Episode 34 of The Living Life Well Show: Taste and See: Salt
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
Hey, welcome back to the living life. Well show today. I want to continue our taste and see series, and I want to discuss salt. We see a lot out there in the medical literature and in recent years, really talking about how bad sodium is, especially for patients with hypertension and, or congestive heart failure, diabetes, renal issues.
So a list goes on and on. And so, we've seen. Seen sodium, specifically vilified, but you know, the [00:01:00] Bible has a much different take on salt, so let's start there. So when we first hear a mention of salt, it's actually a pretty negative connotation. And there are a few negative connotations with regards to salt throughout the Bible.
However, the vast majority of them are good. So, so let's kind of go through this a little bit. Salt when we first see it is referring to lot's wife, that gets turned into a pillar of salt as they are fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah. When they are flaying they're told. You know, don't look back, just get out of there. They ended up prior to that they were bargaining for whether they could stay or not.
And so as they're fleeing lot's wife turns and look. Back and is then turned into a pillar of salt. So, we see that negative reference. We also see negative [00:02:00] references talking about how salt can be a waste land. And that it can destroy crops. We will also see salt as healing in Kings.
When a bowl of salt miraculously turns, a undrinkable water drinkable, and then in effect opens up an entire land to to the Israelites. The salt connotation can be very good. But what really, I want to talk about with salt is how it is used in the Bible to preserve our covenant.
Initially it was used in the old Testament. And when David was coming to be king and it is referenced as a covenant of salt.
So that covenant of salt reference is back in second Chronicles, 13 five, but we see that salt was very important. Much prior to this really in Leviticus and in Leviticus. This is kind of the [00:03:00] time when the Israelites were in the desert, in the 40 years after they had fled Egypt and they were given lots of rules and regulations with regards to the 10 commandments, all the Levitical procedures for priests and also the community at large.
And so we see in Leviticus, Two 13, it talks about the grain offerings and it talks about all the grain offerings needed to have salt. They needed to be seasoned with salt and brought in a specific way. For the priests, and these grain offerings were given as food for the Levitical priests at that time.
The covenant of salt was really started then, and it just represented purification. It represented preservation.
It represented. Tastiness. Goodness. And really benefit to God's people. And then obviously we see this throughout the new Testament as [00:04:00] well, specifically with the sermon on the Mount, that Jesus is talking about being salt. We are the salt of the earth as it talks about in Matthew five.
And so. Salt has a great connotations and also a couple of negative connotations. And so what we see is a biblical representation that when. We get an over dependence or use of, or amount of something. Take the pillar of salt and, or a wasteland that has too much salt in the ground where nothing else will grow that can be a problem.
But. But we're also shown that we are to be salt. That salt is good. Salt represents preservation represents that purification represents that attractiveness and tastiness that is brought to life. We see that a [00:05:00] lot now. Today. Salt is not difficult for anybody to come by. You can come by it really just anywhere.
Virtually all our fruits and vegetables have some salt in them. There's going to be some salt in the ground where they're produced and that naturally comes in to our fruits and vegetables. Now. When we're talking today about salt. If you go on to the American heart association website, And talking about hypertension, heart health. Those things sodium basically is what they're talking about.
And when they say salt, that's really what they're referring to is more sodium content as opposed to salt in and of itself. Because our salt today, as it's manufactured for table salt is a much more concentrated just with sodium and chloride than what we saw back in biblical times.
So when you're looking at this, I want to make [00:06:00] that distinct distinction between what biblical salt is and was and what we talk about salt today. Because the real issue with salt comes in how we have essentially adulterated salt. And have used it in an over abundance to create the process food industry. Because this is being used to preserve this as what makes things shelf stable.
This is what makes a Big Mac be able to sit on the dash of your car for three months without changing stinking or Molding. So these salts that are used in industrial food production is what really is the issue that we're seeing. You sprinkling some table salt is not an issue. We've actually used table salt, as you've heard, possibly on other episodes, talking about thyroid [00:07:00] health. To help prevent thyroid disease because we have included iodine in that, which. Many times you don't get from typical sea salt, the way we harvest it now. So, so salt is going to be of great benefit.
In addition, Every single cell in your body is dependent upon sodium and potassium. So these are both present. In sea salt now, when we have gone to table salt, now it is just sodium chloride. We're missing the potassium. And so. That is what is causing a bit of issue here because we aren't getting a balance of those minerals that we got, the way God intended us to naturally get our salts.
And the way that the biblical times was able to get and receive salt, we see that salt was extremely [00:08:00] valuable. We talk about Roman soldiers being. Worth their salt. We talk about when receiving a blessing, they were blessed with olive oil and salt. And so. We see salt as being very beneficial in the way God designed us.
