Amadeus Schmidt posted:
>>I think there may be a connection between salt eating and protein
consumption. Via the PRAL (food acid load).
I've read that it takes 21 Ca-ions (Calcium) which must obligatory be
excreted for one Na-ion (salt).

>>Mobilizing Ca from the bones does decrease the body acidity.
Do the excreted Ca-Ions decrease acidity too? Then it would be an
explainable habit to eat a lot of salt, just for the forced effect of
lowering acidity. And not to gain Na (or Mg).

>>If this is right, then eating anything which strongly lowers the acidity
should decrease the lust for salt.
I could try it myself, eat a little "natron" (strong basic powder) and
look if the appetite for salt decreases.

My reply:
Yes, excreting Calcium ions DECREASES acidity, by removing acidic ions.
However, sodium is not acidic.

This is basic chemistry.  Since both the sodium ion and the calcium ion are
positively charged and basic, there is no way that calcium and sodium can
form a chemical complex (positive ions repel one another).

Since sodium can't bind with calcium, sodium can't be dragging calcium out
of the body.  The culprit must be something acidic and negatively charged
and closely associated with sodium and consumed in large amounts that also
has a high affinity for calcium.

The calcium is removed by route of being complexed with the chloride from
salt.

Consumption of salt--which is not just basic sodium, but also acidic
chlorine-- depletes calcium because the chlorine ion (associated with the
sodium, but ignored) forms a complex with the calcium from bones.  Meanwhile
the positively charged sodium forms a complex with the negatively charged
phospate from bone.  Sporek explains:

" Since the sodium ion is smaller than any other essential element ion, and
since all its salts are water soluble, it will tend to replace other
elements from certain body organs.  Thus it may join with its mate chlorine
in destroying bones by removing the phospate ion.  In this double action,
the water insoluble calcium phospate, that provides the mechanical strength
for bones and teeth, will be torn apart into water soluble sodium phosphate
and water soluble calcium chloride; the bone will thus dissolve like a piece
of sugar."

And he notes "One of the first chemical discoveries in Europe in the
eighteenth century, the Solvay process, which is still used today, is the
manufacture of water soluble sodium carbonate (washing soda) from calcium
carbonate (marble which is water insoluble like teeth) and salt; this is an
almost exact reproduction of the process of tooth decay."

In short, the only valid chemical explanation for calcium loss associated
with sodium is:  negative acidic chloride (from salt) drags positive
alkaline calcium out of the body, positive alkaline sodium (from salt) drags
negative acidic phosphate out of the body, and some of the bones or teeth
(calcium phosphate) is replaced by sodium phosphate, a substance without the
mechanical strength of calcium phospate.  The bones literally turn into
brittle pillars of salt.

Although in calcium balance studies researchers have noted that Americans
tend to be in negative balance for both calcium and phosphorus, They have
focused only on calcium balance--yet phospate is as essential to bone as
calcium.

Amadeus,eating salt (sodium chloride) will not decrease acidity.  Salt
increases acid load by virtue of its chloride component, which is the larger
component(50% larger) by weight.

The natural,  better way to reduce acidity is simply to eat large amounts of
vegetables and fruits, which supply abundant essential alkaline potassium
and bicarbonate.

Don