Salt, salty, salt

Salt is a perfect example of how, in our efforts to make our food more "user-friendly" we wreck it up. When we added anti-caking agents to our salt and bleached it so that it could flow easily out of a salt shaker we took a step away from using it wisely. The picture shows true sea salt, dried at low temperature. It doesn't sprinkle out of a shaker. It has to be served in a salt. Did you know there was such a thing as "a salt"? The one in the picture is an antique that my Aunt Judith gave to me, complete with its little silver spoon. Real sea salt, after you spoon it up and put it on your food, does not become invisible. Think about it. Pure white, miniscule crystals that you shake out do not give you the opportunity to truly notice how much salt you are using.

There is plenty of debate in the Paleo world about the role of salt. Some very well known authors claim that salt should be avoided and was not a Paleo food. These tend to be the people who are mired in their own "knowledge". They also don't know much about cooking and eating in my opinion. It is absolutely true of course that Paleo Person took in vastly less sodium, and no processed iodized salt. They maintained a proper ratio of magnesium to sodium and potassium which is virtually impossible if you consume much salt or processed food. However, hunter-gatherers went through extreme efforts to obtain salt. They sent yak caravans over mighty mountains, they traded with enemies, they burnt the roots of certain plants that concentrate sodium, they drank blood, they sprinkled their food with clay and they ate bones. They engaged in all sorts of eating behaviors that provided a more concentrated source of sodium and other minerals which modern people do not do. Dr. Howell, who studied enzymes, theorized that cultures who consumed primarily raw foods (yes, meat) did not need very much salt because they did not require the activation of many digestive enzymes (raw meat is practically already digested) whereas cultures that ate primarily cooked foods required more salt to activate digestive enzymes. Especially here in Arizona during the summer months we have to be careful to ingest enough electrolytes, including sodium. Zucchini and celery are good vegetable sources of salt. The best sea salt for consumption is grey in color and moist. Delicious and primal.