[Sidenote: Vegetable mineral salts vs. common table salt]
[Sidenote: Foods containing mineral salts]
The subject of salt in food has received considerable attention and
discussion by scientific investigators, and many theories have been
advanced by those interested in hygiene as to the effect of common
salt used in food. The tissues and organs of the body contain certain
salts, without which life could not exist, but it does not follow that
these salts need to be supplied in mineral form. Common table salt is
an inorganic substance, while the mineral salts in green and fresh
vegetables are organic, and readily convertible, therefore a valuable
aid in the digestion of other foods. A diet of sugar, pure oil, and
artificially prepared proteids would be absolutely unwholesome and
would fail to nourish the body for any length of time because of
the lack of mineral salts. All natural food products, whether of
vegetable or animal origin, contain a limited but ever-present amount
of mineral salts. This is especially true of milk, eggs, and the seeds
and green portion of plants. The amount of salts in the human body is
considerable, especially the calcium phosphates of the bones, but the
salts that need to be supplied daily in food is small because the salts
are not consumed as rapidly as are other elements of nutrition.
[Sidenote: Grains deficient in salt]
Some grains, especially rice and corn, are somewhat deficient in salts.
At the Kansas Experiment Station some pigs were fed exclusively on corn,
and others on grain and green forage. At a certain age the pigs were
killed, and the bones weighed and tested for strength. The bones of the
pigs which had been fed on a corn diet, which is deficient in mineral
salts, were about half as heavy and strong as the bones of the pigs fed
in a more natural way.