One of the greatest gifts of God to mankind is the common table salt. Chloride of Soda or Natrium Muriaticum or simply sodium chloride as we may call it, without its salty taste, the life is tasteless. Salt has always been so much significantly valuable that salary word was coined from sal (salt). In olden times it used to be so rare and costly that even wages were paid to labourers in the form of salt. It was such a valuable commodity that people attached loyalty to it: namak haram/ namak halal  phrases were very commonly used. ‘ Sardar maine aapka namak khaaya hai...’  is a famous dialogue from the movie Sholay. In April 1930,Gandhiji undertook a heavily tiresome 241 mile long Dandi March with fellow Satyagrahis, completing in 24 days, and defied the British law by making salt.

Common salt is one of the first needs of animals and human beings, all other mineral constituents of the body, as cell foods, being dependent upon it for the process of their distribution and absorption. We need salt in our diet in order to maintain the fluid balance in our body and to generate electrical impulses in nerves and muscles. It has a close affinity for water. Calcium phosphate which is otherwise insoluble in water dissolves in aqueous solution of sodium chloride. To all the body cells it is a carrier of moisture which is a requirement for cell growth and renewal. Gargle with saline (Salty water) cleanses the mouth of bacteria. Hot saline massage relieves muscular pains.


Particularly those who inhabit the congested localities in the vicinity of industrial furnaces face a lot of dehydration and loss of vital salts. Labourers, masons, rickshaw-pullers etc toil hard under scorching sun, sweating profusely to earn their bread. It leads to loss of salts from their body. They should slightly increase their intake of table salt during summer season.

Acute diarrhoea, excessive sweating, low intake of table-salt result in the deficiency of sodium, called hyponatremia which can cause confusion, unexplained tiredness and dizziness. Those elderly patients who are on diuretics are more likely to suffer from hyponatremia.

“Most of the poor people still consume the crystalline, crude and uniodised cheap salt; the deficiency of iodine, particularly in children leads to severe deficiency of growth hormones. People should be educated about it and the use of iodised salt be emphasized. Other mineral salts like potassium chloride we get from fruits and vegetables but for sodium chloride we have to use the table salt”, says the senior child specialist Dr Tariq Ali.

The table salt is often taken in excess. It has been considered responsible by authoritative opinion for upsetting the body’s sodium-potassium balance. Malfunctioning kidneys may not effectively process salt-laden body fluids and, therefore, create serious health risks of hypernatremia, osteoporosis, fluid retention etc. In case of hypertension low salt diets confer a 25% benefit in reduced heart attacks.