Did you know that the word “salary” was derived from the word “salt”?

Historically, salt was used as a highly valued method of currency and trade. With a long history of use dating all the way back to 6050 BC, salt was used for everything from religious offerings to currency, and of course, for eating.

While today doctors warn us to stay away from salt, in reality, your body needs salt. Real sea salt like Icelandic or Celtic Sea Salt, as well as Himalayan Salt, are all REALLY good for you. In fact, these types of salt are 100% critical to your survival. It’s important to make the distinction that the salt the docs are talking about is highly processed white table salt – the one found in almost every restaurant and packaged food – and not unrefined sea salt from nature.

What is Table Salt?

Table salt, or white processed salt, begins as sea salt or rock salt. The trace minerals are cooked off and sold to chemical companies who turn around and sell them as single ingredients. Almost every chemical you can think of comes from sea salt. What’s left of the salt after all the minerals are cooked off is 98-99% sodium chloride. It’s re-congealed using a chemical additive and then sold as white table salt.

This type of salt dehydrates you and makes you crave more salt because you are not getting the minerals you need. It also further leaches minerals from your body – demineralizing you further. It causes blood pressure to rise and increases your risk of heart attack or stroke.

Feeling bloated? This salt could be to blame. It makes you retain water and you may feel groggy after a late night processed food binge session.

What is Sea Salt?

Sea salt is created by evaporating sea water. When the water is evaporated, the salt left behind is the good kind of salt that you want to be getting into your body. It’s unrefined, highly mineralized, and offers your cells all the nutrients they can’t get from your food because the soil on our Earth has become so depleted.

Did you know that salt is critical for every function in your body? Minerals govern 95% of your body’s activities and so your cells literally need the minerals in salt to work properly. Trace minerals and major minerals allow the nearly 4,000 enzymes (small proteins) in each cell in your body to work at its fullest potential. Everything from your blood to your brain needs salt to function at maximum capacity.

The Top 5 Benefits of Sea Salt

1 – Hydration

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Adding real sea salt into your diet actually helps you stay hydrated – it doesn’t dry you out like you might think. The nutrients help satisfy your thirst and better hold onto the water within your cells. In fact, sodium is an essential nutrient that helps to maintain fluid balance, plays an important role in maintaining blood pressure, and assists in nutrient transport to your cells.

The balanced ratio of minerals, particularly potassium and sodium, work together to make sure your body has the proper fluid balance in its cells, blood plasma, and extracellular fluid. They help your body release retained water as well. Eating unrefined sea salt actually helps eliminate bloat and water retention.

Being hydrated means you can absorb and assimilate nutrients, digest your food properly, burn fat, remove toxins, and it even enhances your complexion.

2 – Mineral-Rich

84. That’s the number of trace minerals sea salt contains to nourish and strengthen your body. Sea salt is absolutely crucial to your diet because you can no longer get all of these important minerals from your food. The soil has become stripped of essential minerals due to monocropping and other farming methods and so it doesn’t have the nutrients available for growing foods to absorb.

Minerals support our immune system which keeps our body in a lower inflammatory state. This supports healthy blood pressure and overall cardiovascular health. They also transmit electrical signals in the body which control the proper functioning of the brain, heart, muscles, and nervous system. Taking in too little sea salt can cause your cells to malfunction.

3 – Balances Electrolytes

Sea salt’s mineral profile includes important electrolytes like magnesium, calcium, potassium, and sodium. These electrolytes are vital for your heart, as well as your brain and entire nervous system.

Electrolytes are also critical for muscle health. When you don’t have enough in your body, you can experience cramps, muscle soreness, and restless leg syndrome. Minerals keep the muscles relaxed and functioning smoothly so they don’t spasm and contract. They are a very important factors in staving off migraines.

4 – Supports Digestion

Salivary amylase, an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates in the saliva of the mouth, is activated by the flavor of salt.

Salt helps your stomach secrete hydrochloric acid to break down food, especially protein. It also helps your body absorb vitamins and minerals like calcium, zinc, iron, folate and vitamin B12. Most people are insufficient in hydrochloric acid, and this can cause uncomfortable digestive issues like gas, bloating, heartburn, indigestion, and can eventually lead to leaky gut and chronic disease.

5 – Supports Energy & Hormones

When our adrenals are worn down, we feel wiped out. Fueled by stress and poor dietary choices, adrenal fatigue is extremely common today. When our adrenals are low, one of the main symptoms is salt cravings. This is because the body is craving the nutrients it needs from sea salt.

In addition to energy, our adrenal glands release hormones that regulate sodium and potassium in the body. They need a balance of these minerals from high-quality sea salt to function properly. The magnesium in salt is critical for hormone production, healthy sleep cycles, mood balance, and a healthy functioning thyroid.

Getting sea salt into your diet is as easy as throwing out your refined, white table salt and replacing it with Icelandic Salt or Himalayan Salt. Consistently sprinkle a tiny bit in your water and on your food and you’ll be well on your way to remineralizing your body.