Why It's More Essential Than You Think!
Welcome to the Reality of Health podcast! In today's episode, we dive into the fascinating world of salt and its crystalline forms. We explore the chemistry behind salt, its historical significance, and its importance to human health. Discover the myths and truths about salt intake, its role in hydration, muscle function, and overall wellbeing. Join us as we uncover why salt is more than just a seasoning—it’s essential for life. We also highlight the best types of salt to consume and their benefits. Tune in for a fun and informative journey into the world of salt!
00:00 Introduction to the Reality of Health Podcast
00:13 Exploring the Beauty of Salt Crystals
03:06 The Chemistry and Health Benefits of Salt
04:48 Debunking Myths About Salt and Health
07:46 Understanding Sodium and Chloride
10:37 The Importance of Electrolytes
17:48 Choosing the Right Salt for Your Health
23:32 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Welcome healthy friends to the reality of health podcast. Today. We're going to get a little fun, maybe. I find this topic fun.
So what you see here. Is Crystal's. Of salt. Oh, no. Another salt episode from someone on a video or audio channel. Yeah, but maybe this one will be more interesting. Follow me.
Doesn't that look pretty cool. What you're seeing on your screen? Look at those crystals. Did you know, That salt is a crystal. Erik. That is a dumb question. They're called salt crystals. Yeah, but have you ever really thought about it?
Look at those.
Have you ever seen anything like this? That's amazing. How about like this? Or. This. Maybe even that. And what about Epson salts? Those are crazy. What they can do. Look at this. They're green. The grow weird.
I'm just saying. That I think that is beautiful. And if you've never really thought. About how crystalline look at the purple. Salt is.
What does that do in your body?
Look at that. A perfectly square salt, crystal. Perfect.
Then you have these that are really tiny little squares. Do you know what those are? From the Morton brand. We'll get into that a little bit.
Essentially, what I'm trying to say is, you know, we just take salt for granted. And then you look at these and you think. Wow. These are beautiful. Obviously, if they don't add anything weird to them to make colors, but.
I think. Something like. This, in this. Which for those on audio? It's amazing. Just look up salt crystals. And go to images.
It's not always just these little chunks of Himalayan, crystal salt that are kind of. Well, they're bland looking. Let's just be real. Compared to that or that. It's amazing.
I want you to see how salt is so important to you. And then I'm going to describe and show you. Why. It's more important than you thought. Even to the degree where you're going to say, I already know that Erik. Well, I'm going to push your boundaries a little bit. Bear with me. All right, we're moving on.
Let's go to the chemistry of it.
This is a pretty cool little abstract. If you don't know what an abstract is just to a small, concise paragraph.
And here we have look right here. Orthosilicic acid is a form. Predominantly absorbed by humans and is found in numerous tissues, including bone tendons. Aorta liver and kidney. And I'll tell you it's in more places than just those.
Compelling data suggest that silica is essential for health. Although no RDI has been established. However, deficiency induces, ready for this. Deformities in skull and peripheral bones, poorly formed joints, reduced contents of cartilage. And collagen. And disruption of mineral balance in the femur and vertebrae.
Wow. Very little toxicity, data exists regarding aqueous silica consumption due in part to the lack of anecdotal reports of toxicity in general, presumption of safety. In other words. It's. Healthy. And it has no side effects. As many things, unless you put it into your body in a way you're not supposed to, which is breathing it in.
I
think that's pretty cool. Believe me, there's more. And I'm going to try to move through this because I don't want this to be an hour long.
This is doctor. Steven Lynn. Is salt really bad for you?
This. Small area. Right here. He talks about is awesome. And then we'll go into some other things. Uh, salt has played a critical role. In ancestral food preparation for thousands of years yet in the last few decades, salt has been made into somewhat of a villain. As it's been associated with hypertension and heart disease. You've heard this for years. You've actually heard it longer than that. Well, You'll hear.
The notion that a low salt diet is better for us. Began about 200 years ago and was founded on flawed science doctors knew then that our bodies relied on salt to maintain blood pressure balance. I'm going to get into that. They believe that consuming too much salt contributed to high blood pressure and heart disease. The result. We're hugely unsuccessful government campaigns to get people to eat less salt. However. Research is finding that this fundamental theory isn't as clear cut as we thought. A meta analysis of over 6,250 patients found there was no actual link between salt intake. High blood pressure and risk of heart disease. Oh, what did that say?
No actual link.
Like many of our dietary recommendations, our beliefs. Surrounding salt need to be reexamined. I think that's true for many things. Hence the whole reason for this channel.
And this is how we get into. Y you need it. First, starting with deficiency. Reduced hydration. Muscle cramps. Higher risk of heart attack, headaches, weakness, cognitive decline in elderly and irritability.
