Macrobiotics and Sea Salt for Health

[Wayne Martin]

I am new to macrobiotics and would like to here from other macrobiotic people about Sea Salt, and if and why they think it is essential to health. We did come from the sea but to me that seems too long ago, and we would have lost the need for salt. Isn't Brown Rice balanced between sodium and potassium? Is Sea Salt balanced? Plants only contain sodium and not chlorine----the other component of salt. I would like to here other peoples thoughts about this, and maybe some of my questions answered.

[Bruce Paine]

"Salt and water, like sushine and air, are more than food, they are the essence of life..."

"The minerals that are present in sea salt, when ecologically extracted with manual dexterity and respect for life's laws, are the 84 elements that are originally in the sea..."

"Salt, the most contractive food is essential for human survival. We evolved from the sea, and our body fluids are in a saline solution. Salt maintains this solution and regulates the body's electrolytic balance. But we only need small amounts..."

"Our blood, lymph, and extracellular fluids are like a minature sea with a composition of sodium and trace minerals similar to ocean water. Should the normal saline count in our bodily fluids fall below one percent, disorders of the nervous system, glands, and organs would develop. Because we lose those minerals daily through normal body processes, they must be replaced. Using quality sea salt, which contains up to 10 percent trace minerals, is an easy way to do so. Furthermore, the minerals from natural sea salt are far more easily assimilated than mineral supplements are..."

The previous four quotes come from these four books but not in the same order:

Sea Salt's Hidden Powers by By Jacques de Langre, PhD
( http://www.celtic-seasalt.com/seashidpow.html )

The Self-Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner
( http://gomf.macrobiotic.net/Books_Cook.htm )


The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia by Rebecca Wood
( http://www.benourished.com/books.htm#wholefood )


Natural Immunity by Noboru Muramoto
( http://gomf.macrobiotic.net/Books_Health.htm )

Wayne, your homework is to find out who said what.

If you aren't flush, you might try the library but sometimes you can find books real cheap at Bookfinder.com.

Try not asking any more questions until you have found out the authors to the above quotes.

You should know something about the value of seasalt when you are done.

Anyone who cheats and gives Wayne the answers will have to be the first one(s) to answer all of his future questions.

Okay, Wayne, Start now!!!

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[Roy Collins]

Wayne. Sodium is found in nature only in the combined state. It is therefore not true that plants contain only the metallic element NA. Likewise chlorine (CL) does not exist in nature as an independent element.

Red blood cells are normally suspended in a fluid called plasma, a liquid containting salts, proteins, and other solutes. If too much water dominates in the red cell mixture the cell swells and bursts
(yin action=expansion).

If the plasma mixture contains excessive salt (as if you drink only salt water while stranded in a life boat), the RBC shrinks and shrivels (yang action=contriction).

If you are sitting a long time int ehhot (yang) sun, you perspire (yang attracts yin) and water is lost through skin pores. As water comes out so does salt. It is the loss of salt that causes sun stroke. I

The basic difference in plant and animal cells occurs in the cell membrane and compositionof the nuclei. Plant cells have a magnesium-based nuclei and cellulose walls. Animal cells have iron-based nuclei without walls. Magnesium in plant cholorphyll helps keep their internal structures cool, while iron in animal plasma has an over-all warming effect.

It is important and essential to have a small amount of salt (sodium) in the diet, and sea salt is the best source containing many essential micro nutrients which donot exist in comman table salt. Sea salt is also softer without preservatives which makes it easier to assimilate than commercial salt.

I believe there as an in-depth discussion both o sea salt and salt in general in some of our past discussions whcih can be found under the Mountain Ark Old Forums section to the left and bottom of the main page.

Remember that we need only a very small amount of salt in our diets and in macrobiotic cooking it is customarily used during cooking in tiny amounts. Too much salt in the cells make you crave yin, as well as retain fluids.

I hope this helps.

In peace, Roy