With you, thanks

Thanks for that info Ressie - have been using himalayan salt for around two years as a replacement for refined table salt in cooking and have considered it to be a beneficial part of my regime - have not added it to drinks or anything like that though. The point on fluoride was interesting, and so had a look at Scott's link to the Celtic salt...

Couldn't find any direct info on the site listing a mineral breakdown so sent them an email asking for further details. Will post if they reply.

health4ni wrote:I also don't think salt (or sodium chloride) causes hypertension. It just fuels the hypertension fire in unhealthy people. Get someone healthy with lower blood pressure with better food and lifestyle choices then add in "good salt" and they'll not have any problems. We need salt (not table salt tho lol).

Absolutely - in fact this, so I understand it, is the official medical opinion on the relationship between dietary salt (sodium chloride) and hypertension - and not the bogus health warnings often touted about from the media.

Okay, had an email back from one of the folks at Nelson Healthcare about the mineral content of their Celtic salts... she said they don't have this to hand but will try to find it for me - and also asked if there are any particular minerals that are of concern or interest.... so anything you guys might want to know specifically?

Will ask about fluoride and idoine and aluminium (the potentially toxic ones), and what percentage of the salt is NaCl and then Ca, S, Mg and K (the ok ones).

They appear to sell the "original" Celtic Sea Salt. So here's the analysis: http://www.celticseasalt.com/PDF/CSSAna ... an2007.pdf

And another: http://curezone.com/foods/salt/Celtic_S ... alysis.asp

health4ni wrote:I also don't think salt (or sodium chloride) causes hypertension. It just fuels the hypertension fire in unhealthy people. Get someone healthy with lower blood pressure with better food and lifestyle choices then add in "good salt" and they'll not have any problems. We need salt (not table salt tho lol).

Excess sodium displaces magnesium in cells, causing a shift to higher plasma volume (high blood pressure)

In western soceity it's more a case of excess sodium + not enough magnesium + low renal function (for various reasons) = high blood pressure (there are many other factors such as vassopressin, ADH / general adrenal and kidney disfunction)

A lot of people actually get away with a high sodium intake (as is normal on western diets).
A higher sodium (and eletrolyte mineral generally) intake is recommended for hard training athletes, still the 6g of salt is more than enough to cover everyone. (excluding severe renal disfunction)

As far as supplementing with salts, basically the positioning of sea salt above processed salt is correct, providing you are getting enough iodine in your diet (as refined cooking salt is iodised) because it contains magnesium, and some in sulphate form. (+ a tiny bit of calcium and a few trace minerals)
'himalayan' salt is not anything better than most rock salts, all a product of dried out high salinty sea/lake beds, the mineral composition is often very similar, don't waste your money on any cons that claim it to be the elixer of youth or whatever.

Now, it depends what you want from a salt product for cooking or supplementation to make your choice.
Sea salt is great for cooking due to better flavour than processed salts but if you are using it as a health supplement then you will mostly be obtaining sodium chloride, the few percent of other minerals are not high enough to be considered beneficial in the doses you are taking.
A relatively minor (7%) constituant of sea water is magnesium chloride (providing 3.7% elemental magnesium), magnesium has massive benefits for health and athletic peformance, it is a vital electrolyte that many people are deficient in, whereas they have more than enough sodium (as discussed above), thankfully you can actually buy fractioned magnesium chloride (with a percentage omagnesium sulphate and trace elements) known under the japanese name 'nigari' (they use it traditionally for coagulating the tofu proteins) i will mention where you can buy this bulk, cheaply if anyone is interested.

The other electrolyte people have as lack of is potassium, the salt of potassium, potassium chloride can be obtained from 'low sodium' salts, there is one called 'salt rite' (or something like that) that is almost 100% potassium chloride.
Now, there are some issues with obtaining all of your electrolytic minerals as chloride salts, you don't really want to exceed 4000-5000mg of chloride a day.

