Nutrition
Contents
1. Magical Nutrition
2. Salt
1. Magical Nutrition
2. Salt
1. Magical Nutrition
The path of the Druid is to find your own way to Source, to live in harmony with the land, sea and sky and to share this Light with others. There are people who teach, they are guides on the path. They do not wish for you to follow them, they are there to help you find your own path and to support you to walk it as your true self. Whilst on my path I found a guide who helped me to understand that nutrition is as crucial to a spiritual path as meditation is.
So in my usual way I started to methodically inspect my own nutrition, what did I fuel my body with? How did I feel after each meal or snack? I looked at each piece of food and asked myself did it give me energy or take my energy. What follows in this essay is not a lecture, it is not nutritional advice, it is a sharing of my truth with the hope that you start to find your own truth in relation to food, your body and your spiritual practice.
This sharing will focus on sugar, refined sugar made from vegetable or fruit sugars. Why sugar? When looking after a friend’s house I came across a book entitled Sugar Blues by William Dufty. I began reading it on the first night I couldn’t sleep because of what I suddenly understood about sugar. It was inspirational and horrifying. William Dufty, now deceased, completely exploded the sugar myth for me. I immediately ordered my own copy. I haven’t been able to eat one grain of processed sugar since I first read that book in December 2011. The book inspired me to conduct more online research into sugar and its effects on the human body.
Sugar drinks are “sweet poison”
The path of the Druid is to find your own way to Source, to live in harmony with the land, sea and sky and to share this Light with others. There are people who teach, they are guides on the path. They do not wish for you to follow them, they are there to help you find your own path and to support you to walk it as your true self. Whilst on my path I found a guide who helped me to understand that nutrition is as crucial to a spiritual path as meditation is.
So in my usual way I started to methodically inspect my own nutrition, what did I fuel my body with? How did I feel after each meal or snack? I looked at each piece of food and asked myself did it give me energy or take my energy. What follows in this essay is not a lecture, it is not nutritional advice, it is a sharing of my truth with the hope that you start to find your own truth in relation to food, your body and your spiritual practice.
This sharing will focus on sugar, refined sugar made from vegetable or fruit sugars. Why sugar? When looking after a friend’s house I came across a book entitled Sugar Blues by William Dufty. I began reading it on the first night I couldn’t sleep because of what I suddenly understood about sugar. It was inspirational and horrifying. William Dufty, now deceased, completely exploded the sugar myth for me. I immediately ordered my own copy. I haven’t been able to eat one grain of processed sugar since I first read that book in December 2011. The book inspired me to conduct more online research into sugar and its effects on the human body.
Sugar drinks are “sweet poison”
I am writing this on the assumption that you as a Druid, Student Druid or Lightworker understand that Light / energy cannot flow through our body if there are blockages and that an unhealthy physical system can cause such a blockage.
All the healing, ceremonial magic, divining, journeying and vision questing works better if the Light of this universe can flow through you uninhibited. Many have argued mind over matter, but my spiritual practice is grounded on this Earth and so I take quite a practical holistic approach to being a channel for Light or Leas in old Irish. I don’t believe that I can be a magical Lightworker with the power of my mind alone, ritualized ceremony is not my only practice as a Druid; I need to be able to breath, stretch, sleep, walk, talk and eat my path of Light!
I began by simply looking at food labels, actually reading them and researching what each ingredient was and how it was made. I very quickly realized that nearly every food in a tin, bottle, jar, packet or carton always has some sort of processed refined sugar added. I decided to stop eating anything with refined sugar in it. This was a lot more difficult than I first realized as refined sugar can be in an ingredient list without being written of as sugar. Within 1 month of consciously removing refined sugars from my diet I lost a stone in weight and started to feel like I had lots more energy. I can get up in the mornings now without a sugar hangover.
Astonishment and anger are the two main reactions I get from people when I declare I don’t eat sugar. Why not they ask? Then they say: a little bit in moderation doesn’t hurt, sugar has no calories, where do you get your energy from? I was surprised at some people who actually got angry, they tried to tease me with sugary treats, they brought bags of sugar into my home and put extra in their tea just to prove that sugar wasn’t doing any harm to them and every so often would offer me some or give me a lecture as to how sugar is good for you or at least its not that bad. I made the decision not to eat sugar for myself; I never lectured anyone or admonished their sugar intake. People try to defend their sugar intake…. I don’t take any in my tea; I only use brown sugar or raw sugar. One lady tried to convince me to eat some chocolate brownies declaring that they were healthy because they were homebaked, I asked what were they sweetened with—refined sugar.
