Ways to reduce your intake of salt and spices


Nature offers us simple foods that taste good without salt, seasonings, condiments, herbs, spices along with other flavorings. Unfortunately, most of us have been raised on highly seasoned and salted foods, so we have difficulty returning to an easy, plain diet. We might even view such a diet as ascetic.

Raw-foodists may avoid using ketchup, mustard and so on, but many of them use dried spices, aromatic herbs and even salt. I fell into the same trap for several years. I now recommend avoiding these substances. Despite the fact that I always knew that these condiments weren't the best, it took me a while to realize their true nature. I figured their consequences were negligible. I was wrong! That being said, it doesn't mean that you have to refuse fanatically to taste something, just because it has some cumin powder in it. It is advisable to avoid salt and spices without making a religion out of it.

Your body needs sodium, but in small quantities. You get it from the fruits and vegetables you eat. Good tomatoes taste just a little salty. Celery, spinach and dark greens are naturally rich in salt. The sodium that natural foods contain is sufficient to meet your needs. With the addition of sea salt to your diet, you are almost certain to take in too much sodium and this will lead to several imbalances.

Knowing that your body only requires under 500 mg. of sodium daily (perhaps a little more if you are very active), and that a teaspoon of the greatest Celtic sea salt contains 1900 mg. of sodium, you can easily understand how adding sea salt towards the diet will create problems fast.

Salt kills life, which is why we preserve foods in salt - it prevents living activity from occurring. It's an antibiotic, which means "anti-life". If you put salt on a fresh cut in your skin, it is possible to feel its effects on yourself. It will burn you.

Salt can accumulate in the body. It causes your body to retain water in order to dilute the salt in the tissues, and to prevent harming cells. Excess salt is deposited at various places in the body, for example on the walls of the arteries. Blood flow is thereby disrupted, and high blood pressure is the result.

Sea salt is not much better than other types of salt. Sea salt is simply rock salt diluted through the ocean. The body has no use for it when it may have access to the natural sodium contained in vegetables and fruit.

Before the Europeans arrived on this continent, native people did not use salt and were in excellent health. Many cultures throughout the world never used salt until the Europeans introduced this poison to them. After they started including salt into their diet, their health progressively deteriorated, although there were several other allies to this deterioration.

Animals don't eat salt, unless they get tempted into licking a salt source somewhere in nature, which rarely happens. Their instinct is better than ours, although not 100% perfect. They can also make mistakes and be fooled by salt. Anyhow, salt licks are rare and many animals never have use of them.

When you stop eating salt, it will take almost a year for your body to reject it. Some days you may taste salt in your mouth, although you may not have eaten it in weeks. It is another proof that the body is rejecting the salt and not using it. You may urinate more at night for a while, even many months, until the body has rejected all the salt. Complete "desalinization" of the body may take years.

To replace salt, I have think of a natural seasoning using celery. Simply dehydrate slices of celery (in very large quantities) in a dehydrator or oven (open, at low temperature.) When they're completely dried, using them as a powder utilizing a coffee grinder. This will make a nice, naturally salty seasoning that you can use to replace salt. You can do exactly the same with other vegetables to add additional flavor to this seasoning. Dried purple cabbage powder is especially good in salads.

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This article was sent to us by: Amanda Jenkins at 02222011

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