New Healthy Function of Salt Discovered: Are You Eating the Real Thing?

Are you still avoiding salt due to fears surrounding hypertension and heart disease? Do your meals end up a bit bland, but you sleep better at night knowing you didn’t overindulge on sodium?
If so, we’re sorry to tell you that some of these fears may be unfounded… as long as you’re choosing the right salt.
As we’ve reported before, many of the detriments that have been associated with salt may have to do with the fact that most Americans dine on processed, refined salt, which can include additives and even chlorine. This is a far cry from real, unrefined sea salt, which provides the body with important nutrients.

Real salt is absolutely necessary to human life. In fact, diets with too low of a sodium content may lead to hyponatremia, which can be characterized by brain swelling, kidney damage, headaches, confusion, and even coma. While we’re not saying to run out and eat piles and piles of the stuff, when you’re using real unrefined salt, it’s hard to get too much, unless you’re really trying. The health benefits it provides — minerals, supporting fluid balance, transporting nutrients, and maintaining blood pressure, to name a few — make it worthy of its place on your plate.
We’ve long known that unprocessed salt is very healthy for us. However, a new study recently published in the journal Cell Press sheds light on yet another benefit of salt: it may help protect the body against infection.
This study came about when researchers noticed that mice that had been bitten, and contracted infections, had higher sodium levels in their skin. Then, through experimentation, they discovered that the mice fed high amounts of salt received a boost to the function of certain immune system cells, known as macrophages.
According to the study’s first author, Jonathan Jantsch:
“Our current study… suggests that increasing salt accumulation at the site of infections might be an ancient strategy to ward off infections, long before antibiotics were invented.”
Jantsch added, “We also think that local application of high-salt-containing wound dressings and the development of other salt-boosting antimicrobial therapies might bear therapeutic potential.”
Could salt really be a fighter against our planet’s worsening epidemic of antibiotic resistance? It looks like a definite possibility. As far as eating it — just say no to the processed stuff, and stick to the real thing.
—The Alternative Daily