Let me now share with you some facts. They have led me to realize whether you buy products with added sugars or you add the sugar yourself at home it’s still refined sugar. Refined sugar has a huge harmful effect on the body. Once you read this it is up to you to do some more research and to implement whatever dietary changes are necessary for you, your body and ultimately you ability to hold, share and let Light flow through you.
Sugar’s chemical name is Sucrose, its chemical equation is C12H22O11, because it has carbon, hydrogen and oxygen it is classified as a carbohydrate, and this is where the confusion begins. You need carbohydrates for energy don’t you? … yes we do, but we need to know the difference between whole grains and refined sugar and the nutrients that they provide. The word sugar is also used to describe an entire group of substances that are similar to each other but not the same e.g. Glucose. Glucose is in our bloodstream and is often called blood sugar. There’s fructose-the sugar in fruit, maltose is malt sugar, lactose is sugar in milk, dextrose is derived synthetically from starch and is also called corn sugar. Sucrose is refined sugar made from sugar cane and sugar beet - cane and beet are natural foods and in their original state are whole and healthy. Dufty in his book makes a great comparison “Heroin too could be advertised as being made from natural ingredients, the opium poppy is as natural as the sugar beet. It’s what man does with it that tells the story.”
So what does man do with the humble sugar cane and beet?
Cane is harvested by men, women and children who are modern day slaves. They live on or near the cane farm, work long hard hours, get paid in small amounts of cash and have one store nearby owned by their bosses. When you read the history of cane sugar you find it tainted with war and slavery and really the amount of horror, fear and pain created by this industry should be enough to make you give up sugar. I’ve come to the realization however that our bodies our actually addicted to the white stuff, and addiction can create many distractions to keep you from the truth.
Once the cane or beet is harvested it is chopped into small pieces to squeeze out the juice, this is then mixed with water and the liquid is heated and lime added. Moisture is boiled away and the remaining fluid is pumped into vacuum pans to concentrate the juice. By this time the liquid begins to crystallize. It is placed into a centrifuge machine where any remaining residues such as molasses are spun away. The crystals are then dissolved by heating to boiling point and passed through charcoal filters. After the crystals condense they are bleached snow white usually by the use of pork or cattle bones.
This mechanical process removes and destroys 64 food elements. Potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, phosphate and sulfate are removed. The vitamins A, B, and D are destroyed. Amino acids, vital enzymes, unsaturated fats and fibre which are all available in the whole sugar cane or beet are gone. All refined sweeteners go through similar processes that destroy the original nutrients. Refined sugar has what nutritionists describe as empty or naked calories. We have become so focused on calorie counting that we have become distracted from the actual quality or health benefit of the calorie. Calorie control can maintain desired weight levels but this is not the same as desired health levels.
Refined sugar and sweeteners are actually treated by the body as toxins. Our bodies are wonderful processors, they can take a lot of abuse and still keep us functioning, why we would want to abuse them is the question. We have convinced ourselves that it is ok to take poison, so long as it doesn’t kill us immediately we’ll make up thousands of excuses to make it ok to eat a toxin that tastes nice.
The following is a direct quote from Dufty’s book, he sums it up nicely:
“ Sugar taken every day produces a continuously over-acid condition and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance. Finally in order to protect the blood so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin. Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. Initially, it is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver’s capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts, and the thighs.
When these comparatively harmless places are completely filled, fatty acids are then distributed among active organs, such as the heart and kidneys. These begin to slow down; finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat. The whole body is affected by their reduced ability and abnormal blood pressure is created. Refined sugar lacks natural minerals. Our parasympathetic nervous system is affected; and organs governed by it, such as the small brain, become inactive or paralyzed. (Normal brain function is rarely thought of as being as biologic as digestion.) The circulatory and lymphatic systems are invaded, and the quality of the red corpuscles starts to change. An overabundance of white cells occurs, and the creation of tissue becomes slower. Our bodies’ tolerance and immunizing power becomes more limited so we cannot respond properly to extreme attacks, whether they be cold, heat, mosquitoes, or microbes.”
