Though in today's modern world we are warned about the dangers of salt, in fact, salt is essential to life.

Salt is necessary not only for humans but for animals and plants as well. Salt is required, along with water, to activate cells in all plant and animal life. Bodies are able to endure periods without food, but without both salt and water, living cells quickly perish from dehydration.

Since the beginning of human civilization, the obtaining of salt has shaped history. So important was salt that populations went to war over rights to procure salt from abundant areas. So valuable was salt that Roman soldiers were given a salarium--a "salt allowance"--as part of their pay. This is the origin of the word salary, which now applies to all of our wages for work.

The adult human body contains about four ounces of salt. Without enough salt, muscles don't contract, blood doesn't circulate, food doesn't digest, and hearts don't beat.

Our bodies lose salt all day long as water leaves the body in the forms of perspiration and urine. Low salt levels in the body can produce muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting and dizziness, and eventually, a lack of salt can lead to shock, coma and death.

And so salt needs to be replenished in our bodies on a daily basis.

QUANTITY AND QUALITY

There is no lack of salt in our modern diet. Processed foods are heavily salted, so much so that many people get more salt than their bodies really need. Too much salt can contribute to high blood pressure and other common ills.

But the salt that is commonly sold as table salt and used in processed foods is not the salt that our bodies need. Table salt is a highly refined substance containing only sodium and chloride. What our bodies need is natural unrefined salt made up of all elements of the Earth--all the minerals and trace elements that compose life. These same minerals and trace elements are also found in the human body, as both natural salt and the human body are but different forms made of the same essential building blocks of life.

In order to maintain health, we need to replenish our bodies with the substances that it needs. Our bodies need sodium, chloride, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, magnesium, potassium, calcium chromium manganese, iron, zinc, and many more minerals and elements, yet ordinary refined table salt provides only sodium and chloride. Without all the elements needed for health, bodies quickly degenerate and become ill. Even if our bodies have enough sodium and chloride, they can still be missing other minerals and elements that are vital to life.

If our bodies are to have good health, it is essential to include natural, unrefined, living salt in our diets, just as nature intended.

THE SECRET ELIXER OF LIFE

In ancient times, the kitchen was the domain of women. It was considered a sacred and magical place, where the alchemy of women changed the character and form of raw ingredients to fulfill their purpose as nourishment.

As a purveyor of natural living salt, I receive many letters from satisfied customers who tell me how including whole, unrefined salt in their diets have improved their health. This letter also tells the story of the importance of salt in a more traditional culture than our own.

"I have been taking the salt for the past few months...incredible. I cannot do without it. My body, spirit and mind function far more effectively. I find, that if for some reason I miss taking it for a spell, the balance shifts.

"I spent some time in Kashmir (just before the war), and had a wonderful experience with the salt.

"The women of the house I was connected to (I lived on one of the boats nearby) came to me one evening, saying that they had a special secret they wanted to share. They took me into their kitchen, which was considered to be sacred ground. It was an old house with earthen floors, and the whole kitchen, including the oven, was all built of mud.

"They very reverently took me through to what was obviously a secret, special place, and into what I can only describe as a 'cave' hollowed out in the mud. I saw what seemed to be a very large rock, covered in hessian sacks. They very slowly removed the sacks, all the time expressing obvious veneration and revealed a HUGE pink crystal. 'This is salt,' they said in broken English. 'You must have this... always. It is the elixir of life. Find it when you go back to your world.'

"It wasn't until recently, as I was idly searching the internet for something to assist me, that I very quickly found you.

"Anna West"

Today, when our bodies become ill, we look for a remedy. But often the problem is that we have forgotten the basics. There is nothing more essential to life than salt and water. They are also essential to good health.