The ongoing debate about the benefits of a low-salt diet has confused the public. Medical journalists from ABC-TV’s 20/20 to America’s pre-eminent scientific journal, Science, published by the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science, have investigated the source of this confusion. The report in Science won author Gary Taubes a top prize from the National Association of Science Writers. Taubes concluded:

“After interviews with some 80 researchers, clinicians, and administrators around the world, it is safe to say that if ever there were a controversy over the interpretation of scientific data, this is it….After decades of intensive research, the apparent benefits of avoiding salt have only diminished. This suggests either that the true benefit has now been revealed and is indeed small or that it is non-existent and researchers believing they have detected such benefits have been deluded by the confounding of other variables.”

The controversy also continues over the best source of salt. Is refined store bought salt just fine? Is it really necessary to use the less convenient and more expensive ‘sun-dried ‘salt?

Until this controversy is resolved, what do we do? Generally, the more natural your diet, the greater the health benefits. So personally, using this principle, I would suggest using unadulterated sea salt. It is well known to be a source of many other trace elements.

Processing and adulteration is the norm in civilized societies. So is illness.

One online source of various sea salts is calledSalt Works.

A study was conducted to determine the possible differences in health benefits between treatments with FIJI Water versus tap water from the city of Graz, Austria, and FIJI Water with a teaspoon of Original Himalayan Crystal Salt Sole solution, versus tap water from the city of Graz, Austria with a teaspoon of common, industrial table salt solution. The research scientists and doctors were astonished at their findings.