I am not a qualified nutritionist, nor do I have expert letters after my name. I am however the qualified and experienced inhabitant of a physical body and when I read the above passage it scares me. Refined sugar has the potential to cause serious malfunctions within the body. Unless you insist on taking your nutritional advice from marketing companies any personal research into this area will lead you to the same conclusion there is no positive argument for having refined sugar in your diet.
What about the argument: everything in moderation….yes it turns out that if you have a healthy body to begin with, it can manage to process and eliminate 2-4 teaspoons a day without any harmful effects. The average American however consumes 22.2 teaspoons of sugar a day (88grms) an average British person consumes 700grams a week. These statistics refer to sucrose, refined cane and beet. 1 teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 grams. 1 can of coca cola has 10 teaspoons of sugar-if you look at some of the main foods ingested by people and work out how many teaspoons of added sugar are in the ingredients you quickly see how the average person is consuming 700grams a week.
If you do choose to research this area you will be astonished at the list of diseases that are associated with refined sugar. It stands to logical reason that if you fuel your body with a toxin it will eventually slow down and not work properly, how this will manifest depends on your unique physical system.
So having read a few facts, what are you thinking now-are you defending your sugar intake? You don’t take that much anyway….. you fit within the 2-4 teaspoon category-you’re not an average American or British person. Have you a 100% healthy body able to take up to 16 grams of toxins a day in the form of sucrose not to mention environmental toxins that our bodies have to cope with.
Have a good look at every piece of food you eat. If a label says spices, what spices do they mean, is sugar one? What e numbers represent artificial sweeteners? Are there added sugars in your beer? Do the rashers you treat yourself to on the weekend have dextrose added? How about that nice bread from the bakery that doesn’t come with a label? Refined sugar is hidden in almost every foodstuff. Brown sugar is often just white sugar with a colouring sprayed on it. Unless you’re juicing organic cane yourself there’s no amount of marketing that can convince me there is a healthy type of sucrose. If you think you’re not addicted try eliminating refined sugar for 2 weeks.
The choice as always is yours. If you do decide to give your body some healing and rest from processed refined sugars it can take up to 18 months for the damage done to heal and repair itself. Beltine is the perfect time of year to start a new healthy eating plan, the land is blossoming and fresh greens are growing. In the Lughnasa edition of this Journal I will share the health and energy benefits of hand harvested sun dried sea salt. Take the poison sugar out of your diet and you’ll feel wonderful and positive health benefits. When you add real salt your Lightbody has the raw materials to make it shine brightly. I’ll explain how and why in the next issue.
Niamh Connor, Druí Fasach, Beltine 2012
All the healing, ceremonial magic, divining, journeying and vision questing works better if the Light of this universe can flow through you uninhibited. Many have argued mind over matter, but my spiritual practice is grounded on this Earth and so I take quite a practical holistic approach to being a channel for Light or Leas in old Irish. I don’t believe that I can be a magical Lightworker with the power of my mind alone, ritualized ceremony is not my only practice as a Druid; I need to be able to breath, stretch, sleep, walk, talk and eat my path of Light!
I began by simply looking at food labels, actually reading them and researching what each ingredient was and how it was made. I very quickly realized that nearly every food in a tin, bottle, jar, packet or carton always has some sort of processed refined sugar added. I decided to stop eating anything with refined sugar in it. This was a lot more difficult than I first realized as refined sugar can be in an ingredient list without being written of as sugar. Within 1 month of consciously removing refined sugars from my diet I lost a stone in weight and started to feel like I had lots more energy. I can get up in the mornings now without a sugar hangover.
Astonishment and anger are the two main reactions I get from people when I declare I don’t eat sugar. Why not they ask? Then they say: a little bit in moderation doesn’t hurt, sugar has no calories, where do you get your energy from? I was surprised at some people who actually got angry, they tried to tease me with sugary treats, they brought bags of sugar into my home and put extra in their tea just to prove that sugar wasn’t doing any harm to them and every so often would offer me some or give me a lecture as to how sugar is good for you or at least its not that bad. I made the decision not to eat sugar for myself; I never lectured anyone or admonished their sugar intake. People try to defend their sugar intake…. I don’t take any in my tea; I only use brown sugar or raw sugar. One lady tried to convince me to eat some chocolate brownies declaring that they were healthy because they were homebaked, I asked what were they sweetened with—refined sugar.
