Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 2/12/2011

Question
Hey there,

I have a question about one of my roommates.  She has an interesting addiction: salt.  She doesn't tell us about it, but we are all aware that she eats salt at insane amounts.  She will shake it into her hand and eat it, but secretively in her room, sometimes under her covers.  Regularly and several times a day.  It's really odd and disconcerting.  We don't know what to do about it.  Should we approach her?  And we feel that if we approach her, we should approach her with some suggestions of how to overcome this and not with just saying, "We know you do this, and it's not healthy." She probably already knows that, especially since she is studying a major where they would probably cover that a lot, and it would probably just be a contentious thing. How should we help her?

Answer
Hi Hannah,

This is not altogether a strange addiction. Like other addictions it points to an underlying depressive illness, that can be treated nutritionally. Please have a look at:

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENAU240&q=salt+addictio...

and at:

Salt Addiction at:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=10Jx4yFmQx5dPvTeLxdltmYUuiSF4dhYnGe9GUupiDlU


_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist.
Hon. Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search
Skype: jurplesman