We need that sodium. We need that potassium that comes in the form of salt, through fruits and vegetables. And. Through animal products. And then of course, through sea salt, that's been evaporated and then come into a crystallized form.
Salt from the sea has many more ingredients in it than what we typically see and table salt is going to be sodium and chloride, iodine, and that's basically it. But when we look at sea salt, we see trace minerals like zinc and copper and manganese and fluoride.
We're going to see a bromine. We're going to see iron. We're going to see calcium. But we're going to [00:09:00] see a lot of different trace minerals that we really need for our body to be able to function at its best. And so. That's where sea salt is going to be of benefit to you now. If you have congestive heart failure, if you have hypertension and you're having trouble controlling that. Yes. Limiting your salt intake, regardless of whether it's being sea salt or a regular table salt is going to be important.
But the number one thing that you can do to help yourself with this. Is to eliminate all the processed foods that have salt in it. Things think like soups potato chips any kind of lunch meats. Those are all gonna have very high sodium content in them and is going to cause issues potentially regulating your blood pressure and or congestive heart failure. [00:10:00] And so you want to pay special attention to that, but in cooking, generally speaking, if you are cooking. What we consider to be a food and I'll give you my acronym for food.
F is for fresh or frozen. Oh, the first O is four. It came out of the ground. And the second, oh, is it came out of the pasture or the sea? And then D is. It decays. If you apply that principle, then really what you're looking at is you're looking in the produce section.
You are looking in the. The butcher section. And really that's pretty much about it. Unless you are then making your own bread, your own pastas. Those things where you are taking. Whole. We berries and milling them yourselves. So that you can create breads and [00:11:00] those things.
So, you want food that decays food, that decays is food. If it doesn't decay, like my you know, hamburger example then you know, that's not food. So, so food was made to decay. Salt was made to slow that decaying process, but was not ever intended to eliminate. It. So, we need to make sure that we are eating real food first.
Secondarily then you can add your salt to that. And if you typically are using sea salt, you're going to get a lot of those great minerals. That I mentioned before that you wouldn't get otherwise from using typical table salt. Now for those of us that do have thyroid that don't like a lot of leafy greens.
We're definitely don't like seaweed or fish or those things. A little bit of table salt is going to be beneficial because it will help to provide that iodine to [00:12:00] prevent thyroid issues.
Now, if you are deciding to eat some processed foods, what are ways that you can look in there? And determine if it has salt. The names that we've talked about before in the past. For sugars, having 30 something names for added sugar, same thing is for salt.
So, essentially if you see the word sodium, be it di sodium mano sodium. That salt. So some examples on the American heart Association's website di sodium guanylate dye sodium. Innocent eight. Fluor to sell Himalayan pink, salt, kosher salt. Monosodium glutamate or MSG. Rock salt, sea salt, sodium bicarb, sodium nitrate, sodium citrate, sodium chloride. Typical table salt, sodium diaspora, Tate sodium.
Aritha bait. Sodium glutamate, sodium lactate, sodium lauryl sulfate. So him. Metta by sulfate sodium phosphate, trisodium, phosphate. So. [00:13:00] These are all different salts. So why is the process food industry? Really you know, so proliferative, Y. Is there so much salt in everything?
Well, couple reasons, the way our lifestyles are now with our stress levels, our lack of sleep, our irregular sleep. Those all lead to cravings for salt. Some people have sweet cravings. The sugar addiction is real. Just like the salt addiction is real because that those stress levels change your cortisol response.
They change your adrenal response, that fight or flight response, and so those shifts in Cortisol and other adrenal hormones. that we have can trigger cravings for salt. So. Decreasing your stress, getting better sleep is going to help you avoid that craving for salt. [00:14:00] My recommendations are this is that for now, as of the time of this recording in August of 2024. It looks as though your best source of salt is going to be sea salt.
Okay. Secondarily a table salt and then maybe Himalayan pink salt after that. As with everything there could be contaminants. In any of that are our oceans and ground aren't necessarily. The cleanest, the way God intended. However you are going to get those trace minerals.
And so if you are somebody that is under a lot of stress and that is having a difficult time with sleep and managing that. Possibly adding a little bit of Celtic, sea salt, or sea salt to a glass of water in the morning about a quarter to up to a half a teaspoon, but probably a quarter teaspoon is going to be best and mixing that and drinking that will help you [00:15:00] to regulate that craving. For salt overall and maybe keep you from going to the chip aisle or to the lunch me aisle or different. Areas in the store that aren't the produce section or the meat butcher section. So I hope you found this beneficial.
I hope you found this. Interesting. Thanks. And God bless.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, [00:16:00] nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