Let me now share with you some facts. They have led me to realize whether you buy products with added sugars or you add the sugar yourself at home it’s still refined sugar. Refined sugar has a huge harmful effect on the body. Once you read this it is up to you to do some more research and to implement whatever dietary changes are necessary for you, your body and ultimately you ability to hold, share and let Light flow through you.
Sugar’s chemical name is Sucrose, its chemical equation is C12H22O11, because it has carbon, hydrogen and oxygen it is classified as a carbohydrate, and this is where the confusion begins. You need carbohydrates for energy don’t you? … yes we do, but we need to know the difference between whole grains and refined sugar and the nutrients that they provide. The word sugar is also used to describe an entire group of substances that are similar to each other but not the same e.g. Glucose. Glucose is in our bloodstream and is often called blood sugar. There’s fructose-the sugar in fruit, maltose is malt sugar, lactose is sugar in milk, dextrose is derived synthetically from starch and is also called corn sugar. Sucrose is refined sugar made from sugar cane and sugar beet - cane and beet are natural foods and in their original state are whole and healthy. Dufty in his book makes a great comparison “Heroin too could be advertised as being made from natural ingredients, the opium poppy is as natural as the sugar beet. It’s what man does with it that tells the story.”
So what does man do with the humble sugar cane and beet?
Cane is harvested by men, women and children who are modern day slaves. They live on or near the cane farm, work long hard hours, get paid in small amounts of cash and have one store nearby owned by their bosses. When you read the history of cane sugar you find it tainted with war and slavery and really the amount of horror, fear and pain created by this industry should be enough to make you give up sugar. I’ve come to the realization however that our bodies our actually addicted to the white stuff, and addiction can create many distractions to keep you from the truth.
Once the cane or beet is harvested it is chopped into small pieces to squeeze out the juice, this is then mixed with water and the liquid is heated and lime added. Moisture is boiled away and the remaining fluid is pumped into vacuum pans to concentrate the juice. By this time the liquid begins to crystallize. It is placed into a centrifuge machine where any remaining residues such as molasses are spun away. The crystals are then dissolved by heating to boiling point and passed through charcoal filters. After the crystals condense they are bleached snow white usually by the use of pork or cattle bones.
This mechanical process removes and destroys 64 food elements. Potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, phosphate and sulfate are removed. The vitamins A, B, and D are destroyed. Amino acids, vital enzymes, unsaturated fats and fibre which are all available in the whole sugar cane or beet are gone. All refined sweeteners go through similar processes that destroy the original nutrients. Refined sugar has what nutritionists describe as empty or naked calories. We have become so focused on calorie counting that we have become distracted from the actual quality or health benefit of the calorie. Calorie control can maintain desired weight levels but this is not the same as desired health levels.
Refined sugar and sweeteners are actually treated by the body as toxins. Our bodies are wonderful processors, they can take a lot of abuse and still keep us functioning, why we would want to abuse them is the question. We have convinced ourselves that it is ok to take poison, so long as it doesn’t kill us immediately we’ll make up thousands of excuses to make it ok to eat a toxin that tastes nice.
The following is a direct quote from Dufty’s book, he sums it up nicely:
“ Sugar taken every day produces a continuously over-acid condition and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance. Finally in order to protect the blood so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin. Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. Initially, it is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver’s capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts, and the thighs.
When these comparatively harmless places are completely filled, fatty acids are then distributed among active organs, such as the heart and kidneys. These begin to slow down; finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat. The whole body is affected by their reduced ability and abnormal blood pressure is created. Refined sugar lacks natural minerals. Our parasympathetic nervous system is affected; and organs governed by it, such as the small brain, become inactive or paralyzed. (Normal brain function is rarely thought of as being as biologic as digestion.) The circulatory and lymphatic systems are invaded, and the quality of the red corpuscles starts to change. An overabundance of white cells occurs, and the creation of tissue becomes slower. Our bodies’ tolerance and immunizing power becomes more limited so we cannot respond properly to extreme attacks, whether they be cold, heat, mosquitoes, or microbes.”
