Many people who read this column will have been asked by their doctor to cut back on salt for their blood pressure. For lots of us, that is frustrating.The circle of “salt tolerance” is vicious. We get used to a certain amount of salt, and after a while, we don’t taste it. To compensate, we eat more salt to bring the taste back. Therefore, we get used to even more. The cycle is reversible, but there is a catch in the body chemistry. Getting used to more salt is quick. Getting used to less salt is slow. You might be on the way to mastering your preference, and one salty meal could set you back. You will experience no loss of satisfaction if you reduce the craving, but it takes time. You are winning when celery and Swiss chard taste salty on their own. Mother Nature has put a good amount of salt in them.Because raising your tolerance is faster than lowering it, you will sabotage your effort by dining in restaurants or eating canned and prepared foods from the supermarket. Their salt content is way too high.Another obstacle is emotional. Many cultures treasure salty foods as a special treat. I will never lose my taste for the salt cod I grew up with. Some of these cultural inheritances go way back to a more balanced nutrition where salt was an expensive luxury.Table salt, which dominates in prepared food, is a sodium salt without the balancing minerals (especially potassium and magnesium) to make a healthful salt. Several researchers claim that natural unrefined salts (available in health food stores) solve the blood pressure problem. From what I have seen with my own clients, I know there is some truth in this, but maybe not 100%. It may, to some extent, depend on the individual’s chemistry. Also, please be aware that “sea salt” in packaged food is not normally unrefined; so far as I know, is likely to be a high sodium, processed salt.Is it worth struggling against salt temptations? Absolutely! I saw a calculation some time ago that we could eliminate high blood pressure in one million Canadians and save the health-care system hundreds of millions of dollars a year if we could cut sodium intake by half. Those are big numbers. The difference in life expectancy would be significant.Here is one method that may help you. Don’t salt food before it is cooked. (Well, maybe half a teaspoon for a pot of rice or beans.) You get more effect with less salt if you add it at the table just before you eat. Questions and comments welcome to nicole@IndividualCare.CA. Nicole Constant is a registered Doctor of Naturopathy active for many years in the Jane-Finch neighborhood and Greater Toronto. Her website is: www.IndividualCare.CA