One way or another, salt is going to get you.
The confusion that reigns over the role of salt in our lives is enormous. This is difficult to explain since we know so much about what salt does.
Salt is a compound that is made of the elements sodium and chlorine.
Sodium alone is a soft metal which reacts violently with water. To form salt, the sodium has given up an electron to form positively charged sodium ions. Chlorine alone is a yellow gas. To form salt, the chlorine atom accepts an electron and becomes a negatively charged chloride ion.
We have all seen salt. We know that the sodium and chloride ions which form salt have completely different physical and chemical properties than the metal and gas from which they were formed.
As usual, though, there are those who feel their mission in life is to rewrite all our chemistry texts according to their own principles--the most important of which is that you don’t do any research.
Consider this magazine story found by Gregory van Buskirk and Sharon Kantor in Danville, CA. The article was about pollution in the home and said,
“Chloride in water is a potential hazard, especially in showers, when the heat can cause it to vaporize, producing a toxic gas. . . . Installing a water filter in your home will help avoid any potential exposure to chloride gas.”
Sodium chloride melts at over 1200 F. It would finally boil and enter the gas phase at some temperature considerably above this. If you are taking showers at 2000 F, you likely have other things to worry about than a little chloride gas.
Probably, the poor misguided author had meant to warn us about chlorine gas, but it still would have been a wasted lesson.
Not everyone is out to warn you about salt, however. Dr. Paul De Souza has written a small book called, “SALT is GOOD For Everyone If the Right Kind.” Dr. De Souza outlines the necessary role that sodium ions play in muscle regulation, and then falls deeply into some imaginative science fiction.
The basic premise is that commercial salt is oven dried. Dr. De Souza’s salt is not. In order to market this difference for his product, new chemistry has to be invented. The following examples from the book are illustrative; they are certainly not exhaustive.
“About 50 years ago the major production companies of salt in the U.S.A. began to dry the salt in huge ovens. The temperatures needed to dry out the salt went up as high as 1200 degrees F. This heating changes the chemical structure of the salt. Very basic and fundamental changes have taken place and these changes affect the human body adversely.”
Not one study is cited to support this idea. There is no evidence of any original research on the part of Dr. De Souza on this topic. Inquiries inviting him to substantiate the statement have gone unanswered.
In fact, this statement is wrong. You could heat salt to the melting point, and it would still be salt.
Dr. De Souza continues. . .
“If more than 1% of other minerals are present, or if chemicals are added, then sodium chloride is disturbed in its function. DEMAND TO KNOW THE PERCENTAGE OF NaCl IN THE SALT YOU PURCHASE!”
If you elect to buy any De Souza salt, you had better make this demand. Dr. De Souza hints, but never says, that sea water is the source of his salt. You may be surprised to find that sea salt has considerably more than 1% of other minerals.
The book concludes with a quote from Forrest Griffith, a “Pioneer in Herbs in California.”
“Popular concept is to make the salt “pour when it rains.” The facts are that in the heating process of salt, the element sodium chloride goes off into the air as a gas and what remains is sodium hydroxate which is irritating to the system and does not satisfy the body’s hunger and need for sodium chloride which is one of the 12 daily essential minerals.”
The Fib Finder is prepared to accept a bet with anyone who proves that
- A substance named sodium hydroxate even exists, and
- That there is no sodium chloride in any sample of table salt taken from any supermarket shelf.
The real harm of this little tome is that while Dr. De Souza admits that the average American eats 10 times more salt than is needed, he hints that all your health ills from hypertension to heart disease will disappear if you replace the salt in your diet with his “natural” salt.
References
- 1. Chemical and Engineering News (Sept 2, 1991) p 52.
- 2. Paul De Souza, SALT IS GOOD IF THE RIGHT KIND, (Vitagenic Publishing: Banning, CA) 1983.