Salt: was Re: Stefansson's Book Online

[Guest guest]

Of course they continued to use the tobacco--they are addicted to it.

Recognizing and acknowledging addiction is only the first step in

getting clean.

Unlike tobacco, salt or more specifically sodium is a critical

nutrient. It serves numerous functions in our bodies and when sodium

levels get too low numerous bad things can happen and you can even die

if your sodium levels get too low.

But getting enough to avoid health problems is easy as most foods have

adequate amounts. The amount of salt most people use is far more than

is needed simply to maintain health, it's for taste. There's an old

saying, " the chef's hand is heavy with salt " . We have special taste

buds for salt so it must be important for us to detect it--probably to

make sure we get enough.

I think the first nations people didn't salt their food because they

ate so much meat that they got all they needed and never craved it

from deficiency.

So the question is, should we salt our food? It sure makes it taste

better, but it usually leads to unnecessary salt consumption.

> >

> > Stefansson wrote in FOTL that first nations people considered salt to

> > be addictive. They made an analogy to their own addiction to tobacco.

> > They felt that white people's salting of food made it addictive.

> >

>