Free Get the Salt Out by C.N.S. Ph.D. Ann Louise Gittleman Page A

advantage, not to your disadvantage. Nutritionist Martin Fox has noted that an adult who takes a fifteen-minute bath typically absorbs almost twice as much water—and the substances dissolved in it—as he or she receives from a day’s supply of drinking water. This means that you can add magnesium-rich Epsom salts to bathwater to increase your absorption of heart-healthy magnesium, but you must avoid using salt-softened water, particularly if you bathe frequently.

Get the Salt Out of Breakfast
    B reakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it frequently is an afterthought to many individuals. In today’s fast-paced world, Americans often start their day with instant foods, which almost always means salty foods. Whether they eat a sausage biscuit from a drive-through or hurriedly eat a bowl of ready-to-eat cereal, they usually consume excessive levels of unhealthy sodium and refined salt whenever they choose convenience for breakfast over nutrition.
    Few of us realize it, but the nutrition we receive during breakfast can have a huge impact on how we feel and even on what we eat the rest of the day. Judging from my clients’ cases, too many people lag in energy because they eat the wrong foods for breakfast. They mistakenly believe all protein and fats are bad and all carbohydrates are healthy, so they avoid quality foods—like eggs—that could keep them going for hours. Instead, they load up on nutrient-poor processed carbohydrates such as white bread, croissants, English muffins, and bagels. These foods are so tasteless on their own (having been stripped of the very parts that give them the most flavor) that they often have to be made with salt or topped with a salty spread like butter to be palatable. Even worse, processed carbohydrates likethese lose important minerals like magnesium and potassium that would otherwise offset the effects of added sodium. In addition, eating refined carbohydrates ultimately can cause people to eat more salt: when individuals eat these foods at the beginning of the day, they often crave and may even binge on salty junk food and sugary snacks just a few hours after breakfast to get a quick, but short-lived, jolt of the energy they lack. (Both salt and sugar
temporarily
stimulate the energy-producing adrenal glands.)
    An important key to reducing salt intake is to eat a healthy breakfast that is not only low in sodium but also nutritious enough to prevent bingeing on salt later in the day. Eating a healthy breakfast does not need to be complicated or time-consuming. It simply requires switching to whole-grain carbohydrates and balancing them with small amounts of quality protein and fats for longer-term energy.
    The tips in this chapter will help you do that. You’ll learn how to get the salt out of breakfast while you keep convenience, flavor, and long-lasting nutrition in.

BREADS AND SPREADS

    131Choose whole grain bread that is low in sodium. Commercial yeasted bread always has salt added to it to prevent the bread from rising too much and developing a strong yeasty taste. To prevent consuming more sodium than you bargained for, try to find bread that contains
less than 140 milligrams of sodium per slice
and that is made with sea salt instead of regular table salt.
One Salt Shaker.
    132Never use self-rising flour if you bake bread or biscuits at home. Self-rising flour has salt and leavening agents already added to it, a process that creates an outrageously high-sodium product. (Gold Medal Self-Rising Flour, for example, contains 1,520 milligrams of sodium per cup and Aunt Jemima’s Self-Rising Flour actually contains 3,176 milligrams of sodium per cup!) The unhealthy sodium content of self-rising flour obviously is dangerous. Avoid using this product at all costs.
    133If you make your own bread, you can make it without salt as long as you follow these instructions: when the dough is rising in the bowl, occasionally punch it lightly with two fingers to prevent excessive