I am not a qualified nutritionist, nor do I have expert letters after my name. I am however the qualified and experienced inhabitant of a physical body and when I read the above passage it scares me. Refined sugar has the potential to cause serious malfunctions within the body. Unless you insist on taking your nutritional advice from marketing companies any personal research into this area will lead you to the same conclusion there is no positive argument for having refined sugar in your diet.
What about the argument: everything in moderation….yes it turns out that if you have a healthy body to begin with, it can manage to process and eliminate 2-4 teaspoons a day without any harmful effects. The average American however consumes 22.2 teaspoons of sugar a day (88grms) an average British person consumes 700grams a week. These statistics refer to sucrose, refined cane and beet. 1 teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 grams. 1 can of coca cola has 10 teaspoons of sugar-if you look at some of the main foods ingested by people and work out how many teaspoons of added sugar are in the ingredients you quickly see how the average person is consuming 700grams a week.
If you do choose to research this area you will be astonished at the list of diseases that are associated with refined sugar. It stands to logical reason that if you fuel your body with a toxin it will eventually slow down and not work properly, how this will manifest depends on your unique physical system.
So having read a few facts, what are you thinking now-are you defending your sugar intake? You don’t take that much anyway….. you fit within the 2-4 teaspoon category-you’re not an average American or British person. Have you a 100% healthy body able to take up to 16 grams of toxins a day in the form of sucrose not to mention environmental toxins that our bodies have to cope with.
Have a good look at every piece of food you eat. If a label says spices, what spices do they mean, is sugar one? What e numbers represent artificial sweeteners? Are there added sugars in your beer? Do the rashers you treat yourself to on the weekend have dextrose added? How about that nice bread from the bakery that doesn’t come with a label? Refined sugar is hidden in almost every foodstuff. Brown sugar is often just white sugar with a colouring sprayed on it. Unless you’re juicing organic cane yourself there’s no amount of marketing that can convince me there is a healthy type of sucrose. If you think you’re not addicted try eliminating refined sugar for 2 weeks.
The choice as always is yours. If you do decide to give your body some healing and rest from processed refined sugars it can take up to 18 months for the damage done to heal and repair itself. Beltine is the perfect time of year to start a new healthy eating plan, the land is blossoming and fresh greens are growing. In the Lughnasa edition of this Journal I will share the health and energy benefits of hand harvested sun dried sea salt. Take the poison sugar out of your diet and you’ll feel wonderful and positive health benefits. When you add real salt your Lightbody has the raw materials to make it shine brightly. I’ll explain how and why in the next issue.
Niamh Connor, Druí Fasach, Beltine 2012
2. Salt
Previously, I wrote about sugar and the effects it can have on our physical health. Now I would like to bring the topic of salt up for debate and discussion. Again I reiterate that I am not a nutritionist. I walk the path of a magical Lightworker, this means each day I attempt to expand my awareness to include new and evolving truths.
I am currently researching for myself what salt is and what it does to our bodies. If this topic interests you please do your own research and perhaps use this article as a guide or as inspiration.
Your body is unique, it is similar in make up to my body but your internal system and how it works is unique to you. It is the path of the Lightworker to understand the physical processes of our own bodies and what nutrition best fuels them. Salt has had significant historical impact on our world, it has been traded for centuries. It has had many uses other than nutrition.
So what is salt?
A chemistry definition: salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization of an acid and a base.
Unless we work in a lab or in the industrial world the majority of us associate salt with table salt, a refined white substance that we use as a food seasoning. When we see slat labelled as an ingredient in food the label does not explain the type of salt,how it has been produced or what additives it contains. When we talk of salt, or ask for it in a restaurant we seldom specify the salt we want. We have been bombarded with marketing to make us believe that all salts are the same, all salts are bad for us, we get enough ‘salt’ in the food we purchase and we do not need to add any extra salt……sound familiar? What salt are they talking about? It seems that we can basically divide the salts we consume into 2 broad categories, refined and unrefined.
