Salt and Our Health

Introduction and book announcement 0:00

This is Dr. Greg Hall once again with Better Black Health brought to you by Genetic Sequence Multivitamins, still the only multivitamin designed specifically to address the unique nutritional needs of African Americans. Welcome back. I wanted to do a quick episode of this without a guest for a change. It's just me because I just wanted to bring you up to date on some things. I've also just released my book, Better Black Health, a comprehensive review in the age of precision medicine. And so it's over 400 pages, over 230 pictures, illustrations, images, really covers everything from soup to nuts.

It covers, you know, from diabetes, hypertension to plastic surgery, Brazilian butt lifts to natural, you know, sound therapy, aroma therapy, oil of oregano, all the things I've learned on this podcast with all these amazing guests that I've had. We talk about, you know, the origin of salt sensitivity. Remember I interviewed Constance Hillier, who's from Harvard, is now located in Texas, kind of explained why we as African Americans are disproportionately salt sensitive. And that salt is really driving increased kidney disease, increased high blood pressure.

And as you guys know, high blood pressure leads to strain on the heart.

Salt sensitivity and blood pressure risks 1:29

It can lead to congestive heart failure. It can lead to dilated hearts. It can lead to stroke, heart attack, peripheral vascular disease. Deep vein thrombosis. So high blood pressure is behind all those things. And she asserted that salt or increased salt for some of these people was driving that increased blood pressure. A couple of weeks ago, my sister called and said, if you heard about this amazing diet, it's Himalayan sea salt caused Oprah to lose 200 pounds. It caused Jennifer Hudson to lose weight all these people she listed lost weight with this salt Himalayan sea salt diet and I said, you know, I That doesn't sound right.

I never heard of such a thing. And she'd seen it on, on, um, you know, uh, social media, some, some, on some, I don't know what she watches, but she saw it on social media and she said Oprah was there and she was talking about it. And Jennifer Hudson was there and she was talking about, they're both black. So I started taking some of this Himalayan sea salt with water every day to see if I could lose weight. And I'm like, this is not, this doesn't sound good. So I immediately did a little research and found that no, Oprah did not lose weight with Himalayan seeds.

No, Jennifer Hudson, no. They all lost weight with these new medicines that are out to treat diabetes. And that's a whole nother, that's a whole nother episode, but that's all with these, the new medicine that's in the injection medicines. And there's some pills out that'll help you lose weight. better control of your diabetes, et cetera, et cetera. And they've openly admitted that that's how they lost weight, to the best of my knowledge. But what they didn't do is lose weight using some Himalayan sea salt diet.

So this would be harmless enough if you didn't already learn from me that salt increases black people's blood pressure, increases my blood pressure, increases your blood pressure. When you take in salt, you have to take in more water.

Debunking the Himalayan pink salt weight-loss claim 3:40

You take in more water, the water increases the pressure. in the closed system, that is your blood vessel system, and thereby increasing your blood pressure. That increased blood pressure can do damage to your kidneys and brain, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So sort of where they were coming from with this Himalayan sea salt is like it's a pink salt and it's not really the white sort of Morton salt that we're used to. Well, many of us are used to, right? Because it's more pure, more kind of came from the environment, kind of like with the ice pick coming out the mountain.

And that pink salt really has impurities in it, magnesium and potassium and things like that, that give it the color. And so people sort of felt that the added magnesium and potassium and whatever minerals that were in this the Himalayan mountains was what was giving you the benefit. And true enough, Afro-Americans, we do on average need more magnesium and potassium and zinc for that matter, right? And so that aspect is true, but you'd have to eat, there's only trace amounts of those minerals in Himalayan sea salt.

The majority of it, is salt, sodium chloride, which is deadly in high levels to us. Now you remember, Constance Hilliard said that because we are descendants from African farmers, and they were inland African farmers, that in a region that was incredibly low in salt, right? Because that's just the region, the farmland that we came from. Now, the people on the coast in Africa, people on the coast of Kenya or the coast that we were taken from and brought to North America, those Africans were used to salt because they lived next to the sea.

