Well, sports fans, the voting is neck and neck, a real horse race!

Judging from the results thus far in our very scientific, double-blind, placebo-controlled study here, with the huge sample that we have assembled, it appears that secretor status does not bear much of a correlation to salt craving...so much for my hypothesis.

I used to crave salt as a child, I remember begging my mother to let me suck on boullion cubes   Yuck!!! Just thinking about it now....    As a teenager I did not crave salt, but then fast food was considered a good meal   where, as Perpermint said in a previous post, soda and prepackaged coffee cakes would be an alternate meal.  So I guess salt wasn't needed.  As a young adult, I never used salt in cooking or on the table.  Some times I would crave chips or smartfood popcorn, but that was usually when I was pregnant or that TOM.  I started using salt in cooking a few years ago and found that small amounts actually increase the flavor of food with out making the food taste salty.  On the BTD, I do add sea salt and ground kelp to food and in cooking. Sometimes just one or the other, but I would not say I crave salt at all.  If I crave anything, it is wheat, or TOM I still crave chips or Smartfood popcorn. Watching reruns of Raymond can be torture during those times, !!

I have never heard of the type of salts mentioned in this thread.  Where would one find them?
Sandy O

Quoted from Edna

 In other words, we might very well have way more nonnies peering in here than we do secretors, so that could skew the results.  This is utterly unscientific.  But fun and interesting, nonetheless.

I think that having more nonnies voting in does not skew the results but only makes the nonnie side more accurate in that there are more voices to be heard.

Also the added salt thing. Some people learn this as small children from imitating the adults they eat with. When my kids were little and we wnent to eat at Gramma's there would be the salt and then add on. Problem solved by having no salt shakers at home but for some people it is a habit as old as toilet training.

Sandy,
At the very least, it is recommended to use sea salt with no additives.  Commercial salt like Mortons is highly processed and is considered to be unusable by the body.  It is blamed for raising blood pressure and causing water retention.

Do a Google search on your computer for several of the great natural salts, such as:
Himalayan Crystal Salt (my fav)
Celtic Sea Salt (my other fav)
and someone on the Forum uses Redmond Salt

Most good natural foods stores will carry at least one of those.  You can always get sea salt in a HFS, but one of the other special salts is usually sold also.  I get Himalayan and Celtic at my local natural food grocers.

The more I eat of salty things the more I seem to crave it. Most things in the U.S. are too sweet so I don't like them. But I do love sweet stuff too....Dark chocolate. Honey. It's funny that I got into pastry because I was always the salty kid - and keep me away from butter!

I notice that when I'm especially compliant that I want more sweet stuff - and then I am very happy to eat dried fruit (especially apricots & figs).

Zola,
It sure is nice to see you around the Forum lately?    

I hope you are doing well and staying healthy and happy!!

Thanks! Good to see you too! My friend bought a house near Eugene recently. Isn't that about where you are?

Will you come down and see us??  

That would be fun! I hope to make it down that way in early March.

I crave sugar and fat!

Stephanie,
up your protein and you ll be fine!

Hi Everybody,
I'm an O-nonnie and I thoroughly enjoy the Celtic grey salt. I carry it in my purse. I wouldn't enjoy food without salt. My husband and children beg me not to salt what I cook because it tastes sooooo salty to them but just right to me.

Yes, our alternative MD says that salt craving could indicate adrenal insufficiency and to go ahead and eat that salt, Lady!

Margaret

I have a girlfriend (blood type unknown) who eats a TON of salt. She'll actually add salt to salted corn chips! Her husband hides the salt container at restaurants.

I have never craved salt either but I sure have craved sugar.  My blood pressure is on the low side.  I wonder if it would go up if I increased my salt intake.  I actually prefer being able to taste the flavor of my vegetables without salt.  

A nonnie/Yes  Crave didn't seem like the right word. I always thought salt was bad  so I kept it's use down, but I must admit that a bag of salty whatever ( pretzels, chips, etc) could so easily be a single serving. And yes I did want to suck the salt off the pretzels & fries. So I guess it's yes.

Salt has bc important to me lately after reading the "Lemon, Salt & BM"  thread.  Salt seems to be  linked to low blood pressure and low body temp. I am interested in your thoughts on this.

At night I fill up an entire bowl full of salt and just pour it down my throat.  I can't stop myself.  

I'm kidding.  I don't crave salt.  

that s your hand asking for salt!!!

I haven't noticed any extreme craving for salt... Maybe because I can taste the salt easier than most people, possibly.

I found out I'm a "super-taster" at IfHI.  This might have something to do with it.

Interesting!  After 8+ months and an 85-person sample pool, we have nonnies with salt cravings running over 10% more than secretors with salt cravings!  My hypothesis rules, wu HUUUUUUUUU!  The proportion of nonnies and secretors who do NOT crave salt is dead even, which is interesting, too.

85 is a statistically small polling sample and, of course, this type of poll is unscientific, but still, I find the fact that over 10% more nons than secs crave salt to be veeeeeery interesting and illuminating.

Us ancients need our salt.  You guys (secretors) can have the sugar.  Give us the salt.

Yes I crave salt.  I use more on foods then before I started the BTD.  The other day I was craving a salty, crunchy snack.  I tried the Nori leaves but that didn't suffice.  So I grabbed the salted peanuts instead.  That hit the spot.

I'm reading through the old posts and happened across this poll so I had to add my vote  

I don't usually have food cravings, but if I do it is always for something salty. I will even eat salt right out of the shaker on occasion.  

I leave the sweets to my hubby, they make me feel icky  

I crave fat in the form of nuts, avocados, olives, ...
Often these foods are prepared with a lot of salt, but I really think it is the fat that I long for.  The explorer diet really restricts my access to the foods I crave.

I love salty food!  I've always craved salt, but I've tried to avoid eating much of it because it's "healthy" for you (right, whatever).  Then I learned about adrenal fatigue!  When I started self-treatment for AF, I indulged my salt cravings whenever I had them, and I sure did have them!  I'd take a pinch or two of sea salt and eat it straight.  I put it on my food and in my water.  Now my AF seems improved, and I don't crave salt as much as I used to.

Edit: Probably us nonnies are more susceptible to AF than secretors.

i use sea salt, does that change the degree of satisfaction to "saltiness" when used as opposed to regular salt?

Craving salt?  Yes in my binge days... I would binge back and forth between salty and surgery.  Like take a bite of a sweet chocolate and then a bite of a pretzel for instance.

Or chips with chocolate.  God... the good ole' days of chips!  Not really... after a bag you feel sick.  I'm not one of those people who can stop at 3 or 4 chips or even a small bowl.  I keep going and don't stop till I'm sick.  And then I'll even eat more.

A true dis-ease.  It's sad for me because I think I can have compliant treats in the house and I do ok for awhile and then a craving hits and I eat all my compliant snacks in one sitting.

So I've just been working on realizing that I'm not a normal eater and I can't have goodies around at all - compliant or not.  I even binge on bananas, almonds or dates if that is what is around. I just had to stop buying the dry roasted almonds from Trader Joe's because they are like candy to me!

But salt... never really craved it when eating healthy BUT I do salt my foods and will not eat a tomato (can't eat um anyway anymore...) without salt and cannot eat eggs or meat without it.  I do like it on watermelon as well!

I guess I just like it.  Only when I'm out of balance with food, do I actually "crave it."

Well I'm sure this was more than anyone wanted to know!  ha...