Adjust Our Diet 8: Replace Chemically-Prepared Salt With Natural Sea Salt

Other than sugar, we also changed from refined salt to sea salt when preparing our daily meals. Even though refined salt is very much cheaper, we opted for sea salt after learning more about salts.

We all need some salt in our diet. The food we consume contains some salt and hence we do not need to add more salt to it. Fried chicken, burger, French fries and fast foods also contain much salt which makes them tasty. If more salt is consumed, the kidney has to work very hard to discharge it. This burden may lead to kidney malfunctioning and other health problems such as high blood pressure, insomnia and heart diseases.

Why is white and refined salt so damaging? This type of salt is normally processed from dry salt ponds or old salt mines, not from sea water. It is processed under high temperature and is whitened with chemicals. More chemicals are used to solidify it into refined salt. In this process, the magnesium is completely lost and minerals are damaged. What remains is 99％ sodium chloride and it may even contain other contaminants. In addition, the manufacturers are likely to add some chemicals before selling it.

In reality, our body only requires little salt daily. Over consumption is likely to lead to high blood pressure and other diseases. The remote villagers in Papua New Guinea do not add salt to their food. They do not have high blood pressure problems. In contrast, in eastern Canada where people like to eat salted fish, many people have high blood pressure problem (Carroll 2000). It has been observed that when lesser salt is consumed, there will be direct decline in blood pressure. See Carroll, D.L. (2000). Controlling High Blood Pressure the Natural Way. New York: Ballantine Books.


Malaysians in general like to take food containing excessive salt and oil such as salted fish and sambal. This eating habit can result in obesity and high blood pressure (New Sunday Times, 17 August 2008).

If you want to add some salt when cooking, it is best to use the natural sea salt. This type of salt is gathered in a natural way where the process does not use chemicals in purification process. Hence, this type of salt is rich in minerals, including sodium, potassium, magnesium, iodine, phosphorus and zinc. Brittany, a village in France, is well known for the production of sea salt.

In our case, in our daily life, we also avoid food which is high in salt such as salted fish and salted vegetables. These types of food contain too much of refined salt and have additives as well as preservatives. Such foods bring no benefit to our health but can be damaging to our body. Over consumption of any kind can cause the skin to dry, contract and wrinkle, darkness around the eyes, cold feet and poor circulation, premature greying of hair, tightness in the kidneys and back, excessive thirst, skinny appearance, enormous appetite, sleepiness and lack of energy (Kushi and Jack 2003). See Kushi, M. & Jack, A. (2003). The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health. New York: Ballantine Books.