And so the sea salt and their environment was particularly more salty. And so they don't have the salt sensitivity that these inland African farmers had that we are descendant from. Now, I hate to remind you that You know, it was the coastal Africans that kind of sold us. So it wasn't, you know, they, you know, humans are humans and, you know, a dollar's a dollar. And so they're the ones that would go miles inland where there was poor government infrastructure, grab those African farmers, and then sell them into slavery or trade them into slavery so that we were brought, our descendants were brought to North America.

So that salt sensitivity is because before we were taken from those farmlands, before there were ships and planes and trains and automobiles, right? People didn't travel more than probably 10 miles around where they lived.

Why salt-heavy drinks and snacks are risky 6:54

They stayed within that area and that environment. And that was for hundreds and thousands of years. So they were genetically best suited to exist in that general vicinity for thousands of years. Okay. So that's, you know, as anything you, you can get adjusted, you know, Darwin's theory of evolution. We evolved to best suit in that environment that we were on. Right. And then there are people who were evolved to be suited in, you know, in areas that were more cold or that that had variable daylight.

And we could go in. to this forever, right? But anyway, African Americans, the people who were brought here, those of us that are descendants of slaves, many of us have this salt sensitivity, and many of us have genes that make us even more salt sensitive, like the one that's in my family. So know that taking any kind of salt could be potentially deadly after you find out that, well, you're not really going to lose any weight. This is all just a ruse that somebody put on the social media. You aren't going to lose weight doing salt.

You're going to drive up your blood pressure. So please tell your family and friends to not do that. No Oprah, no Jennifer Hudson, no whoever else they mentioned. They lied and said that they lost weight that way. They didn't lose weight that way. And don't believe me, Google it. You know what I mean, right? And you'll see that that's the thing. So while we're talking about salt, there's salt in other things. And so sports drinks are also potentially deadly to us. Sports drinks have salt in them, right?

They imagine you're doing a sport, you're sweating. We know sweat is salty, so you're losing salt. So the theory is we're going to give you some salt to replace the salt that you're sweating out. Right? But unfortunately, people like in my family, my kids, when they were kids, walking around drinking sport drinks, just rather than drink orange juice, let me just drink this sport drink, right? And that you're not sweating, you're not doing anything, you're just driving up your blood pressure by drinking a sugary sweetened beverage that also has salt in it.

So the worst combination, sugary sweetened beverage, how do we make it worse? Put salt on it, or my father would, Watermelon, fresh watermelon. Oh my goodness, you're eating fruit. No, let's put salt on it. We'll put salt on this watermelon. We'll put salt on the cantaloupe. Salt on this honeydew melon. Not just my family, but that's very dysfunctional and watermelon can be enjoyed and watermelon should be enjoyed without salt,

Better Black Health book promotion and closing 9:50

right? Do not tell your family and friends, do not start a Himalayan sea salt diet. No, you will not lose weight. No, there are no celebrity endorsements of this. I even saw a book on Amazon talking about the sea salt, the Himalayan pink salt diet. It's all bogus. in our community and it's potentially deadly to our community. So please, please ignore all those things and be conscious of how much salt you add to your foods, what other things you're adding salt to so that you can be safe. So again, I cover salt sensitivity in the book, Better Black Health.

You can Google that Better Black Health book and you'll find the book, it's available on Barnes & Noble Amazon and Archway books. And so, you know, find the best price. These people are pricing it all different, but the ebook is $9.99. Other books, you'll see all kinds of prices. So, you know, shop around. But I'm happy to have written the first book on actually addressing our health from all angles, just like we just talked about in terms of this Himalayan sea salt and how potentially dangerous that is to our community.

We just want to be able to find a trusted source of information. This is a great book. It'd be a great gift to give it Thanksgiving, to give it Christmas, give the gift of health, right? So really think about that. I mean, it's the only book of its kind over two, if you like pictures, you can go two, three pages without seeing a picture. And I have a lot of comical pictures in there. So to really try to entertain you while you're also accidentally getting educated. So once again, I'm Dr. Greg Hall.

Thanks so much for joining me. Thanks so much. This is just a quick one. I'll have some guests coming back. I've got some great guests scheduled coming on. But until then, we'll talk later.