People who know me well, will not be surprised by the following statement.
I think my favorite food is salt.

Yep.  I eat a lot of salt.  A salty dog, I am.  If my blood pressure weren’t 102 / 59…. I might cut back.  But, the last time I went to the doctor, my blood tests showed that my body is low in sodium.  Doctor T looked at me earnestly and said, “If you could try eating more salt, that would be good.”  I told her I didn’t think it was possible.

So as it turns out….. I am a bit of a mover and and a shaker.
I am also a rock biter.   You see… this is how it goes.  Sodium Chloride (that’s salt) is formed when the unstable metal sodium reacts with chlorine gas.   Yummy.  It is the only family of rocks regularly eaten by humans.  I eat a lot of rocks.

And wouldn’t you know it.  Salt is so essential to the body that if you drink too much water it can flush it out of your system and cause fatal Hyponatremia. (This is what killed that young woman… Jennifer Strange… who entered a “Hold your wee for a Wii” competition.)

On the other hand.  Consumption of too much salt can be deadly.  The deadly amount is a whole, whole lot of salt…. to most people.  You need to take about 1 gram of salt per kilogram of weight to die.  This ratio was used as a method of ritual suicide in China…..especially amongst the nobility of certain dynasties….  as salt was so expensive way back then.

It has been expensive in many places… and many times.  In the early 1800s salt was 4 times as expensive as beef on the frontier.   It was pretty dang essential in keeping people and livestock alive.  I for one… am glad that the cost of salt is down.

These days… only 6% of the salt used in the U.S. is used in food.  It appears that the Department of Transportation is responsible for a bunch.  More than 17% is used for de-icing streets and highways in the winter months.

But enough about that.  I love a good salt shaker.  Especially when it is full.
I think  the reason that I like salt so much, is because my Dad used to be a Salt Salesman.  After he would close a deal.. he would say to his client… “Let’s shake on that.”

Yep.
NaCl Baby!  NaCl.

Coming Next Week:  “Pepper.  It is nothing to sneeze at.”