To date, it is not yet known to everyone that our body, to function at its best, must have the right balance between two mineral salts essential for our health: sodium and potassium. When this balance is altered (generally in favor of sodium) very serious problems and imbalances arise for our organism and for the heart and cardiovascular system as a whole. Furthermore, since sodium and potassium are the two minerals responsible for the water balance in our body (sodium tends to retain liquids in the body while potassium tends to promote their release), an imbalance in the correct relationship between these two precious minerals can lead to to the phenomenon of water retention (with all the consequences that it entails, especially for the peripheral organs of the body and the joints). The sodium-potassium ratio should be 1-5, i.e. sodium should be consumed for 20% of the amount of potassium consumed in the diet. To achieve this goal it is not only necessary to reduce the quantity of salt ingested in the diet (directly or indirectly through products that contain salt) but it is also advisable to replace refined white salt with wholemeal salt (particularly exceptional are the gray salt from the Atlantic Ocean or pink salt from the Himalayas) is much healthier and much lower in sodium than refined salt.
At the same time we should consume more fruit and vegetables (in which potassium is abundantly contained) to maintain the intake of the two precious minerals within the values that are optimal for our health. Obviously often, especially in the Western world, it is difficult to have a diet that maintains this balance due not only to the poor consumption of fruit and vegetables but also to the abuse of refined salt that characterizes our diet. This explains the great diffusion of cardiac diseases and complications found in the world and in Western societies (such pathologies are the leading cause of death in the West). A shock therapy for this imbalance could be the Gerson therapy which is aimed precisely at restoring the sodium potassium balance in the human body (as well as restoring a normal acid-base balance of the organism through the intake of fruit juices and organic vegetables). Without resorting to such a drastic therapy (unless the deterioration of the individual’s state of health requires it) we can rebalance the sodium-potassium ratio in our organism with the daily intake of vegetable juices which, in addition to this purpose , they are also very useful for guaranteeing an excellent supply of vitamins and mineral salts to our body. Mixed juices of carrot, beetroot, watercress, broccoli, celery, pepper and shallots can be particularly useful. Drinking two or three glasses of this juice a day can also be extremely useful for intense purification and detoxification of our body. Even citrus fruit juices, taken in the morning on an empty stomach or in any case between meals, can be a valid help in increasing the amount of potassium in our body (citrus fruits are very rich in this precious mineral) and balancing the amount of sodium. taken with the diet. It would be advisable to adopt these habits to keep our cardiovascular system healthy and solve many problems connected to water retention (swollen feet, appearance of cellulite, bags under the eyes, feeling of swelling, etc.) which, in addition to being very annoying (and sometimes even painful) are terribly unsightly. If we then consider that the major “suppliers” of potassium are fruit and vegetables (i.e. the most beneficial foods which are also rich in vitamins and mineral salts, flavonoids, polyphenols etc.) we understand how a “rebalancing” of one’s diet in favoring these foods is important, as well as maintaining a correct sodium potassium balance, also to combat the harmful action of free radicals and therefore cellular ageing.