Gets into a few of the salts. But more importantly, why is it good for you? Helps you stay hydrated. Promotes good vascular health. I'm sorry. I thought salt was bad for your heart and your brain and everything else. No, that's not true. We all know what's good for hydration. Balances electrolytes and prevents muscle cramping. I wonder why that is.
We're going to get into it. Supports a healthy nervous system. Most important aspect of this whole episode. Improve sleep. And there again, connects to why this episode is so important.
So. You might ask yourself what the heck is this stuff anyway?
here we have sodium. I know it's Wikipedia. Bear with me.
This is what I want to point out. Sixth, most abundant element in the Earth's crust. Exists in many different minerals.
But watch this. Are you ready? It is a soft. Let me highlight it.
You see that? It is a soft silvery. White, highly reactive metal.
Wait a minute. Salt. Is a metal. We'll sodium is a metal. Salt is sodium chloride. We're going to get into that. But yes. The basis of what you consume. That's so tasty. Goodness. It's actually based on sodium. Which is a metal. Don't believe me. Well, let's look at the photo. Does that look metallic to you? It sure does.
To me, I'm being sarcastic because this is one of those topics where you hear so many bad things about salt and yet. I've never met anybody who died. Of salt intake. Matter of fact throughout history it's been used as. Money. Trading.
It's saved lives. Matter of fact, if you go into the hospital, they will put you on an Ivy. Usually contains. This.
Isn't that beautiful. It looks like metal. That's amazing. Looking. It doesn't look like. The white. Clearish salt I've ever seen that I put on my food. How come it looks like aluminum. And then it looks like. Salt. Well anyway.
We all know it's an electrolyte. Essential element. Yada, yada yada.
I wanted to point this out right here.
By means of the sodium potassium pump. There's Nobel prizes given out for this. Living human cells, pump three sodium ions out of the cell and exchange for two potassium ions pumped in, you know, that's never been proven. What has been proven is that that doesn't exist because you don't have a cell membrane. Does that perk your ears? There is no cell membrane.
We're going to get into that. There are so many things right here that I want to go over. I'm not going to too much time. I do want to say.
Sodium conducts electricity. It's a metal. So is salt. Good for you. If it conducts electricity. This is the whole point of this episode. Here you have a sodium ion battery. Every time you see the word ion. Automatically think charge. That's the key. Your body. Is a crystalline water structure being, and water needs ions in order to conduct electricity better. Here is the number one that we use sodium. When you attach chloride to that even more powerful, but I wanted to show you. You can make a battery from salt. So, yes. Sodium. Is extremely important for a electro magnetic charge in your body. You've heard this before.
Oh yeah. You need your electrolytes. But do you know how and why? This is. To me, this is really fun stuff. All right. Let's move on. Chloride. The second part of salt, right? You have sodium. Then you have sodium chloride.
Right here. The term chloride refers to a compound or molecule that contains either a chlorine. I on. Remember, that's charge. Meaning. Electrolyte. Such as sodium chloride, amazing stuff. Again, I can go into so many things about chloride. That's really, really super cool, but for sake of time, You've used sodium chloride in your body in many, many things from bicarbonates to. Stuff around the house.
And while the it's it's endless what you can use it for, including types of chlorine.
So when you put the two together, Which is known as edible salt. You have an ionic compound. Meaning you have something that's charged. You want to conduct electricity? It takes something to charge you.
In your water. So you have proteins holding your structure, water. With electrolytes in there. And that's how you conduct electricity. Does that make you see or help you see how important electrolytes. Most importantly, salt is for you. Without it. There is no life. This is very important. But it's also really fun. Think about it in a different way. It's not just flavor on your food.
It's not just, well, if I don't consume it, I'm going to get cramps. It's more than that. It's. Life. Literally. Water. And electrolytes. are life.
Again, I go through a ton of uses. It's used in everything.
I would love to spend more time on salt and we will in the future. Here we have the most sodium consumed comes from processed and restaurant foods. 71%. Think about that. If your consumption of salt comes from this, do you think that that's healthy for you? Absolutely not. Naturally occurring at 14%.
I'll give you that. Maybe depends on the type of diet you have. Added at the table at 5%.
When you tell somebody, wow, you're adding way too much salt to your food. Which salt is he adding? Cause if he or she is adding. Salted is good for you. What's the, what's the problem. It's good for you. And your kidneys will excrete what it doesn't need. Soul helps you hold water. Structured water. That's the key to hydration.
Moving on. As you can see home cooking and preparation is 6%.
So then we have the whole idea of. Sodium potassium pump and why they believe that. This was so important. They give Nobel prize for it. Gilbert Ling comes around and he says, I don't know if that's really true. So, what does he do? He decides.
The accepted view of the cell as a membrane containing a number of pumps, such as. The sodium potassium pump and the calcium pump and channels that engage in active transport. He has.
