Healthful Habits is a way for our family to intentionally implement a more wholesome style of living one small step at a time. The process of executing these small changes over the course of a year enables them to become lifelong habits.
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I've never been one to use a significant amount of salt. Having grown up in a home where we didn't even own a tabletop salt shaker, I guess the taste for added salt is one I've never developed. Other than the typical teaspoon amount called for when cooking, our kitchen salt container never received much attention until I stumbled upon the topic while reading Real Food. It turns out there's more to this common ingredient than I expected.
In reading the latest evidence as told by news reporters, it seems that salt is often blamed for a whole host of different health concerns. As I'm finding frequently true, this information is accurate only with regard to the industrialized salt product so common in our diets. There IS a whole lot wrong with industrialized salt, which I think can be fairly summed up as all the good components {80+ trace elements and minerals essential to good health} are removed and a bunch of junk is added {including aluminum}. Adding insult to injury, the salt is then BLEACHED to make it look clean and pure. That simply sounds unhealthy!
The alternative? We've begun using unrefined sea salt*. It comes out of the ocean, is gently dried by the sun, and then packaged for our enjoyment. No chemical processes. Nothing removed. Nothing added. If you question whether your sea salt is unrefined, I've learned a simple test. Real salt should not be white {ours is grey} and it should be significantly pricier {we pay around $7 for half a pound}. As Planck states, "It should be more expensive; it's worth more."
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* RELATED COMMENT: Most people know that conventional salt is iodized. Unrefined sea salt naturally contains iodine, so we haven't been concerned about a deficiency. Other foods containing this mineral include most sea foods, kelp and other seaweeds, butter, fish broth, pineapple, asparagus, artichokes, and dark green vegetables {Nourishing Traditions}.