Salt is salt, right?!? Well, yes and no! Especially when it comes to cooking a dish.

Most table salt contains iodide and anti-caking agents that will impart an off taste to preserved food. So I switched to kosher salt and left it at that.... Salt is Sodium Chloride!

Side effects of too much Sodium Chloride

•  Stomach cancer
• High Blood Pressure
• Osteoperosis
• Kidney Stone Formation

Use less salt while cooking. Instead, try using a finishing salt. Some popular finishing salts are:

• Salish- a smoked salt from the Pacific Northwest
• Hawaiian- a black lava salt
• Alaea- a salt mixed with a orangey-red clay to add color
• Fleur de del de Camargue- a French salt that is wet and course
• Sel Gris- a course French sea salt
• Flore di sale- an Italian fine grain finishing salt with a sweet and fruity taste
• Pink flake salt

Nettle, a leafy plant, grows in most temperate regions. The Latin root of Urtica is uro which means "I burn". This implies small stings caused by the little hairs on the leaves of this plant burn when contact is made with the skin. Its root and leaves are used in herbal medicine. Nettle contains lectins and certain types of complex sugars. Lectins and these complex sugars are probably the major components contributing to nettle's benefits.

Stinging Nettle Benefits

• Hay Fever
• Antioxidant Activities
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-microbial Activities
• Anti-cancer Cell Activities
• Chronic Colitis
• Joint/Arthritis Pain

Stinging Nettle Side Effects

• A frequent cause of contact urticaria is skin exposure to the common stinging nettle. The urticarial is accompanied by a stinging sensation lasting longer that 12 hours.

Some back pain is caused by non-preventable factors (traumatic accidents, congenital defects, tumors), but some back pain is preventable. Suggestions on how you can prevent back pain include:

• Maintain a healthy diet and weight.
• Ramain active.
• Avoid prolonged inactivity and/or bed rest.
• Maintain proper posture.
• Wear comfortable, low-heeled shoes.
• Sleep on a mattress of medium firmness to minimize pressure and to curve in your spine.
• Lift with your knees, keep the object close to your body, and do not twist while lifting.
• Quit smoking! Smoking dehydrates your body and impairs blood flow, resulting in oxygen deprivation to spinal tissues and a decrease in spinal disc height (degenerative disc disease)
• Work with your Doctor of Chiropractic to ensure that your work space is ergonomically correct.