Low-Salt Diets Can Make You Sick.

 

All my adult life I have read that too much salt is bad for the body. When my husband had a stroke, the doctors put him on a low-salt diet. I was dieting myself at the time and barely ate any salt or carbs. Over a year and a half I lost around 20 pounds and was very happy, however I became sick

My daughter, Christine, is a nurse who lives about 6 hours from us. When she came to visit, she looked over my diet schedule, which included what I ate and how much. She became worried and said, “Mom, you aren’t eating enough!” I said, “Yes, I am. This diet is working great!” I had never found it easy to diet and was very proud of myself. She told me I don’t eat enough carbs. As far as I was concerned, carbs were the enemy of losing weight, so I ignored what she said.

Then, shortly after she went home, I started vomiting when my stomach was empty. It would come on all of a sudden, with hardly any warning. I would run to the kitchen and grab a bowl. Afterwards, I could sit down to eat my lunch, so I knew it wasn’t the flu. Also, I began to feel like I was going to faint, and my legs became very weak when I awoke in the morning. I was used to having weak legs because I have fibromyalgia, but this was much worse.

Then my husband got the results of his blood tests, and it said his salt was low. I looked this up on the internet and found all the symptoms I was having. My husband decided to eat more salt and so did I. The vomiting stopped and if I eat salt before bed, my legs are not weak. I don’t like salty food, so I put some in a glass with water.

I am including two addresses off the internet to share with you. There are hundreds of sites to visit about this subject. I am not telling everyone to eat more salt, I am just telling you what happened when I did not eat enough. I’m also eating the Dreaded Carbs. This makes me mad, but I have found my energy goes up when I eat more of them. I think I have gained back maybe 3 pounds. I need to figure out how to maintain the weight I am at. What a pain in the neck.

Merry Christmas, Everyone. May God’s light shine upon you and your families. May he bless you with his presence and bring peace, joy and love to your soul.

 

Daily Salt Intake: How Much Sodium Should You Have? (healthline.com)

Hyponatremia - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic

 

We All Need A Little Hope.

 

As I opened my app to “Abide”, a daily Bible study and also an aid to sleeping, the verse for the day was this:

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2

I thought, “If ever there was a land of deep darkness it is here and it is now.” I know in the past there have been many dark times, but to my generation (Baby Boomers), this is the darkest time we have seen with our own eyes.

This verse was written around 740 BC and it was a prophecy about Jesus’ birth. It goes on to say,

      “For unto us a child is born,

unto us a son is given,

and the government will be upon His shoulders.

And He will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

 

The time of Jesus’ birth was indeed a dark era. Ancient Rome ruled the world and they were ruthless in their conquest. They did some good things, like bring water to cities by aqueducts, build roads and promote sanitation. They also banned human sacrifice, which they found abhorrent. But as we know, their rule was corrupt, cruel and without mercy. People needed hope and many found it in the Son of God.

 

The Christian religion began with a handful of Jesus’ followers, but as people heard the amazing story of how God’s son became a human being in order to save us, thousands and then millions believed. This message gave them hope that though our life here might be fraught with trouble, this wasn’t the only life, there was a life ahead with the God of the universe waiting to be with us.

 

As I said before, this is the darkest time I have lived in (I’m 72). With Russia invading Ukraine, the world is on the brink of a world war. The United States is being torn apart by the people on the left and right. Politics is a shitshow. The hatred between the two opposing camps could cause a split between the states or a civil war. Instead of coming together over the plague of Covid, we became farther apart. Politicians and regular citizens are getting death threats over disagreements about our culture and political stance. Lies are spread throughout media platforms. Trust in authorities has eroded because of the terrible things done in the past by some of them.

 

I hear on podcasts and read in newspapers how people are trying to cling to hope for the future, but it is hard for them. In my opinion, Global Warming will kill this planet. I think we have gone over the line of no return. Many people are deciding not to have children because of the disasters they see coming. Everyone needs hope.

 

 Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why the unease within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,

my Savior and my God.

                      Psalm 43:5

 

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13:13

 

Paul explains hope very well in Romans 8:18-25:  “…with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.  For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

 

There is a beautiful song, written and sung by Danny Gorkey called, “Hope in Front of Me.” Here are a few lines:

 

“I've been running through rain
That I thought would never end.
Trying to make it on faith
In a struggle against the wind.
I've seen the dark and the broken places,

But I know in my soul
No matter how bad it gets
I'll be alright.

 

There's hope in front of me
There's a light, I still see it
There's a hand still holding me
Even when I don't believe it.

 

I might be down, but I'm not dead
There's better days still up ahead
Even after all I've seen
There's hope in front of me, yeah