mesanetworks.net wrote:

> I heard that Loren Cordain's Paleo diet wants to severely limit salt
> intake, something to do with salt having a net acid load to the kidneys
> because of the acidic chloride in salt?
>
> Does anyone know what this means? The chemistry I remember says that a
> salt is neither base nor acid.
>
Cordain has several reasons why salt should be reduced or avoided. The
one dealing with net acid load to the kidneys is that the acidic
chloride in salt has to be buffered in the kidney by alkaline base, and
that it uses calcium stared in bones as the buffer. That loss
contributes to osteoporosis and bone loss. Over a lifetime it can have
an effect, if a person is a heavy salt user. Other reasons have to do
with some causes of asthma and risk of kidney stones, ulcers, and
stomach cancers.

Neil