I prefer food salt rather then chemical salt because I know the body uses salt that is incorporated into a plant much better then salt that isn't one with the plant.

I have heard of some raw food eaters who consume lots of high salt plants like celery to get more salt into their bodies. I'm just wondering if a raw food eater can get enough salt in their diet if they don't focus on eating foods high in salt provided they eat a reasonable variety of plants ? Does a raw food eater need to get the focus of their diet onto eating mostly high salt foods ? How much salt does a raw food eater need ? Opinions appreciated.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2009 02:17PM by EZ rider.

Hi EZrider,
I've never really given much thought to sodium at all, except to avoid it like the plague in its chemical form, because even a small amount of it puts water weight on me-- ugh! I can't handle salt at all. Once in awhile I will add celery to pinaepple juice when I'm juice fasting, and I like the way it makes me feel, but I notice no special effects.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I worried about salt a while back when I read about the symptoms of a sald deficiency. People posted lots of info in response:

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]

Essentially, you can easily get enough salt be eating tomatoes, celery, chard, and it's hard to get too much eating raw. Where enough and too little are the opinion of some nutrionist.

..interesting thread liponeer

National guidelines are often geared towards meeting the needs of a "healthy" population. For instance, Health Canada [www.hc-sc.gc.ca] lists the following 'Adaquate Intakes' for 19-30year-olds for nutrients commonly associated with 'salt'..

chloride 2000mg
iodine 150mcg
sodium 1300mg

..Health Canada also lists an 'EAR' (estimated average requirement) for iodine of 90 mcg.

The whfoods website [www.whfoods.com] lists 'in-depth nutrient analysis' for some foods, for instance avocado..

Avocado -- 1cup or 146grams
calories 235
chloride 8.76mg
iodine 2.92 mcg
sodium 14.6mg

..to find the common 'salts' of fruits and vegetables listed like this is not easy. The 'average' rawfoodist probably doesn't need all of 1300mg of sodium, but if one sweats profusely or is vomiting, has chronic diarrhea, drinks LOTS of water or goes on a water fast then electrolytes can be depleted obviously, and the AI's probably cover some of these cases.

..common table salt (NaCl) dissolves easily in water (or the digestive system) into bio-avalable sodium and chloride ions, Na+ and Cl-, for those occasions when one may need supplemental salt.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2009 02:16PM by loeve.

..oh, chloride reference intakes may be a bit high because they can simply be tied to reference 'salt' intakes as opposed to a specific physiological need. By some accounts we need more like 750mg/day of chloride (Edit: an AI of 2000mg/day was in the previous post).

"Chloride: The Forgotten Essential Mineral

"Chloride is an “essential” mineral for humans. It is abundant in ionic trace mineral preparations. It is a major mineral nutrient that occurs primarily in body fluids. Chloride is a prominent negatively charged ion of the blood, where it represents 70% of the body’s total negative ion content. On average, an adult human body contains approximately 115 grams of chloride, making up about 0.15% of total body weight.1 The suggested amount of chloride intake ranges from 750 to 900 milligrams per day, based on the fact that total obligatory loss of chloride in the average person is close to 530 milligrams per day...

"In addition to its functions as an electrolyte, chloride combines with hydrogen in the stomach to make hydrochloric acid, a powerful digestive enzyme that is responsible for the break down of proteins, absorption of other metallic minerals, and activation of intrinsic factor, which in turn absorbs vitamin B12. Chloride is specially transported into the gastric lumen, in exchange for another negatively charged electrolyte (bicarbonate), in order to maintain electrical neutrality across the stomach membrane. After utilization in hydrochloric acid, some chloride is reabsorbed by the intestine, back into the blood stream where it is required for maintenance of extracellular fluid volume...

"Deficiency of chloride is rare."

[vitanetonline.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2009 05:02PM by loeve.

Eating seaweed is a tasty way to get iodine, plus some salt from a whole raw food. I usually have dried raw nori (Bright Earth Foods has a wonderful organic raw nori).

Sometimes I find a good fresh seaweed. A couple of days ago, I found a seaweed called "Asparagas Seaweed" (Kahuku seaweed is the Hawaiian name). It is soooo good! It's very green. Not salty at all on the outside, but a little burst of subtle juicy salt flavor when you bite into it. I mixed it with other greens, a bit of avocado, and some lemon juice. Mmmmm.

My personal choice is to never add salt to anything ever.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2009 05:10AM by suncloud.

Actually, some sources (even quite 'official' - forgive me for not going into files and listing them here) - list 500 mg as a safe minimum, a raw-food nutritionist I know says 350 mg, a recent poll of apparently very healthy high-activity raw fooders gave intakes as low as 30 mg a day, and UK Govt figures from 2001 in a little booklet I have say (some) people can be healthy on as little as 69 mg a day.

Basically, we can all easily get our sodium requirements from plant foods.

..yes, whole foods are the best source of chloride, iodine and sodium.

..not all fresh veggies meet the need. Take the current case on another raw board of mono eating watermelon while maintaining a 2 liter/day water habit. The complaint was of pain like "being hit by a train' (headache etc.). Hyponatremia is when the sodium concentration in the blood is too low, and we've seen it recently on this board with prolonged water fasting.

..from the Food and Nutrition Board:

"...Human populations have demonstrated the capacity to survive at extremes of sodium intake from less than 0.2 g (200mg)/day of sodium in the Yanomamo Indians of Brazil to over 10.3 g (10300mg)/day in Northern Japan. The ability to survive at extremely low levels of sodium intake reflects the capacity of the normal human body to conserve sodium by markedly reducing losses of sodium in the urine and sweat. Under conditions of maximal adaptation and without sweating, the minimal amount of sodium required to replace losses is estimated to be no more than 0.18 g (180mg)/day. Still, it is unlikely that a diet providing this level of sodium intake is sufficient to meet dietary requirements for other nutrients."

"Because of insufficient data from dose-response trials, an Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) could not be established, and thus a Recommended Dietary Allowance could not be derived. Hence, an Adequate Intake (AI) is provided.

"The AI for sodium is set for young adults at 1.5 g (1500mg)/day (3.8 g of sodium chloride) to ensure that the overall diet provides an adequate intake of other important nutrients and to cover sodium sweat losses in unacclimatized individuals who are exposed to high temperatures or who become physically active as recommended in other dietary reference intakes (DRI) reports."

[www.nap.edu]

..we might be able to adapt to low sodium intake like the Yanomamo Indians of Brazil, which might be indicative of a low mineral diet in general.. just my opinions.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2009 12:25PM by loeve.

..after 1 to 1 1/2 medium to large watermelons and close to a gallon of water over the course of a day..

"This was the kind of pain where you start seeing your life flash before your eyes and you see angels and demons and you start bargaining with God"

..sorry to see someone experience this

I would have to agree that intake can be very low and is nothing to worry about if you are implementing a proper raw-food diet. I have listened to Brian Clement
@ Hippocrates Health Institute lecture for many many hours and he has never even spoke of a salt problem, especially if you are eating sea veggie's wich is a nessesity on this diet. I even soak my sea veggies to get rid of the salt and still no problems. I am on a 100% raw diet and my sodium is perfect every time blood work is done.

EZ rider, you may be interested to know that honeydew and cantaloupe-type melons are relatively high in sodium - the only fruits I know of that are.