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76 sats \ 4 replies \ @Signal312 OP 27 Nov \ parent \ on: Is salt necessary in the human diet? A few viewpoints HealthAndFitness
He spent years and years living with them, living mostly as they did. If I remember right, it was more than 10 years, total.
Also here's what AI says about other arctic explorers who had the same viewpoint on salt as Stefansson.
(Yes, I know AI can lie, so this may be AI hallucinations. And if you really want me to, I will go find their books and dig for extracts about the salt issue.)
I'm really quite confused by the account. My dad worked in and around remote Alaskan villages for years and that's where most of my impression comes from, but I've also had some of my own exposure.
I'll ask my dad specifically about this salt question when he comes over later.
What I'm thinking is that they may get adequate salt through their regular diet, which is overwhelmingly composed of various seafoods, and that's why they don't add salt to many foods that we would add salt to.
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These accounts are much older, usually from way before 1920, while there were still tribes that were eating their traditional foods.
Another factor that comes into play is apparently that the kidneys become much more efficient at retaining sodium. You don't excrete as much, if you're not taking in very much.
And...why should sweat be salty? Presumably, for people that don't add any salt to their food, I'm guessing that their sweat would be less salty. Maybe not even salty at all.
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I was actually just about to report back.
Apparently, they do use salt now for some things but the practice was introduced by Scandinavians and most of their food is completely unsalted.
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I love the real-time Thanksgiving reportage :)
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