Salt endangers our health

By Ginger Isham

Even though salt is important to main healthy cells in our body it is important that we use the right kind of salt.

The FDA recommends a daily intake of 2,400 milligrams of salt. The average person in this country takes in 2 to 3 teaspoons a day, which is 4,000 to 6,000 milligrams.

We can handle excess sodium if it is in the natural form that our bodies can readily excrete. This natural form is sea salt that is becoming more and more used in place of the table salt commonly sold on the shelves of our supermarkets.

The intake of commercial salt is trouble and it is used in many of our processed foods as a preservative and also to encourage our taste buds to want more of it. During the refining process, this salt is heated to a high temperature and all minerals are stripped from the product. The salt is chemically cleaned and bleached and treated with an anti-caking agent to keep the salt from mixing with water in a salt container. The same thing happens in our bodies because the salt does not dissolve. It combines with fluids and water in our bodies and builds up and leaves deposits in our organs and tissues.

Common sense tells me our government should step in and insist companies do away with this kind of salt, decrease the amount of usage in our food, or do both.

To avoid this health hazard, use sea salt or Real Salt. Real Salt is extracted from an ancient seabed in Utah. You can purchase small shakers of Real Salt to use when traveling.

In recent months, my husband and I have eaten out at local restaurants and found the foods, especially meat and fries, so salty we could not eat them. When commenting to our waitress, she said we should ask for lightly salted food when we order it.

On a recent vacation, I read an article regarding free toys in children’s meals at fast food restaurants. The toy companies were saying they would no longer provide toys for the meals unless the meals were healthier for children.

I was inspired to write this poem:

SALT (Save All Lives Tomorrow)

No salt please! Throw it out the door!

I don’t want it anymore!

Blood pressure’s rising all the time.

Inner organs are floating in brine.

Eating out’s no treat with chips and fries galore.

Could you possibly give me more?

My plate is over-flowing from the brim.

I can’t eat all this and keep slim.

They fill three-fourths my plate.

Could I eat just eight?

My bathroom cabinet is filled with pills

For all my salt-caused ills.

My doctor’s office door swings to and fro

It’s his attention that keeps me on the go.

My doctor’s office door swings in and out.

I’m alive because of him — no doubt!

My dying wish will always be

That the government save those who come after me

By making rules and regulations

For those who feed this nation!

Ginger Isham lives with her husband on a fifth generation family farm on Oak Hill Road. She writes “Recipe Corner,” a column that appears in the Observer every other week.