Future of Salt

Future of SaltWhen I took my college-level History, I did not even come close to writing a world history essay. The easiest topic I was able to get right the first time I tried, was 'The Future of Salt.' With a little help from my mother, I was able to come up with a great topic for my essay and it really got me thinking about the future of salt and how that may impact the world in the future.Writing a world history of salt is interesting because it takes an area that has been a part of our lives for centuries. I always love to think about ancient tribes and civilizations which depended on salt for so many of their needs. I wondered what they were eating and how they lived.One of the first things I thought about was how far back civilizations were able to trace their roots back to the salt plains. Most of them were not able to find the salt early on in the development of the food chain. They only discovered it in the nineteenth century, when they moved to the Midwest. The world of sa lt before that was never really explored, however, historians believe that the Native Americans have used salt for the same purposes since long before the western world ever knew of it.Early history shows that the prehistoric times were full of salt hunters, who hunted for their food and the salt for salt making. There is still evidence of prehistoric campsites, where groups of people collected all the edible wild plants and animals to eat. They took salt from them and carried it in their stomachs and salted their food, like they did. They later developed canning in order to store and preserve their food for long periods of time.The world history of salt is a part of our life cycle in so many ways, even today. The human digestive system uses salt as a medicine and uses it to make things like antacids, sugar and even aspirin. One of the things that our intestines must do in order to digest our food and maintain health is to remove waste through the colon.As the wastes become soiled a nd hard, the colon has to work to flush out the solid waste that accumulates in the stool. If it is not flushed out with regularity, the disease we call constipation will develop, which is when the bowels have difficulty moving. Constipation is also one of the reasons why you may experience gas and bloating, or diarrhea.A real problem with constipation is when the colon feels weak. When this happens, it has to strain and force itself through the weakened and hardened fecal matter. This can cause more pain and discomfort, leading to constipation and diarrhea, or gas and bloating.There are many aspects of the world history of salt that our bodies rely on for survival. As soon as I came across 'The Future of Salt,' I knew that I had written something powerful and worthwhile.