No Pressure on Blood Pressure

 No Pressure on Blood Pressure

Like all things edible, unprocessed serves us & processed does not.


Nearly half of all adults in the United States have high blood pressure. We have one easy remedy to reduce your risk, but it’s not what you think. It’s salt!

Not just any salt off the grocery shelf, either. You will hear that too much salt is a common cause of high blood pressure. The salt they refer to is salt that has been processed, stripped of the electrolyte minerals that naturally bind to the elements that create salt, and therefore enter the body in a vastly imbalanced state. Processed salt is also used as a preservative, assisting the food industry in keeping items shelf-stable without spoiling. 

Our body needs salt to live and it’s impossible to remove all salt from your diet and remain healthy. However, hidden processed salt in so many packaged and processed foods can lead to high blood pressure. The more processed food we eat, the more salt we’re ingesting without even knowing it!

Salt is naturally formed when minerals present within the ocean remain after the evaporation of the water, minerals pulled from the earth itself. Ocean and river salts are very sustainable, being made day in and day out.  As the chloride and sodium in water collides with the magnesium and potassium of the shore, salt crystals are formed. Salt is the only edible crystal in the world! Salt is also why your sweat tastes… salty! There’s an ocean in our body that circulates electrolytes – those very same minerals that adhere to the potassium and chloride that make salt.


While salt was at one time so precious it was more valuable than gold, technology has made salt mining much easier and so now salt is one of the cheapest crystals you can buy. But your standard table salt is stripped of the electrolytes that may have originally been a part of the crystal (like magnesium, sulfur, or chloride) and then bleached to leave the uniform, white grains we see in shakers in diners everywhere. This salt does the body no good at all. 


The body needs and craves salt as one of the electrolytes necessary to allow muscles to function and electrical signals to travel correctly. So, it’s important to make sure your salt is the right salt – that’s an unprocessed salt from an ocean.

We do want to take a moment to mention Himalayan Pink salt. It’s been wildly popular over the past decade or so, but its popularity comes at a grave cost. That salt is not a renewable resource and comes from the legacy of when the Himalayan mountains were once submerged in the ocean. The mountains themselves are damaged from salt mining, so please avoid buying this salt!

There are plenty of locations where salt is renewable and electrolyte rich! One of the best “everyday” salts to replenish your body is gray ocean salt, such as Celtic or Atlantic Gray Sea Salt. This salt contains high traces of magnesium and is beneficial to the kidneys, adrenals, pancreas, and heart. Good levels of magnesium also prevent muscle spasms and help reduce stress in the body.


When you choose a raw, nourishing salt you replenish not only your thirst, but your electrolyte balance and your kidneys. And, in this way, your kidneys are a direct indicator of your heart health!


Stay tuned to learn more about the kidney-heart connection!


 

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