Additive Salt In Processed Foods Destroys Your Heart And Well-Being
Big business doesn’t care about your health. You are only a number to big business. You are only a consumer. All big business is concerned with is selling as much of its product as it can. Profit, profit, profit, is all that matters.
Too much salt in the diet raises blood pressure and leads to heart disease. The body gets rid of excess salt by raising blood pressure. Having too much salt in the body therefore disrupts homeostasis, the state where all the organs are operating to their optimal level.
The body tries to restore homeostasis by using one or more of its processes or components to correct another process. For example when the pH level of the blood drops below 7.4 the body will leech calcium from the bones to restore the pH of the blood.
This can lead to osteoporosis. Maintaining a 7.4 pH in the blood is that important that the body will sacrifice the health of its bones to maintain that pH level.
Consuming alkaline foods adds alkaline compounds to the blood, which therefore promotes homeostasis by stopping the body from leeching calcium from the bones to alkalize the blood.
Again, Eexcess salt consumption throws the body out of a state of homeostasis. The body will increase blood pressure to remove excess salt from the body.[1] Removing the consumption of excess salt will stop the body from raising the blood pressure to rid the body of excess salt.
Constant consumption of salt puts arteries under constant pressure to raise blood pressure to remove the excess salt, which compromises the integrity of arteries over time. Can you see a bad cycle starting? Everything in the body is an ecosystem in itself. Change one thing and another thing changes.
The body wants to be in a state of homeostasis and that is all dependent on what you put in the body. Give the body what it has chemical affinity with, and it thrives.
Big business doesn’t care. Study after study[2] has shown that salt raises blood pressure but big business still makes process foods that contain very high levels of salt.
65-85% of the salt consumed in the Western diet comes from processed foods.[3] Oh, did I forget to tell you that high levels of salt in the body leads to high blood pressure, which leads to kidney damage, erectile dysfunction, memory loss, fluid in the lungs, angina, vision loss, stroke, peripheral artery disease, congestive heart failure, heart attack, heart disease, and atherosclerosis?[4]
Well now you know. You have to learn to protect your own health because big business won’t help you do it.
Cooking With Ginger Powder Instead Of Salt
We need to reduce the consumption of processed foods because that is where most of the dietary salt comes from. I eat mostly raw foods throughout the day which keeps me clear of additive salt.
I do eat cooked foods in the evening made from whole plant foods. I am like most every other person who likes added flavor which is why we add herbs to the foods we cook, especially salt.
I have been experimenting with using ginger powder instead of using salt and so far I have liked using ginger a lot. Give it a try. If you do have the need to use salt it is better to use sea salt instead of processed salt, though it is better not to use additive salt.
You can try substituting ginger powder for half of the salt you normally use and work towards entirely replacing salt with ginger.
[1] H Karppanen, E Mervaala. Sodium intake and hypertension. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2006 Sep-Oct;49(2):59-75.
[2] G A MacGregor, N D Markandu, G A Sagnella, D R Singer, F P Cappuccio. Double-blind study of three sodium intakes and long-term effects of sodium restriction in essential hypertension. Lancet. 1989 Nov 25;2(8674):1244-7.
[3] F Godlee. The food industry fights for salt. BMJ. 1996 May 18;312(7041):1239-40.
[4] American Heart Association