Is there evidence that a low-salt diet is a "natural contraceptive"?
Cardiovascular research scientist Dr. James DiNicolantonio presents the evidence:
“A low-salt diet seems to act like a natural contraceptive in both animals and humans, and in both males and females. A low-salt diet causes a reduced sex drive; reduced likelihood of getting pregnant; reduced litter size (in animals) and weight of infants; and increased erectile dysfunction, fatigue, sleep problems, and age at which women become fertile.The low-salt eating Yanomamo Indians average only one birth every four years to six years, despite being sexually active and not using contraceptives. Research has found that women with salt-wasting kidneys due to a congenital adrenal problem have decreased fertility and childbirth rate." (The Salt Fix: Why the Experts Got it All Wrong—and How Eating More Might Save Your Life, Page 30)
Is there a passive war against blessed salt since almost no one in the Church talks about its benefits and a big "health organizations" active war against the benefits of plain salt?
Fr. John H. Hampsch wrote of the benefits of both:
Salt in the ancient world was a precious commodity (even monopolized by the royalty in Egypt and Persia). Roman soldiers were partially paid with packets of salt (”sal” in Latin); this was the origin of our word “salary” and of phrases like “worth his salt,” etc. Being costly, it was an appropriate offering to God as a “covenant of salt” (Lev. 2: 13; II Chron. 13:5; Num. 18:19) used in sacrifices by the Isrealites (Ezek. 43:24) and for the accompanying sacrificial meal (Gen. 31:54)
Belief in its preservative and healing properties led to its use to dry and harden the skin of newborns (Ezek. 16:4) and to prevent umbilical cord infection. Used for 3500 years to preserve meats from deterioration, it became a symbol of preservation and spiritual incorruptibility that was to characterize anyone offering sacrificial worship. Shared at the sacrificial meal, salt became a symbol of friendship and hospitality, a custom-symbol still used today in Arab culture...
... The blessing promised by God on food and water, as well as the
prevention of miscarriages and agricultural catastrophes (Exod.
23:25-26) was extended by God through Elisha in Jericho (II Kings
2:20-21), when he was inspired to put salt into the contaminated water.
Adding salt to already brackish water to decontaminate it, made the
miracle all the more impressive, since one would expect the opposite
effect. This first miracle of Elisha is the primary Scriptural basis for
the sacramental use of blessed salt today, as the Roman Ritual
indicates.
As a Catholic sacramental, salt blessed by the
liturgical prayer of a priest may be used by itself, unmixed, as in
exorcisms, and formerly in the exorcistic prayer at baptism, or it may
be mixed with water to make holy water, as the Ritual prescribes
(reminiscent of Elisha’s miracle). In whichever form, it is intended to
be an instrument of grace to preserve one from the corruption of evil
occurring as sin, sickness, demonic influence, etc.
As in the
case of all sacramentals, its power comes not from the sign itself, but
by means of the Church’s official (liturgical, not private) prayer of
blessing–a power the Church derives from Christ himself (see Matt. 16:19
and 18:18).[Claretian Teaching Ministry, "BLESSED SALT": www.claretiantapeministry.org]
The Epoch Times reported that "according to Dr. James DiNicolantonio, author of 'The Salt Fix: Why the Experts Got it All Wrong—and How Eating More Might Save Your Life,' many of us may actually be salt starved":
Today, [big] health organizations pressure governments, restaurants, and food manufacturers to lower the sodium in prepared foods, but this advice may have unintended consequences.
Lower salt intake can actually encourage bacterial overgrowth, increasing the risk of foodborne illness. And since salt is the most natural and longest-tested food preservative, any chemical substitute is likely to be more harmful.
Salt also provides food with a touch of sweetness because it cuts the bitterness. So food manufacturers inevitably add more sugar (or flavor-enhancing chemicals) to low-salt foods in order to make them taste more appetizing.
Less salt may also cause us to eat more in order to satisfy our sodium needs. Most people generally seek between 8 and 10 grams of salt (about 2 teaspoons) per day, says DiNicolantonio, so eating low-salt foods may prompt us to eat much more to satisfy our bodies’ needs.
“We’re over-consuming refined carbs, over-consuming sugar, and that’s obviously going to drive diabetes and obesity,” he said.
Sugar’s Free Pass
While health officials have pushed for decades to limit our salt intake, they’ve been extremely slow to take note of sugar. That’s strange, because if improving our health is the goal, sugar poses many more problems to take issue with. For one, while your health suffers if you don’t get enough salt, it will probably improve if you remove added sugar.
Calories from sugar are especially detrimental when it comes to weight management. That’s in large part because increased sugar intake stimulates more insulin resistance and fat storage than other types of calories.
For decades, studies have also implicated sugar in the very symptoms for which salt gets blamed—high blood pressure, kidney disease, and heart disease.
The November 2016 issue of JAMA reports that researchers already saw signs that sugar led to coronary artery disease in the 1950s. But in the decades that followed, the sugar industry sponsored a Harvard research program that successfully cast doubt on the hazards of sugar. [https://www.theepochtimes.com/rethinking-the-war-on-salt_2269368.html]
Francis Notes:
- Doctor
of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt
the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church
in such a situation:
"[T]he Pope... WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See."
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)
Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said "the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church."
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]
- "If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html
- "Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html
- LifeSiteNews, "Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial
weight behind communion for adulterers," December 4, 2017:
The AAS guidelines explicitly allows "sexually active adulterous couples
facing 'complex circumstances' to 'access the sacraments of
Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'"
- On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:
"The AAS statement... establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia
has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense."
- On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:
"Francis' heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the
Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters
magisterial documents."
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.
Election Notes:
- Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: "212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted...Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden" [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]
- Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times "Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003": http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1]