He has proven. Over his lifetime. That is not the case, even though they gave Nobel prizes for it, he pulled that cell membrane off. Guess what happened? Through these channels. Through the water. I'm going to show you in a second.
He proved that it's the same inside and outside the cell.
So cell membranes aren't real. What is real. Is structured water in a protein matrix. Easy. It lets in the things that it wants, it doesn't let in the other things, it doesn't want. Because there's a charge on the inside of that and the outside, they just work together. These charges. Simple. And proven. All right.
This is an incredible situation.
So he created what is known as the Microelectrode that. Allowed scientists to more Accurately measure the electrical potential. Of living cells. This is how he did it. He found out that inside and outside the cell were exactly the same when he removed this. Membrane. Doesn't that amazing. So, yeah, he did this and by the way,
I
have one. If somebody wants to say this, guy's not educated. You're you're just, you just you're blinded. He. He's. One of the most intelligent scientists that's ever lived in biology. And look at his career cell biology, cell physiology, molecular biology and cell membrane. Oh, he doesn't know he's talking about.
It's all made up. Okay. I'd rather listen to this guy.
All right. We learned some. Concise ideas of why salt is really important. It's all about your cell. And how you stay hydrated. And how you conduct electricity. This is really important.
So then you have to say to yourself, well, What salt do I consume? Oh, This is the most important thing. And by the way, if you like salt or you like cooking and you like food, I'm going to help you.
Okay, let's go to. This is pretty much the number one brand.
It's Salinas naturally you've may have seen these. on the shelf, the different types. And your, uh, and your stores. Right. See in these guys. Okay. Well, Amazing stuff. And. Good mineral content. Tasty. You gotta know how to buy it. Celtic is unique. Here's why it's unique.
We're the gather the salt in which, by the way. Celtic is on the border of France. And. Ireland. It's in that kind of like that zone, that region there. The bed of the ocean has a high clay content, which gives it this gray color. If you know anything about clay, it's highly charged. There are so many minerals. And there's so much surface area.
They are. Well, highly charged. And it gives it a unique quality. And I think the best unique quality is health.
Yes, Himalayan is pretty good stuff, but it doesn't do what. Celtic does or French gray or any of those others that are in that zone.
For electrical charge. Taste. Well, that's different. How you use it? Is it flaky? Is it not? That's different. Anyway. All right. Let's look at what's in it. So this is their. Line of salts and I'm just going to point out a few things here.
The number one is light gray Celtic. Notice a 0.3% magnesium content. So it's not a high magnesium content compared to. Celtic Makai. This has done in Hawaii. Look at the difference. It's almost four times greater. It's claimed that. Gray salt. Of any of the brands is very high in magnesium. Well, I would say it is high in magnesium. But. It's not as high as. Look at Guatemala's point for.
And flower the ocean and Portugal 0.5. So I would say the magnesium content isn't as good as we think it is. In the normal gray Celtic. I love gray Celtic. I use it. A lot.
But if you're looking for magnesium or high mineral content, In your food. From using salt than Makai is the way to go. There's a lot of social media on a certain person that talks a lot about salt. She's an older lady. And I love her. And she's absolutely fantastic. But I would say that. The magnesium content she talks about is a bit low.
There are others that are higher. Just saying. Now if you're into. Culinary type stuff, then you want to go with flake much easier to use. As you get into these here, they're much harder to use as they're like little rocks. They don't dissolve very much.
I personally use a product called Murrays salt comes out of Australia. Absolutely fantastic. But Pretty nice stuff. So if you use this and you use some other things, you balance your minerals. So you use a little makai, you use a little potassium pink, use some. Light gray Celtic. Whatever. You like, but understand that your minerals are your charge. It's the most important thing to think about.
Don't assume. That. One way to eat salt is the best way. Every salt has its best benefit. I think using many different salts of different kinds from different places, obviously from different. Areas of the world have really good.
Contents of minerals so that you are never high or low on anything. I'm just saying.
It's important to get a broad range of minerals. And salt is one of the best ways.
But remember. Regular table salt that Morton's brand. Or probably 50% of the garbage that's in the store do not consume that it is poison to the body. Your body will reject it by trying to. Hold water to diffuse it. And then you'll end up with. edema You'll end up with stroke. You'll end up with heart issues. Because that is a poisonous salt to the body.
It is not charged. It has been stripped of its charge. The body knows it and wants to rid itself of it. This is the type of salt you want to consume. Good quality. High quality. salts. Can't go wrong with Selenas and I have nothing to do with them. Like I said, I use other ones too. Well, Maybe you see salt differently in your life? Know. That it works. For digestion. It works for fluid balances, pH levels in your body. It's electrically charged. And. Without it, your nervous system absolutely.
Doesn't work. At all. I think. You should spend more time. Worrying about your salt intake than you ever have. And it's delicious. 📍 That's it for today. Thank you for listening. Let me know what you think. Comment. Take care of yourselves.