Sodium Chloride.  NaCl.  Na for the Latin word, Natrium.  Nature's elements, nature's abundant mineral.  Absolutely vital for life.

Did I say abundant?  Not always, at all places and times.  Salt was rare enough to be used for salary (the two words have the same derivation) by the Romans, and we still hear the phrase "worth his salt" every now and then, without, perhaps, being cognizant of its original meaning.  Think of it: Back then, when you salted your food, you were literally sprinkling away your life's earnings.

Nowadays, thanks to the miracles of modern technology, salt is cheap, a few pennies a pound.   It's no longer practical as a medium of exchange, but at least we can consume all we like without going broke.

It's also demonized.  Just recently yet another meddlesome do-gooder group has called for prepared foods to have even less salt than the already reduced amounts they've been cramming down our throats for years.  There's a very real chance that the government may get involved, as it has so many times in the past, "for our own good."

I'm all for knowing the risks of consuming too much, or too little, of any particular substance, but I insist upon deciding for myself what goes into my body.  What could possibly be more basic to a free human being than making such decisions for himself?   What more certain mark of slavery is there, than allowing someone else to dictate, "Eat that!  DON'T eat the other!"

As it happens, when it comes to salt, my own choice is to consume lots.  I mean seriously lots: I even salt my morning bacon.   And salads.  And just about everything else.

Am I going to drop dead?  Possibly.  I don't seem to have high blood pressure, however, which is the condition that eating one grain too much of salt is alleged to cause.  There is a strong correlation between high blood pressure and various serious illnesses, so if I did suffer from it, I'd probably have a different attitude, since there is some evidence that large quantities of salt intake can exacerbate that condition. 

I should mention, I also consume huge quantities of water.  I use, and recommend, carbonated ("fuzzy") water, also called sparkling water or seltzer water.  H20 plus C02, two natural and beneficial substances.  No sugar, no phosphates, no calories.  No salt, for that matter, so that the body can find the ideal balance between salt and water on the fly through its own natural feedback mechanisms, the ones that the "experts" try so hard to get us to ignore (after all, what is a billion years of evolutionary adaptation compared to their new-found and infinite knowledge?).

And, Murphy be praised, I've had a run of years of wonderful health, with hardly a sniffle.  I think I've missed one day of work due to illness in the last five years.  It is of course true that correlation does not imply causation, so I can't claim that I've been healthy BECAUSE of my habits.  But at least they don't seem to have hurt me.

I also used to suffer from heat exhaustion, not to be confused with heat stroke, but potentially serious as well.  I couldn't hike or work in the heat without getting terribly fatigued.  Then I read Colin Fletcher's "The Complete Walker," a book about having fun, and surviving, while hiking across long stretches of countryside.  He speaks very matter-of-factly about using salt pills to stave off heat exhaustion.  I tried them (they were still stocked on drugstore shelves in 1970; today you have to back-order them, after enduring the incredulity of the girl behind the counter that such a thing could possibly exist), and suddenly I was able to work outdoors in Los Angeles' blistering heat.  It was like a miracle, one of those things that make you wonder, "Why didn't I figure this out sooner?"

Babies by the millions around the world still die of "diarrhea."  Most are not killed by the parasites that bring about the diarrhea, as their young bodies' immune systems are rapidly coming up to speed to fight the invaders off.  What they're dying from is dehydration.  The cure: salt.  Not pure sodium chloride, to be sure, but a careful mix of minerals, with sodium chloride predominating, as it does in our bodies (sea salt has a similar mix of minerals, and I happen to favor it).

How can this be?  They're dehydrated; give them water, right?  Well . . . yes, but once the salt is taken in, the body naturally craves water, and the two combine to counteract the deadly effects of fluid/salt loss caused by diarrhea.  Without salt, all the water in the world just sends the baby's body into a state of hyposalination, and it dies.

Though it's little publicized, adult humans on low-salt diets also tend to die at alarming rates, typically of sudden heart failure.  You heard me right: A low-salt diet can kill you!  For a rare few, who have particularly nasty diseases which make them intolerant to salt, it may be worth the risk to deprive themselves of goodly amounts.  For the vast majority of healthy people obsessed with reducing salt intake, however, my guess is that the harm far outweighs the good.

(If you follow my advice and die, please don't sue.  I'm not an all-seeing oracle; I'm a guy who tries to weigh the evidence as best he can, and who puts his own body on the line based upon his conclusions).

What's up with this demonization of salt?  In my paranoid moments, I think that the government is conspiring to keep us docile by reducing our salt intake.  Mostly, however, I think it's just one in an endless series of passing fads being pushed by feeble-minded medical professionals.  My grandfather, as a child, had a terrible fever, and due to the idiotic theories of the day (late 1800's) was forbidden water!  He very nearly died, as his two older brothers already had.  At least they didn't cut a vein and drain out his blood; that fad had already come and gone.  A hundred years later, we no longer refuse sick people water, but now, suddenly, salt is Officially Bad. 

A few cracks have appeared in the armor: every now and then I hear of a study that finds little correlation between salt intake and blood pressure, or another that correlates low salt diets with high rates of sudden death.  These findings are still in some way "unthinkable," however, almost like saying that smoking pot doesn't affect driving skills as much as drinking alcohol does, and any study that reaches either conclusion is unlikely to play on CNN.  Entrenched fantasies die hard, with vested interests kicking and screaming all the way.

Which brings us back to government policy, do-gooder groups, and fast food.  If someone wants to stand on a soapbox outside McDonalds and preach the evils of salt (or fat, or . . .), I can live with that.  I'll step around him and go get a good dose of salt and fat!  If, however, "experts" collude with government officials to meddle in what kind of food can and can not be offered by restaurants, I say "Back Off!"  I will live, or die, by my own decisions.