Salt and the Seven Deadly Ills

The use of salt, or, more correctly sodium chloride, goes back quite far in history, though not as far as some may think. The parent of European languages, Sanskrit, did not have a name for salt. Obviously at that time salt was unknown and not used in nutrition. Modern day Finns also do not have a word for salt and have eventually adopted the German term "Saltz". There are many tribes in rather isolated parts of the earth that have no experience of salt usage, and actually strongly dislike it. Even when salt was available and in use its cost was prohibitive except for the affluent classes. In Roman times it was given to warriors as part of their pay.

In fairly recent times modern mining technology created an abundance at low cost, making it easily available for inclusion in everyday nutrition. The general heavy use of salt in Europe and America is therefore so recent that there has not yet been enough time to develop either a proper awareness of its effects on those who use it, or an accumulation of enough accurate data for reliable statistical analyses. Its general use by the most industrially developed societies does not provide scientifically valid comparisons against other groups that use no salt and that also have different cultures and life styles.

This situation is now somewhat changing. More and more individuals are controlling their nutrition, some excluding salt, whether from knowledge or ignorance no one knows. The effects will eventually be observed, but this may take a long time and in the meantime much damage may be suffered.

This study is an attempt to bring us faster to the answer: is salt good or bad for the average person. Is it at all necessary, does it represent a required nutrient or is it a dangerous and so far unsuspected killer. The true answer to the above will have immeasurable consequences on millions of individuals and whole societies.

1. 2. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL REVIEW

Nutrition and its effect on the well-or not-so-well being of humans has been in the spotlight for some years now.

The epidemic presence of some serious chronic diseases in modern society, for which no one can find satisfactory cause, is creating near panic and terror for every individual. Cancer, heart attacks, diabetes, arthritis and many others seem to afflict without provocation, reason or warning. No one is certain how he will be affected in the near or distant future. This uncertainty leads to attempts at lessening the damage by early detection. Thus healthy persons undergo examinations and tests, if they can afford them, while those who cannot wait to become victims of premature, irreversible, terminal destruction of their bodies and eventually also of their spirits.

Many attempts have recently been made to identify some of the causes of this epidemic. Environmental conditions have been identified that lead to the development of certain cancers. Certain life styles are now reasonably connected with several serious diseases. Nutritional factors are being extensively investigated for their part in the above problems in the belief that "we are what we eat". Also nutritional deficiencies, vitamins and minerals especially, are recognized as contributing causes to certain health problems.

Many serious and competent medical and scientific investigators are participating in extensive research activities in many countries at a colossal cost in man-power, resources, materials and money. Yet the results are pitifully small and insignificant.

In many areas, cancer being the best example, not only are we not gaining, we are actually losing. There are more and more cases occurring and it is not any easier to predict who will be the next victim or when, than it was years ago. The progress in prevention has been very insignificant and the improvements in earlier detection and treatment, although beneficial, eventually are eliminated when balanced against the continuing need of drastic and destructive treatments. In the case of breast cancer, surgery and radiation treatment cannot be considered a cure. They may arrest the spread of the disease but they do not restore the affected areas. Not only are they physically destructive, they are also psychologically devastating. Many other diseases have similar effects.

In desperation to save ourselves from what some feel are preventable diseases, continuous efforts have been made to identify their cause and many factors have been implicated. Environmental conditions have been extensively examined and industrial poisons and contaminants have been linked to the development of certain cancers. Life styles have been scrutinized and some aspects of these seriously connected to the onset of several life threatening health conditions. In similar fashion nutritional factors have been looked at from all angles, though somewhat tardily, in an attempt to establish their place in this whole scenario. Almost on a daily basis, the pendulum of public acceptance swings from side to side as some item of nutrition is praised to the skies as a certain cure-all, only to be condemned sometime later as having no value whatsoever.

In this on-going scrutiny almost every natural food item has lately been identified as the cause of this or that problem: refined sugar, white flour, carbohydrates, proteins, red meat, fat, cholesterol, vitamin deficiency, vitamin excess, mineral deficiency, mineral excess. Psychological problems, inherited characteristics and even racial characteristics have been considered and yet in spite of such a massive effort, none of the above factors can be definitely and specifically identified with any degree of reliability as the cause of any of the major diseases.

In this work we focus attention on one very common component of our daily food which has not been extensively considered either in nutritional or health studies as a possible major factor of disease: salt or more correctly sodium chloride.