A friend and I were going to go out to the local annual fair. When she heard how I sounded this morning she suggested I stay home instead and have a good rest. I seem to be coming down with congestion in the chest. I took her advice and it gave me a chance to begin a slow read of my new book.
The new book I've had on my shelves for a long while. It is called, Salt by Mark Kurlansky. It is a book all about the history of salt and how it has shaped civilization.
Did you know that wars have been fought over salt; that salt has been used for currency, or that in 1930, Ghandi initiated a salt march to overthrow British rule in India? I also found it interesting that "sal" is the Latin word for salt and that our "sal-ary" derives from the word "sal" because soldiers used to be paid in salt. The word "sal-ad" also derives from the word "sal" because at one time, salad was made of vegetables flavoured with salt or a salt based dressing. I've only just started the book but already it sounds very interesting.
Most of us use salt on a daily basis. North American table salt tends to be heavily processed, stripped of its trace minerals and enhanced with anti-caking chemicals like aluminum to make it easier to shake from your salt shaker. In fact, salt is crucial to your health but many of us use overly refined salt and too much of it. In recent years, the governments in North America have been creating awareness of the danger of too much salt, warning that amongst other ailments, too much salt contributes to high blood pressure. Consequently, many of us have cut down on our table and cooking salt, eliminated it or replaced it with herbs or what we think are healthier versions of salt.
I switched to "sea salt" years ago. I put the words "sea" and "salt" in quotation marks because really, all salt comes from the sea. Once salt water evaporates you are left with salt. The real difference comes in the processing of the salt and what is subtracted from, or added to it. For more information on the difference between table salt and sea salt, please read here if interested.
First, I tried Himalayan Sea Salt and I also bought one of the Himalayan salt lamps) to counteract the positive ions created by the computer and television). This type of salt is sold in health food stores here and is very expensive so I switched to a refined Greek sea salt called Kalas, made by the largest producer of sea salt in Greece. I've moved on again to another type of sea salt from an ancient sea bed in Utah, called Real Salt. It is an unrefined salt containing over 60 trace minerals. I can't say it has made a huge difference in how I feel or in the swelling of my extremities but I'll stick with it because I believe the lack of processing and the presence of 60 trace minerals has to be good.
What about you dear reader? Do you also still use regular iodized table salt or have you made a change?
