The connection between salt cravings, stress, and leafy greens

It is normal to crave salt from time to time. Salt is important to your body and your taste buds. In fact, your body needs salt to survive. The cells in our body float in a salty fluid and sodium helps balance the electrolytes in our body. In addition, food without salt can be almost unbearably bland and salt helps intensifies the flavor of food. Often, people crave salty foods when they are tired, stressed, or have a diet deficient in essential minerals. Other times, we reach for salty foods simply our of habit.

If you are craving salt as a result of being accustomed to consuming a lot of salt with your foods or enjoying lots of salty foods like potato chips, salted nuts etc., slowly cut back on your salt intake and replace it with herbs and spices to give you lots of flavor without the salt. An excellent way to get the salt taste you crave as well as  necessary minerals is to use unprocessed sea salt.

If stress and exhaustion are causing your salt cravings, you may notice that you can consume a lot of salty foods and never feel satisfied. Yes, it could be emotional eating, but stress can also deplete essential minerals in our body and our cravings can indicate that we should replace those essential nutrients rather than reach for junk food. Interestingly enough, stress can deplete our levels of magnesium in our body which can actually make us crave salty foods. Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, a necessary co-factor for hundreds of enzymes, and the most critical mineral of all for coping with stress.
 
 In order to replace diminished magnesium levels and help ourselves stave off salt cravings when stressed, it is best to increase food rich in magnesium in your diet. Did you know that the chlorophyll in green veggies contains magnesium? So, stock up on spinach, kale, chard, seaweed, and other leafy greens. The best food sources of magnesium are  buckwheat,  lima beans, navy beans, kidney beans, green beans, edamame, blackeyed peas, broccoli, spinach, Swiss chard, kale, oats, whole barley, millet, bananas, blackberries, dates, dried figs, mangoes, watermelon, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazel nuts, shrimp, and tuna.