Interesting facts about salt

October 21, 2009 | In: Food facts

Salt is vital to prevent excess saliva production to the point that it flows out of the mouth during sleep. Needing to constantly mop up excess saliva indicates salt shortage.

Salt is a vital substance for the survival of all living creatures, particularly humans. Water and salt regulate the water content of the body.

Ocean salt alone possesses the power to restore wholeness to the human internal seas, our body fluids.

Salt is vital for preventing varicose veins and spider veins on the legs and thighs.

Twenty-seven percent of the body’s salt is in the bones. Osteoporosis results when the body needs more salt and takes it from the body. Bones are twenty-two percent water. Is it not obvious what happens to the bones when we’re deficient in salt or water or both.

Consumption of too much salt can be deadly – you need to take about 1 gram of salt per kilogram of weight to die and this was used as a method of ritual suicide in China – especially amongst the nobility as salt was so expensive.

Salt was so important a commodity in ancient times that it was often used as money! Words and expressions reflecting the former importance of salt include “salary”, “safety”, “soldier”, and “worth one’s salt”, as well as the modern Hebrew words for “war” and “peace”.

Salt became a relatively cheap commodity during the Industrial Revolution, when efficient methods for mining salt were developed.

There’s enough salt in the world’s oceans to cover all the continents with a layer of salt 45 stories high!

Each liter of seawater contains about 35 grams of salt, which is fine for sea creatures and many birds but too salty for humans to drink. Scientists and engineers are working on developing cost-effective ways of extracting the salt out of seawater to help insure against fresh water shortages.