Therefore, taking into account sodium, magnesium and potassium intakes from the average diet i would recommend a salt/electrolyte supplementation regime of :
-1000mg sodium chloride (just use sea salt)
-2000mg magnesium chloride 'nigari'
-2000mg potassium chloride (use 'salt rite' etc as described above)

Mix in water and drink throughout the day, obviously this produces a salty and somewhat bitter (due to MgCl) taste, so it will need to be diluted over 1 or 2 litres of water.
Remember, this will not provide the ideal amount of potassium or sodium for the day, ideally you want most of your potassium from fruit and vegetables (tomatoes, avocaodo, bananas etc) as these are in the form of bicarbonates, sulphates, organic compounds etc.
Sodium will come easy in almost all diets unless you are extremely restricting yourself and not eating any 'modern' foods or seasoning your meals with salt etc.
Magnesium supplementation is the most important on a 'good diet' as foods available and commonly eating do not provide particularly large values, especially in light of high sodium intakes and phytic acid intake (which binds to magnesium in the gut, preventing uptake)

As far as 'trace elements' in these salt products you buy, not really worth noting, as the dose of salt is so low that the small percentage of mineral (depiste being a low rda in the case of iodine, selenium etc) becomes irrelevant.
It is the macromineral (electrolytic) concentrations that you should be intereted in.
Remember these are:
-Calcium
-Magnesium
-Phosphorus
-Sodium
-Potassium
-Chloride

Calcium and phosphorus, not mentioned in salt supplementation are best aquired from dairy, seafood (with bones ideally...sprats are great) etc, vitamin D helps their absorption massively.

Trace elements can be obtained from other foods, i.e iodine from kelp, seafood... selenium from brazil nuts, seafood, pork....copper from liver, zinc from meat and seafood (i can go into this if you want but it's relatively common knowledge)

As far as any 'alkaline' properties of 'special salts' over normal salts, it is untrue, remember which ions form acid and alkaline solutions in water, the key is bicarbonate control in the body (and why vegetable intake is recommended) the body is more than capable of maintaining ph homeostasis, the idea of alkaline diets is to take stress of the body in doing so.

Great post Pain - thanks for the info

thanks pain, nice post

Helpful post Pain

The Celtic salt is supposedly 84% Sodium chloride, 14% magnesium, potassium, sulphur and calcium salts, and 2% trace elements.... how does this sound as a salt for use in cooking?

Dtlv74 wrote:Helpful post Pain

The Celtic salt is supposedly 84% Sodium chloride, 14% magnesium, potassium, sulphur and calcium salts, and 2% trace elements.... how does this sound as a salt for use in cooking?

Edited: i read that as 14% magnesium, that's the correct ratio inclusive of the Mg, K, S and Ca.

It's great for cooking, celtic sea salt is used by top chefs.

Thought I'd put in an update on this.

I've cut back slightly on my use of Hims in water and only using it with Greens as opposed to including in water through the day as well while during workouts I'm now using the BSD electrolyte powder. I've also switched from using Bicarb to Alka Clear upon waking and 40-50 mins post workout and have found that any issue with cramping has completely gone.

Alex wrote:Thought I'd put in an update on this.

I've cut back slightly on my use of Hims in water and only using it with Greens as opposed to including in water through the day as well while during workouts I'm now using the BSD electrolyte powder. I've also switched from using Bicarb to Alka Clear upon waking and 40-50 mins post workout and have found that any issue with cramping has completely gone.

Good to hear the cramp issue has gone. Had an alkaclear dump yet?

cleaver wrote:

Alex wrote:Thought I'd put in an update on this.

I've cut back slightly on my use of Hims in water and only using it with Greens as opposed to including in water through the day as well while during workouts I'm now using the BSD electrolyte powder. I've also switched from using Bicarb to Alka Clear upon waking and 40-50 mins post workout and have found that any issue with cramping has completely gone.

Good to hear the cramp issue has gone. Had an alkaclear dump yet?

Mate, they are pretty spectacular. Usually has a couple of goes to mid morning!