kind of salt we use in our society.  Most of our salt is mined and then heavily processed.  The naturally-occurring minerals are stripped out and sold to vitamin companies.  It is chemically cleaned and processed and then doctored with iodine and flouride and anti-clumping agents.  It takes a lot of water to neutralize and get rid of these harmful chemicals.  If your body doesn’t get enough water, it takes it from the surrounding cells, messing up your whole fluid balance.  Your cells are limping along on empty and fluid is puffing up other areas as your body is trying to get rid of the extra stuff.  Since about 90% of the American diet is processed and heavily salted before it gets to our plates, we have a potential health issue on our hands.

What can you do?  Look for natural salt options.  Sea salt is a better choice, although the oceans are so polluted now that it takes a lot of processing to clean up the contaminants.

Himalayan salt — which is not necessarily from the Himalayan salt caves, although it does come from that part of the world — is a clean option.  It also provides the minerals your body needs since they haven’t been stripped out.  Those same minerals make it really tasty as well!  Don’t be surprised to find that it looks pinkish instead of white.  Those are the minerals you are seeing — minerals your body is craving.

If clean, healthy options aren’t available to you, do your best to go easy on the salt.  Avoid processed foods whenever possible and try substituting other seasonings in cooking.

And say goodbye to the potato chips. They are very high glycemic anyway!  Have a handful of nuts instead.

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown