Coconut Aminos – Good: Table Salt – Really, Really Bad

I develop obsessive relationships with some of the niche health food store products. When agave hit the scene, I sweetened everything with it. Yerba was my tea of choice for a long time. Before I was vegan, I made yogurt and cheese from local goat’s milk and cooked with ghee. I jumped on the folic acid bandwagon and sprinkled wheat germ and flax seeds on granola. I ate bowls of soybeans dressed in Bragg aminos and melted chao slices on grain bread. The list could go on for days.

In many cases, I derived no noticeable benefit from the latest food trend. In other cases – like daily, sublingual B12, for example – the benefits were undeniable. But there’s good, healthy food and supplements and then there’s snake oil, and we’re all susceptible to being fooled.

Over time, I’ve separated the wheat from the chaff. Some of the standby items that work beautifully with my body chemistry include sublingual B12 daily, Hawaiian spirulina, maca, bananas, coconut water (great hydration), blue corn, raw and roasted veggies, turmeric, Himalayan pink salt, morning banana/mango smoothies, barley grass juice powder, wheatgrass, pressed tofu, plain rice, homegrown sprouts, nut butters, fists full of fresh homegrown Italian parsley (amazing diuretic, great for bloating when you’re on your period), and coconut aminos.

Two years ago, my naturopath ordered a complete blood panel and reported to me that I am allergic to bananas. I LOLed. I eat more bananas than the Great Apes, and they give me lasting fuel and no tummy problems. The results of this blood work also showed that I’m allergic to tomatoes and chocolate. Forget that. I eat both in abundance with no issues. 

A month after the test results came in, my insurance company sent me a letter stating it was ‘concerned’ about my blood work. I may have Crohn’s disease, it said. I should get checked out. I tossed the letter in the trash.

I’ve let my body tell me what it needs. I throw something new at it. Sometimes, it throws it back at me. Sometimes, it likes it and keeps it. Coconut aminos is a keeper. I used Bragg soybean aminos for years, and then heard about the trend in coconut aminos. So of course, I tried it. I love it.

I add coconut aminos to everything, from mashed potatoes to popcorn. Whipped with agave and garlic, it makes the best salad dressing in the world. My husband loves coconut aminos too, although he doesn’t know it. I use it instead of salt or soy sauce in food I make him, and he hogs everything I make.

This is the man who, when I met him, declared that iodized table salt is a food group, and he used lots of it. Iodized table salt is dead food – not even food – that’s nothing more than manufactured sodium chloride, harvested from the residue of crude oil digging, laden with synthetic chemicals, and bleached until it's white. YUCCCCCKKKKK.

Organic coconut aminos is fermented coconut sap, period. It has a rich, salty, barley-like flavor. All the good minerals and biotics present in coconut are preserved in coconut aminos. There are no chemicals, bleach, or crude oil residue. In other words, it’s actual food.

Coconut aminos are a relatively new addition to my diet. I haven’t noticed nor do I expect to notice any effects on my metabolism or health. I just know that these aminos are the best, purest condiment for enhancing the taste of food. I’ve known all my life how toxic table salt is – my dad wouldn’t allow it on the dinner table. He called table salt “poison”, and never touched it.

I get my aminos from the place where I do much of my pantry shopping- thrivemarket.com. A membership to Thrive Market is $59 a year, and pays for itself in the first few months. Just check it out to see what I mean. No, this is not a sponsored plug for Thrive Market. I just want to share something great I’ve discovered with other health foodies.

Live in peace.