Quality Salt
The standard recommendation is -- or was, back when I was seeing doctors and on CF lists -- a high fat, high salt, high calorie diet for people with CF. Although most CF clinics have a dietician on staff, this means that they routinely actively recommend and promote a junk food diet for people with CF.
I do eat a high fat, high salt, high calorie diet. I don't count calories. I never have. But I also don't eat a junk food diet. Although it may not be obvious to casual observers seeing me pick up a pizza or whatever, I'm very particular about food quality.
If you look at the package for Morton Salt, it says "When it rains, it pours" and shows an illustration of that. And that maybe seems like nonsense to people who have known nothing but salt of that sort.
When it rains, the air is damp. Natural salts clump.
Morton Salt is marketing itself on the fact that it contains additives that prevent it from clumping so you get readily pourable salt at all times, no matter the weather. It contains an anti-caking agent.
When I was on CF lists and recommending sea salt, the biggest objection I got was "Oh, my god, it's GREY and ALSO it CLUMPS."
Current treatment for CF involves waiting until most of your lungs are eaten away by infection and then getting a lung transplant, basically, but, sure, let's object to the salt looking funny. That makes loads of sense.
By which I mean "I don't get it at all." I just know this is a thing with most people: Natural salts LOOK FUNNY and CLUMP because they don't contain anti-caking agents and they object to it on that basis.
Those anti-caking agents may (or may not) be harmless to most people under normal circumstances, but if your physiology is abnormal and you need LOTS of salt, then we don't really know what they do to the body in that case.
I avoid or limit my consumption of table salt. I was much stricter about this when I was a lot sicker.
Kosher salt, canning and pickling salt and sea salt (and probably other salts -- like Himalayan Salt) all lack those anti-caking agents and other crap. Sea salt sometimes also contains a mix of other minerals, depending on the brand.
I strongly favor sea salt in my diet as my preferred salt.
These days, I can readily find sea salt at a normal grocery store with a built-in grinder. So you don't even have to buy special equipment, though you may need to learn to adjust cooking and baking methods to add the salt to wet ingredients instead of dry ones so it can melt a bit as a best practice.
Like with coconut oil, salt can be absorbed through the skin so you can take on extra salt via salt water baths if you are having trouble getting enough in orally. I did this at one time and I would give off crazy amounts of heat for a while after such baths.
This quality first approach has gradually reduced how needy I am. Over time, the quantity of calories, fat, nutrients and salt I require has gone down as my baseline health has improved.
That principle generalizes: My approach to diet is, as much as possible, to emphasize quality over quantity.
I do eat a high fat, high salt, high calorie diet. I don't count calories. I never have. But I also don't eat a junk food diet. Although it may not be obvious to casual observers seeing me pick up a pizza or whatever, I'm very particular about food quality.
If you look at the package for Morton Salt, it says "When it rains, it pours" and shows an illustration of that. And that maybe seems like nonsense to people who have known nothing but salt of that sort.
When it rains, the air is damp. Natural salts clump.
Morton Salt is marketing itself on the fact that it contains additives that prevent it from clumping so you get readily pourable salt at all times, no matter the weather. It contains an anti-caking agent.
When I was on CF lists and recommending sea salt, the biggest objection I got was "Oh, my god, it's GREY and ALSO it CLUMPS."
Current treatment for CF involves waiting until most of your lungs are eaten away by infection and then getting a lung transplant, basically, but, sure, let's object to the salt looking funny. That makes loads of sense.
By which I mean "I don't get it at all." I just know this is a thing with most people: Natural salts LOOK FUNNY and CLUMP because they don't contain anti-caking agents and they object to it on that basis.
Those anti-caking agents may (or may not) be harmless to most people under normal circumstances, but if your physiology is abnormal and you need LOTS of salt, then we don't really know what they do to the body in that case.
I avoid or limit my consumption of table salt. I was much stricter about this when I was a lot sicker.
Kosher salt, canning and pickling salt and sea salt (and probably other salts -- like Himalayan Salt) all lack those anti-caking agents and other crap. Sea salt sometimes also contains a mix of other minerals, depending on the brand.
I strongly favor sea salt in my diet as my preferred salt.
These days, I can readily find sea salt at a normal grocery store with a built-in grinder. So you don't even have to buy special equipment, though you may need to learn to adjust cooking and baking methods to add the salt to wet ingredients instead of dry ones so it can melt a bit as a best practice.
Like with coconut oil, salt can be absorbed through the skin so you can take on extra salt via salt water baths if you are having trouble getting enough in orally. I did this at one time and I would give off crazy amounts of heat for a while after such baths.
This quality first approach has gradually reduced how needy I am. Over time, the quantity of calories, fat, nutrients and salt I require has gone down as my baseline health has improved.
That principle generalizes: My approach to diet is, as much as possible, to emphasize quality over quantity.
