(UN)Salt
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By Jennifer Harper
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Dave Chappelle so eloquently proclaimed during his 2015 Netflix special, “You know what kills more black people than anything, more than the police or terrorism? Salt! ni**a, regular-ass table salt!”
America’s love affair with salty foods has been linked to alarming rates of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure. More than 4 in 10 American adults have high blood pressure; among Black adults, that number is 6 in 10, as stated by the F.D.A.
Although my mother, Mildred lived to the spry age of 91 (her mother 102), acute ailments struck her throughout life and eventually contributed to a sudden cognitive decline that was miraculously reversed, thanks to an integrative approach to health care: Stopping the consumption of ingredients that have been known for decades to be directly linked to reversible ailments, and even cancer, and replace them with healthy alternatives.
Integrative medicine, which gets to the root cause of ailments and issues, understands the importance that nutrition and other factors play in our health and provides preventative treatment. While traditional doctors often wait until there is a diagnosis, before then prescribing drugs or surgery, or nothing at all; instead of seeking preventative measures.
It’s simple now, but I learned the hard way that there is a direct relationship between what you put in your mouth, like traditional table salt, and your health and the importance of greatly reducing/eliminating salt from your diet to aid in overall wellness.
Receiving nutrition through a series of IV therapy reversed my mother’s cognitive decline – literally after the first treatment – therefore, greatly improving the quality of her life in her final years.
When it became necessary to completely eliminate salt from her diet, I got hip to try fresh herbs and spices to flavor my mom’s favorite meals. My experimentation resulted in just the right taste profile for a Salt-FREE Seasoning.