“I think it would not be difficult to show that there are whole nations and tribes of people who do not eat salt. I am told by an Italian, who has lived among them, that the Algerines do not. I was myself informed while in the region that the Indian tribes inhabiting the banks of the Columbia and Puget Sound do not. It is noteworthy also that those tribes are among the most graceful, intelligent and industrious tribes in North America, and are fine in personal appearance. I think that there is little doubt that the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific Ocean lived from a period of vast antiquity, explorers have been left for weeks, months and years without a supply of salt by accident or otherwise, and have survived without apparent injury. Finally, there are many persons in the United States who have voluntarily abandoned the use of salt for periods ranging from one to twenty years (and for aught I know longer), not only without injury but with increased health, strength and activity. So far from being natural to man, the instincts of children, especially when born free from an inherited bias in its favor, go to show by their rejection of it that it is unnatural. Like the taste for coffee,tea and various seasonings, it is an acquired one; few, if any children but will prefer unsalted food.”
— from Richard T. Colbum, in “The Salt Eating Habit”
“Although the interior parts of our continent abound with salt springs, yet I cannot find that the Indians used salt in their diet till they were instructed to do so by Europeans.”
— from Dr. Benjamin Rush, who made a careful study of the habits of the American Indians a hundred years ago and found them to be very healthy.
“Mr. Wm. Bryant, of Philadelphia, who went with a company of 120 men, under the U. S. Government. beyond the Rocky mountains, to conduct to their far Western homes, the Indian chiefs who were brought to the seat of government by Lewis and Clark, says that for more than two years they lived as Indians did, without tobacco, narcotic or alcoholic substance and without salt. Most of these men suffered with various chronic complaints when they left the East, but all of them were restored to good health during their sojourn in the wilds of the West.”
— from, The Reverend Sylvester Graham, who was an early American dietary reformer.
“On many occasions, I myself have offered them some surplus articles of food left by us after our meals. Soups and meats cooked in the usual way and seasoned with salt,they would invariably refuse, after tasting, saying in their own language, it was not good. Of the same kind of meats cooked without salt, they would eat heartily and with gusto. Bread, hard bread,crackers, etc., they would also eat, but anything they could taste salt in they would invariably refuse.” He says that even when they were hungry they would refuse foods in which they could taste salt.” In other bands (of Indians) that we saw, it (salt) is an article of medicine rather than an article of food.” Describing these men he says: “A more athletic, hearty, stout and robust class of men cannot be found in the world than these very Indians of whom I am writing, who never used this article (salt) in any shape. Many of them are more than six feet high, others of medium size, and they will endure more hardship, stand more fatigue,have better lungs, suffer less from sickness, live longer, on a general average, than the white race, who have all conveniences.”
— Dr. Hoffman of the U. S. Army, writing in the San Francisco Medical Press in 1864, gives us an account of experiences he had with some of the “wild Indians” who inhabited the Western plans, as he passed, with the army over these in 1849. The Indians frequently visited their camp.
“it required the lapse of several generations after the conquest of Mexico to reconcile the Tlascalans, “a bold and hardy peasantry,” of Mexico, to the use of salt in their food. The Indians of Northern Mexico still use no salt in their food. Those of the Hudson Bay district and a few isolated regions still thrive without salt. If Hudson Bay Indians are forced to eat salted meat, they first soak it over night in an abundance of water. They then add freshwater and boil it for an hour. They pour this water off and add fresh water and cook again.”
— from the historian, William H. Prescott
“About 1912 I gave up the use of salt. Up to that time I had been a heavy user of salt. At first I missed it from my foods. After a time I did not relish foods in which I could detect the taste of salt. I enjoy the fine delicate flavors of the foods much more than I ever enjoyed the flavor of salt. I have never missed salt after the first weeks after giving it up. I have never had a craving for it. My health has not suffered in any manner from lack of it.I have brought up three children – ages 23, 20 and 17 – without salt. Their mother did not take salt before and during pregnancy nor during lactation. These children have been reared from conception without salt. They are well developed, strong and healthy and brimming over with energy and enthusiasm. Although they were reared as vegetarians, who are supposed to need salt most of all, they have not needed salt.”
— from Vilhjalmur Stefansson , a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.
“Vilhjalmar Stefanson found the Eskimos to be very healthy,yet none of these peoples ever use salt. Indeed Stefanson tells us that they greatly dislike it. The Siberian natives have no use for salt. In Africa most Negroes live and die without ever hearing of this “essential of life.” In Europe for long periods salt was so expensive that only the rich could afford it.”
“Bartholomew found the Chinese of the interior to be healthy and that they do not use salt. The Bedouins consider the use of salt ridiculous. The high-landers of Nepal refuse salt, as do the Kamschatdales. Millions of natives of Central Africa have never tasted salt. The Darmas of Southwest Africa “never take salt by any chance.”
“In Thoreau’s account of his life in the woods, he refers to salt as “that grossest of groceries,”and tells us that he discontinued its use and found that he was less thirsty thereafter while suffering no ill effects. He also says that he found that the Indians whom he encountered in his wandering did not use it.”
“Since the time Graham started his crusade and condemned the use of salt along with all other condiments, literally hundreds of thousands of people in America have discontinued the use of salt,many families of children have been reared without it, and no harm has ever come from abstinence from this “essential of animal life.” For more than twenty years I have excluded salt from the diets of my patients and have watched them get well without this supposed-to-be indispensable article of “diet.” Some of these patients have not returned to the use of salt after leaving my care. Some of them have reared their children without it. Nowhere has any evidence of any harm from a lack of salt been observable.
Why, with all the historical, observational, empirical and experimental evidence that is available bearing on this subject, will men continue to declare that “salt is essential to animal life”?
Why will they ignore the facts and cling to a superstition?”
— from, Felix L. Oswald