ROCK SALT: MOST USEFUL, EASILY AVAILABLE BUT UNCOMMONLY USED

Other names: Sendhav, Hyalite, Pink

   Let us make it a habit to use every piece of advice with a grain of salt. When marketing companies urge you to consume their refined free-flow table salt instead of natural rock salt, do you think that they do this because they're concerned about your health? When you use their product, two purposes are served: They earn in bounty as you buy so called 'refined' salt which is ten times costlier than the natural rock salt. Now multivitamin-multi-mineral companies will step forward. They proclaim that the salt you eat doesn't contain natural trace minerals (which rock salt does contain) and you end up buying essential multi-mineral supplements paying through the nose to compensate for those trace elements.

   Before 1950, people were eating rock salt only and they were healthier than us today. Buying natural salt would have saved you a lot of bucks and health, too.

   Go through Google SE and find out whether it is really sensible to go for iodized salt just because the iodine content of the natural salt is low while inviting a string of unwanted health issues into the bargain. A good number of other food sources could have made up for the low iodine content of the rock salt. Nature is so kind that rock salt or hyalite is found all over the world. It could be white, pink, bluish, purple or orange depending upon its composition of minerals in it. Himalayan rock salt is regarded as the best quality rock salt due to its detoxifying and restorative properties. Salt beds are found in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Salt glaciers are also found in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Romania and Iran. Australia's Nullarbor plane is also rich in hyalite crystals. The U.S. has already banned it. France has banned it. Denmark has banned it and so have the other 52 countries as well. They have banned refined iodized salt for the following reasons.

  Health Benefits of Rock Salt:

• Effect on Blood Pressure: All salts increase blood pressure due to their sodium content. However, rock salt helps to check this rise in BP due to its high potassium content. The potassium content of the table salt is zero.

• Effect on Stroke: The incidence of stroke in patients who consume rock salt is much lower due to better control of blood pressure.

• Effect on Blood Vessels elasticity: Table salt contains chemicals like tricalcium phosphate, magnesium carbonate, sodium aluminum silicate which are also used in cement industry! These are essential to mix iodine with the table salt but they are hardeners. They also affect the water solubility of the salt. This is the reason, people who take rock salt have more elastic blood vessels than those who eat refined table salt.

• Effect on the Varicosity of Veins: What is true for the arteries is applicable to the veins as well. Varicose veins are found in a higher proportion of patients eating table salt.

• Blood pH: All salts are neutral in nature and they don't affect blood pH. Rock salt has got an additional advantage in the sense that, along with its other ingredients, it tends to keep blood pH towards alkaline side which is an advantage. Normal body pH is also alkaline 7.4

• Effect on Muscles: Next time you get up at 3 a.m. in your bed screaming with unbearable pain caused by the muscle cramps in your calf muscle, try this simple remedy. Add one teaspoon of honey and one pinch of rock salt to one glass of warm water and drink it. A miracle will take place instantly!

• Effect on Digestive System: When your digestion is out of order, mix a pinch of rock salt with half teaspoon of ginger juice and consume it. It acts as a super digestive!

• Effect on Skin: Unlike table salt, rock salt is not irritant when applied to the skin. It can be mixed with magnetized water to remove dead skin cells and impart a natural glow to the skin.

• Effect on Kidney: A balance of sodium and potassium is essential for the movement of water from blood into the Kidney's filtration units. Rock salt improves kidney function while table salt deteriorates it, in addition contributing to a rise in BP.

• Tenseness vs Relaxation: Due to its complex interaction with endocrine system and nerves, table salt keeps the body under a state of stressed feeling. Those who use rock salt remain at ease and in a relaxed state.

• Test of Food: Common salt is prepared after heating it to 2000 degree Celsius. This affects the taste of food. The food prepared by using rock salt is tastier than the one prepared by using refined salt.

• Toxicity: Excess consumption of table salt can cause iodine accumulation in the body, causing toxic disorders like hyperthyroidism. Excess iodine is also carcinogenic; it gives rise to tumors.

   The takeaway: Table salt is the pop salt because it has been made falsely popular but what actually rocks is the rock salt!

 ➢BOOKS YOU SHOULDN'T MISS:

1. Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition by T. Colin Campbell and Howard Jacobson

2. Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future by David Wolfe

3. The Great American Health Hoax: The Surprising Truth About How Modern Medicine Keeps You Sick by Raymond Francis

4. Mayo Clinic A to Z Health Guide by Mayo Clinic (Authors)

5. I've Been Thinking . . .: Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life by Maria Shriver

6. Genetics Isn't Everything: How to Make Your 'G-e-n-e-s' Fit You by Katherine S. Egan

7. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger M.D.

References:

1. Book - Wellness with Himalayan Rock Salt 

2. Research on HImalayan Rock salt 

3. HALITE; THE ROCK SALT: ENORMOUS HEALTH BENEFITS - Clinical research  

4. Pink Himalayan Sea Salt - Research findings  

5. Himalayan Salt Clinical Research - Clinical studies