Refined salt is the most commonly used. It is mainly sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is a huge industry, food uses for sodium chloride account for only 17.5% of overall refined salt production. Sodium chloride is predominately made for the chemical industry. On average 22 million metric tons of salt are consumed by the chemical industry every year. Sodium chloride is used in many manufacturing processes such as the production of soaps and detergents or making pulp and paper. After the raw salt which contains a variety of minerals is obtained it is refined to purify it and improve its storage and handling. Purification usually involves recrystallization. In recrystallization, a brine solution is treated with chemicals that precipitate the other minerals. It then goes through multiple stages of evaporation and mechanical drying until what is left is 97 to 99% sodium chloride. Then depending on the companies that make it various additives are added, usually to make it flow easier and cake less. Some additives include iodine, (a small amount of dextrose is added to stabilize the iodine) fluoride is added in some countries, aluminum in the form of sodium aluminosilicate and calcium aluminosilicate are permitted additives as anti caking agents. In Canada, Windsor Salt has inverted sugar syrup added. When you see salt on a label, look to see if this is referring to added salt, it has the potential to contain 99% sodium chloride which has been taken out of it’s naturally occurring state, mechanically dried, bleached to get that white colour and has had some hazardous chemicals added to it. So if this is the type of salt we’re talking about then yes I would have to agree that over consumption of this is extremely bad for your health. In fact I personally see this substance as a poison and I have lumped it in with sugar as being refined to the point of being harmful and the body will work with it as an irritant.
Unrefined salt is a different substance altogether.
I am currently researching for myself what salt is and what it does to our bodies. If this topic interests you please do your own research and perhaps use this article as a guide or as inspiration.
Your body is unique, it is similar in make up to my body but your internal system and how it works is unique to you. It is the path of the Lightworker to understand the physical processes of our own bodies and what nutrition best fuels them. Salt has had significant historical impact on our world, it has been traded for centuries. It has had many uses other than nutrition.
So what is salt?
A chemistry definition: salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization of an acid and a base.
Unless we work in a lab or in the industrial world the majority of us associate salt with table salt, a refined white substance that we use as a food seasoning. When we see slat labelled as an ingredient in food the label does not explain the type of salt,how it has been produced or what additives it contains. When we talk of salt, or ask for it in a restaurant we seldom specify the salt we want. We have been bombarded with marketing to make us believe that all salts are the same, all salts are bad for us, we get enough ‘salt’ in the food we purchase and we do not need to add any extra salt……sound familiar? What salt are they talking about? It seems that we can basically divide the salts we consume into 2 broad categories, refined and unrefined.
Refined salt is the most commonly used. It is mainly sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is a huge industry, food uses for sodium chloride account for only 17.5% of overall refined salt production. Sodium chloride is predominately made for the chemical industry. On average 22 million metric tons of salt are consumed by the chemical industry every year. Sodium chloride is used in many manufacturing processes such as the production of soaps and detergents or making pulp and paper. After the raw salt which contains a variety of minerals is obtained it is refined to purify it and improve its storage and handling. Purification usually involves recrystallization. In recrystallization, a brine solution is treated with chemicals that precipitate the other minerals. It then goes through multiple stages of evaporation and mechanical drying until what is left is 97 to 99% sodium chloride. Then depending on the companies that make it various additives are added, usually to make it flow easier and cake less. Some additives include iodine, (a small amount of dextrose is added to stabilize the iodine) fluoride is added in some countries, aluminum in the form of sodium aluminosilicate and calcium aluminosilicate are permitted additives as anti caking agents. In Canada, Windsor Salt has inverted sugar syrup added. When you see salt on a label, look to see if this is referring to added salt, it has the potential to contain 99% sodium chloride which has been taken out of it’s naturally occurring state, mechanically dried, bleached to get that white colour and has had some hazardous chemicals added to it. So if this is the type of salt we’re talking about then yes I would have to agree that over consumption of this is extremely bad for your health. In fact I personally see this substance as a poison and I have lumped it in with sugar as being refined to the point of being harmful and the body will work with it as an irritant.
Unrefined salt is a different substance altogether.
Different natural salts have different minerals; they can be different colours and have different tastes. Lots of indigenous cultures have used natural salts for different purposes; some natural salts will not be consumed but will be used for sacred or ritual purposes. Rock salt from ancient dried up sea beds may have lost some of their mineral content as they have been rained on over time and some of the mineral content will have dissolved and run off. I personally go out of my way, once all the way to France, to purchase French salt from Guerande. I usually buy a year’s supply of salt in bulk, enough for my family and enough for gifts to friends.
Natural sea salt is harvested by channeling sea water through successive evaporation ponds, large crystals form and these are harvested and then rolled on clay. It is sundried without machines, it is never bleached with chemicals, and the only additives are the minerals from the clay it is rolled on. It is gray in colour and comes in large crystals and tastes delicious.
