Discovering Sea Salt

  I first started using sea salt when I contracted breast cancer in 2004.  After undergoing 2 operations, I found that I had contracted late Stage 2 till early Stage 3 breast cancer as my cancer had spread my my lymph nodes.

  While undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, my husband was particularly worried about my immunity system and insisted I visited a Chinese Physician as well.  My physician not only prescribed medicinal herbs to complement the chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment but also insisted on strict diet for me, the general guidelines were:

•  Less processed food, if possible no meat which includes pork, beef and mutton.  If I wanted to have chicken, it had to be one which was not fed on homones and antibiotics.  Fish was however occasionally allowed
• Whole grains, this meant no white bread, no white rice.  I switched to eating brown rice and have been on it since.
• Lots of fruits and vegetables, hopefully raw.  She insisted that raw cabbage was good and so if I could, munch on slices of raw cabbage.  I was also to juice 2 cucumber each morning and drink the juice.
• In terms of seasoning, she insisted on no msg, no sugar and I could only rely on sea salt.

  I was in for a headache at that time, looking at the local food sold in Singapore, I realised most of them could not fit the criteria that she wanted.  Our local food are mainly carbo based, rice and noodles, there is hardly any vegetables in those food.  Vegetables are mainly stir fried, salads was not a common place in our diet.  Organic restaurants could not be a mainstay in my diet. 

  Being someone who can cook.  I decided to look for recipes that could fit the criteria and yet where more suited for the Asian diet.  My husband then came across this book called Longevity: The Tao of eating and healing by Aileen Yeoh.  That began my journey for a macrobiotic diet.

  I am now 5 years past my last date of chemotherapy and still surviving.  However, embarrased to say, I have not kept strictly to the diet prescribed by my physician.  However, I still try to keep to guidelines.  I still use sea salt in my cooking as I found it more flavourful then normal table salt (sodium chloride), with sea salt there is little need for me to monosodium glutamate, or sugar to my daily cooking.  Though a little more expensive, I can still afford it so I keep to it.

  The sea salt brands I use vary because of the availability at the supermarkets.  But the common brands I use are Bob's Red Mill and Origins (from a local organic shop).  The Japanese supermarkets like Meidya also carry sea salt.  I use the natural sea salt and not the iodized version though.

  You may want to replace your cooking with sea salt cooking and you will find that the food you make is more flavourful.  Somehow, sea salt gives body to the food.