“Sometimes these things just write themselves.” Jeff James
I was all set for some hardcore polyphenol -gut microbiome talk this week but that will have to wait.
While patronizing a local eatery the other night, the sight of a man crop-dusting his plate with salt required the need for an audible.
(For my non-football fan subscribers, an audible is a quarterback changing a play at the line of scrimmage, typically with a code word like Peyton Manning’s Omaha!)
Before I get to salt and the gut microbiome, let me invite you inside my mind for a second and explain how this guy making two full revolutions around his plate with a saltshaker triggered both thoughts on gut microbiome implications as well as a 42-year trip down memory lane, when I worked in a similar restaurant to this one.
Right before I noticed the “as-salt” on this guy’s plate, a dishwasher kicked open a door with a bus pan of dirty dishes. Immediately, I was a 14-yr old kid again working the breakfast shift in the sister-restaurant to this one, on Mother’s Day, the busiest day of the year.
It was also the first time I received an a$!-chewing from someone other than my parents or military drill sergeants. The restaurant owner was a “hot head” as his Edith Bunker-like wife often described him, but his ire was never directed at me.
Until this Mother’s Day morning.
I was deep in the “hole”, dishwasher lingo for the nastiest part of the kitchen, when I heard the bellowing “Jeff I need some dishes!”.
Eager to deliver, I grabbed a stack of some 20 dinner plates spanning from my outstretched fingertips to the last one nestled under my chin and started my 20-foot journey from the “hole” to the sizzling grills of the “front line”.
About halfway there, I swerved to dodge a steel support post and with my size 10.5 shoe, tripped on the 4x4 concrete base of said post.
The next few seconds of deafening silence is indelibly ingrained in my mind some 42 years later. Time stopped long enough for me to read the manufacturer’s name on the bottom of all 20 plates as they flew through the air.
After the loudest, glass-shattering crash rang out through the entire restaurant, I knelt in front of the pile of ceramic wreckage as the purple-faced owner screamed at me in profanity-laced tongues.
I remember now what he said but at the time, it was like Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and David Gilmour were singing Comfortably Numb, “Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying”.
But as quickly as it happened it was over, as I felt Edith Bunker patting my shoulder, “Jeff, he’s just a hot head”.
Back to salt and the gut microbiome.
As a kid raised in a house with a Dad who had heart disease diagnosed at a fairly young age, saltshakers were not something I grew up around. I was aware of the implications from excessive salt and high blood pressure, heart disease, and the like but only recently delved into the subject a bit more.
Seeing this man douse his plate with salt reminded me of something I learned about salt and the gut microbiome.
Thanks to Dr. Chris Damman and a Twitter exchange referencing this article , I learned more about the relationship between salt and potassium and the 2:3 preferred ratio. Two parts salt to three parts potassium is a ratio that can provide a healthy balance.
Unfortunately, our western diets full of some problematic ultra-processed, sodium-laden foods dwarf our intake of whole foods, chocked full of potassium. Striving to increase fiber-filled whole foods while reducing the harmful UPF’s will go a long way to achieving this 2:3 ratio.
Unbeknownst to me, about a week later, he penned a piece on the potential problems salt can have on the gut microbiome. Dr. Damman writes:
Salt may also connect to cravings via a short circuit in the gut microbiome. Microbiome metabolites stimulate the release of a natural version of weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, the gut hormone GLP-1. Through GLP-1, a healthy microbiome can control your appetite, blood sugar levels and your body’s decision to burn or store energy as fat. Too much salt may interfere with its release.
I highly recommend a full read of both articles. It will surely conjure up some thoughts when reaching for the saltshaker. I’m a big advocate of “adding” to your diet before cutting anything, but excessive salt might be a good place to start the cut.
And the next time you see a steel post providing overhead support somewhere, take a look and see if there’s a 4x4 concrete base at the bottom.
Thanks for reading,
Jeff
