About five years ago, I was too fat and made a giant resolution to lose weight on a long term healthy diet.
Cut out bread and beer. Omlette with vine tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms for breakfast and a pint of whole milk. Smoked salmon and fruit made up rest of diet.
Certainly lost the weight, over 40 lbs in all. Coupled with exercise regime, daily bike ride and swim on top of farm/wood work. Giant halo now floating above my head!
Started to gradually feel more tired more easily, legs feeling heavy, strength not quite what it was. Old age creeping on I thought as I approach 65. Suddenly became apparent that I actually may not be having enough salt in the diet. It says on the web that smoked salmon is 60% salt but on the Lidl packet it says 27% salt. Then I wondered if a lot of that is lost in the washing/smoking process. I never add salt to any meal except chips and I do not eat them any more either.
I started to have bad leg cramps in the morning and looking on the web found that salt deficiency could be a cause.
Anyway, I started putting a teaspoonful of salt in the omlette at the beginning of this week together with a twist of rock salt and the result seems quite stunning. Not only have all my cramps gone away but I do not notice the 1 in 7 hill on the bike ride and feel full of vital energy. There may just have been a sodium deficiency or perhaps iodine imbalance or even some other element that I needed hidden in the sea salt or Himalayan rock salt.
I mentioned this to the old shepherd and he said that when he came in from lambing, completely knackered and exhausted, he used to go for the bread in a big way and thought that the salt in it gave him the boost he needed to go back to work.
Just thought this may be of use to some of you sweating away in the tree tops in this heat. I know that most of us know to drink a lot of water in these conditions, but too much water can also make you salt deficient.