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The Origins of the Use of Salt in Diet

The truth is, no one can pinpoint when human beings began using salt in their diet because we were using it long before recorded history existed. But understanding the nature of salt and its relationship to life makes it clear that as long as people have walked the earth, we have always consumed salt in one form or another. We simply would not have survived otherwise.

It's not just the vertical vertebrates that rely on salt. All vertebrates in the world carry exactly the same amount of salt in their veins. We have 9 grams per liter of blood. That's four times as salty as sea water. Without salt, our body fluids would not maintain an appropriate balance at the cellular level. We could not maintain the right pressure in our blood vessels. Muscle contractions that occur in the heartbeat and nerve impulses would not function properly. Our wounds would not heal correctly. We could not fully digest protein.

This may explain a link between the theory that one of our first sources of salt came from the flesh of the animals we ate after they themselves had consumed salt. Studies reported by the USDA tell us that people naturally regulate their own salt intake. Wherever salt is close at hand and people are not eating excessively salty processed foods, we generally eat between 6 and 10 grams a day. And it tastes so good besides. Try to imagine your food without the enhanced flavor that salt adds. It actually pulls sweetness from within the food.

We may not have a written record of the first person to eat salt, but our ancestors certainly considered the mineral important enough to leave evidence of their use. Wars were fought for it. Civilizations used it as currency. The Egyptians are known to have built coastal salt processing plants 7000 years ago. The Chinese wrote a document called the Png-tzao-kan-mu in which they list more than 40 types of salt and describe processing methods. They even wrote a fable explaining how the feng-huang, a phoenix like bird, revealed the treasure to a Chinese peasant who then brought it to the emperor. Their processes were just like the ones we use today. Some people were mining it. Others were gathering it from sea water.

It is not only in our diets that salt is critical. Prior to refrigeration, it was THE method for preserving food. It pulls water out of bacteria and kills it. That same pulling power can be used as a healing agent. Salt baths and compresses have long been used by naturalists to rejuvenate. The Dead Sea, a body of water so concentrated in salt that no life can survive in it, is known the world over for its therapeutic benefits. Salt is now and always has been indispensable to our diets and our lives. This is a given that we know has always been the truth and will always remain the truth.

Learn more about this author, Ariel Lehrer.
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