Don Matesz commented on a video on YouTube. Shared publicly - Nov 11, 2014 Most non-human wild species that eat plant-based diets go out of their way to find direct salt sources. For example, the Elephants Protection Fund reports that elephants travel long distances and work hard to obtain salt from salt licks: Pools of water enriched with minerals are especially sought-after, and elephants trunks are highly sensitive in locating these. Plains grass does not provide all the trace elements the animals require, so elephant herds regularly visit sites where they have found salt-containing earth. They churn up the ground with their tusks, and put the dislodged pieces of soil into their mouths with their trunks. In some places, holes several feet deep can be hollowed out in this way. This is how elephants open up salt licks, and make vital minerals accessible to other animals. elephant.kulichki.net/elib5.html Primates also seek out salt-rich foods and salt licks. Chimpanzees lick salty rocks to satisfy their need for sodium. Gorillas eat rotting wood to get sodium not present in their diets: livescience/4120-mystery-solved-gorillas-eat-rotting-wood.html It is highly questionable whether an unsalted plant-based diet provides adequate sodium for all individuals. Individuals vary in a range in their requirements for every nutrient. Some may do OK on a salt-free diet but probably most will not. I actually wonder if salt restriction is one of the reasons some people dont succeed on a plant-based diet. Meat, dairy, and eggs are rich in sodium so someone who tries a salt-free plant based diet may not do well and feel better when s/he adds salt-rich animal products back. Warning to those vegan advocates who are fanatically anti-sodium: you may be creating ex-vegans. I have more about this in my book Powered By Plants: Natural Selection and Human Nutrition. It is also discussed extensively in a book called Wild Health. natureasintendedNov 12, 2014 What is your response to this? I would love to have your book to hand actually! ..e to think of it, Im going to check out purchasing it to have for reference anyway. Animals dont eat refined sources of salt in nature. There is a difference between things that are rich in minerals, and refined salt. Show less Don MateszNov 12, 2014 1 Reply My response is multi-layered: 1) NaCl is NaCl, regardless of source. 2) If you dont want refined salt, eat sun-dried sea salt (aka Celtic salt). Which, by the way, is about 85% NaCl. 3) If this is a claim that eating refined NaCl in 1-2 g quantities causes harm, please provide scientific, peer-reviewed evidence to support that claim. 4) Animals dont wear clothes, type on computers, play the piano, drive cars, compose poetry, write symphonies, etc. etc. This is no argument at all, unless you think that humans should only do things that other animals already do. 5) Youre grasping at straws, because animals dont seek out things that are rich in minerals, like bones from dead animals, or common rocks (e.g. limestone, flint, granite, etc.), or common soil or sand, they seek out SALT LICKS which by scientific analysis have been shown to be PREDOMINANTLY composed of salt/sodium chloride/NaCl and it is clear that they do this to obtain the NaCl because any other minerals in those rocks/soils/dead trees are already available in their foods. 6) Animals in nature dont drink purified i.e. refined water. They drink water that has urine, feces, sweat, hair, skin, blood, insects, bacteria, protozoa, etc. in it. This unrefined water used to kill thousands of people annually with cholera, typhoid, etc. Do you think we should drink unrefined water too, because thats what the animals drink? 7) Alright, you have just concluded that instead of eating cleaned salt sources, you ought to mimic these other animals and eat soil, lick rocks, or chew on dead tree stumps. Good luck with that, I will stick with using a bit of sun-dried sea salt in my foods.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 21:28:16 +0000
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