Natural sea salts are only 84%sodium chloride and 16% other minerals. These minerals have not been highly processed or refined out of existence making it much easier for our bodies to absorb the sodium, chloride and other trace minerals that it needs.
The salt industry will say that the health consequences of ingesting sea salt or refined table salt are the same as they are both predominately sodium chloride. This is a simplistic statement made by people who assume we are not critical thinkers; they assume we will believe their blatant and obviously false marketing lies.
Our bodies need unrefined sea salt and the balance of minerals to function properly. We need sodium for a variety of essential functions. We need it to activate the salivary enzyme in the mouth, we need it to help make hydrochloric acid for digestion. The adrenal glands run on sodium. It helps to maintain the fluid in our blood cells and is used to transmit information in our nerves and muscles. It helps the absorption of certain nutrients from our small intestines. Chloride is one of the most important electrolytes in the blood, it helps keep the amount of fluid inside and outside of our cells in balance and it helps maintain proper blood volume, blood pressure and ph of our bodily fluids. Electrolytes are what the body makes with the minerals from real whole salt, electrolyltes conduct an electric current. Our whole body is a bioelectric organism. Electrolytes have been defined as both the electric ‘switch’ and the energy source. We need them for our energy to flow.
Our body needs the balance of unrefined salts. When you read health guides and they recommend you limit salt consumption ask yourself which salt do they mean. Are they actually referring to the overly mass produced refined toxic sodium chloride with hazardous additives? I encourage you to contemplate and research what happens to our bodies if we don’t take enough unrefined sea salt. By eating refined sodium chloride you are toxifying your body, by not eating any unrefined sea salt you may also be doing damage to your body.
The choice as always is yours. Try some real salt, feel the difference. As a Lightworker not only will you feel the health benefits but you will feel and see your Light body shine even brighter as real hand harvested sun dried sea salt helps your energy flow and utimately sparkle!
Niamh Connor, Druí Fasach, Lughnasa 2012
Natural sea salt is harvested by channeling sea water through successive evaporation ponds, large crystals form and these are harvested and then rolled on clay. It is sundried without machines, it is never bleached with chemicals, and the only additives are the minerals from the clay it is rolled on. It is gray in colour and comes in large crystals and tastes delicious.
Natural sea salts are only 84%sodium chloride and 16% other minerals. These minerals have not been highly processed or refined out of existence making it much easier for our bodies to absorb the sodium, chloride and other trace minerals that it needs.
The salt industry will say that the health consequences of ingesting sea salt or refined table salt are the same as they are both predominately sodium chloride. This is a simplistic statement made by people who assume we are not critical thinkers; they assume we will believe their blatant and obviously false marketing lies.
Our bodies need unrefined sea salt and the balance of minerals to function properly. We need sodium for a variety of essential functions. We need it to activate the salivary enzyme in the mouth, we need it to help make hydrochloric acid for digestion. The adrenal glands run on sodium. It helps to maintain the fluid in our blood cells and is used to transmit information in our nerves and muscles. It helps the absorption of certain nutrients from our small intestines. Chloride is one of the most important electrolytes in the blood, it helps keep the amount of fluid inside and outside of our cells in balance and it helps maintain proper blood volume, blood pressure and ph of our bodily fluids. Electrolytes are what the body makes with the minerals from real whole salt, electrolyltes conduct an electric current. Our whole body is a bioelectric organism. Electrolytes have been defined as both the electric ‘switch’ and the energy source. We need them for our energy to flow.
Our body needs the balance of unrefined salts. When you read health guides and they recommend you limit salt consumption ask yourself which salt do they mean. Are they actually referring to the overly mass produced refined toxic sodium chloride with hazardous additives? I encourage you to contemplate and research what happens to our bodies if we don’t take enough unrefined sea salt. By eating refined sodium chloride you are toxifying your body, by not eating any unrefined sea salt you may also be doing damage to your body.
The choice as always is yours. Try some real salt, feel the difference. As a Lightworker not only will you feel the health benefits but you will feel and see your Light body shine even brighter as real hand harvested sun dried sea salt helps your energy flow and utimately sparkle!
Niamh Connor, Druí Fasach, Lughnasa 2012