Electrolytes

Each cell has one to two ions inside it. These function as the cell's stomach, the mechanism by which it draws nutrients in from the bloodstream. When an ion passes the cell, carrying its full smorgasbord of bound nutrients, the cell opens magnetically and attracts that ion inward. If the ion is a sodium ion, it is most often carrying water, H2O. If it is a potassium ion, it may be carrying carbohydrate, pyruvate, glucagon, glycogen, vitamin A, or vitamin D. Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and other minerals likewise carry their associated nutrient networks. The cell pulls the entire complex in, eats its smorgasbord, and typically does not eat again for another five hours or so.

The nutrients that arrive in one feeding can number anywhere from 93 to 117 individual substances. This is what Aajonus described as a complete, balanced diet for that cell. When those numbers drop, because the smorgasbord has been fractured or because the ionic carrier has been disrupted, the cell becomes progressively more deficient with each feeding. The nervous system and the entire body reflect that cellular deficiency. The cell that receives only 15, 20, or 50 nutrients instead of the full 93 to 117 runs the body and the nervous system in a compromised state. As Aajonus put it, it is like putting water in the gas tank: the body will sputter, malfunction, and lose energy.

Sodium in food form is, Aajonus stated, the smallest molecular mineral among all 107 elements. In that dispersed, biologically bound state it carries water into cells in a controlled and absorbable way, and it participates normally in the ionic transport system. Foods high in food-form sodium include tomatoes, watermelon rind, celery, avocados, and milk. Because sodium in these foods is already bound within a full matrix of other minerals, vitamins, and nutrients, it remains dispersed and does not clump. Aajonus used tomatoes as a primary example: "Tomatoes are very high in sodium that will not clump unless you cook it."

Celery was cited repeatedly as particularly useful for people who have accumulated excess salt in their systems from years of conventional eating. Celery provides concentrated food-form sodium that helps remove toxic stored salt while still leaving enough sodium in the body to maintain electrolyte balance. Aajonus indicated that some people may need substantial celery intake for two to six years before the accumulated toxic sodium is adequately cleared.

Potassium ions were also identified as electrolyte carriers, typically transporting carbohydrates and other nutrients. The distinction Aajonus drew was always between minerals in food form, which participate in balanced ionic transport, and minerals in rock form or salt form, which disrupt it.

Aajonus treated condiment salt in all its forms as the single most damaging disruption to electrolyte balance available in the diet, second only to cooking. This applied equally to table salt, sea salt, Celtic salt, Dead Sea salt, and any other condiment salt regardless of its source or processing method. The reason was structural: when salt enters the body, the body must isolate the sodium from its companion ions because sodium in rock form is chemically explosive and cannot be processed in the same way that biologically bound sodium can.

Once isolated, sodium molecules clump together into large aggregates. Sodium in food form is the smallest mineral molecule; in salt form, because the molecules cluster together, it becomes one of the largest. These clumped sodium aggregates carry large amounts of water with them but cannot transport that water into cells properly. They float in the serum, holding water without releasing it to cells, which causes a paradoxical state of dehydration: the body retains water systemically but cannot deliver it intracellularly.

The clumping also destroys the smorgasbord structure. A cluster of clumped sodium molecules encounters a smorgasbord of 93 to 117 nutrients traveling together in the bloodstream and, through the explosive chemical separation that Aajonus likened to a sodium detonation, fractures that smorgasbord into two, three, or four parts. A cell that opens to eat then receives 15, 23, 26, or 50 nutrients at most, instead of the full 93 to 117 it requires for complete balanced nourishment. Every cell in the body fed under these conditions is progressively malnourished with each meal.

The second mechanism of damage is mechanical. When sodium molecules clump into aggregates large enough that they cannot enter the cell's opening, the magnetism of the aggregate outside the cell becomes greater than the magnetism of the one or two ions inside the cell. The result is that when the cell opens to attract nutrients, instead of drawing nutrients in, the external clump rips the cell's internal ions outward. Once those ions are removed, the cell can never eat again. It shrivels, Aajonus said repeatedly, like a grape drying to a raisin, and dies.

Aajonus stated that a single grain of salt can destroy one million red blood cells through this mechanism, and he referenced his biology teacher from the early 1960s as the source of that figure. In other passages he cited two million red blood cells per grain, and in others he extended the figure to note that a single shake of salt kills approximately 100 million red blood cells. He consistently used these numbers to demonstrate that the cumulative destruction over a lifetime of salt consumption represents an enormous loss of cellular capacity, comparable, as he phrased it, to burning one's bank account.

He observed in his clinical work that ninety percent of patients with long histories of chronic headaches ate large amounts of salt. When they ceased all condiment salts, headaches stopped. When headaches periodically returned, blood and urine analysis showed sodium molecules clumping again, even when the patients reported having consumed no salt. He concluded from these analyses that the body can release stored salt from tissues during detoxification and that this release produces the same ionic disruption as fresh salt ingestion. Those same analyses consistently showed high levels of dead cells, particularly liver and brain cells, correlating with the detoxification of stored sodium.

Celery salt and dried sea vegetable products were identified as carrying the same hazard as any other condiment salt, because once a food is dried and concentrated, the sodium becomes isolated and rock-like rather than remaining food-form.

Aajonus permitted salt in only one clinical circumstance: true adrenal exhaustion. By this he meant not ordinary morning lethargy, not general tiredness, and not low energy from other causes, but the specific condition in which a person cannot get out of bed due to profound chronic fatigue caused by adrenal failure. In this condition, the cells are so depleted of electrolytes that even the disruption caused by salt is preferable to the complete functional shutdown occurring without it.

The quantity he specified was two to three grains of salt per week, used as a medicinal supplement only, not as a condiment. In later discussions he moved toward substituting whey for this purpose, stating that whey provides electrolytes adequate to restore adrenal function without the cellular destruction caused by salt. "I've found that whey can do the same thing and it provides a lot of electrolytes without having salt." He described whey as a liquid byproduct of cheesemaking that, when consumed, begins restoring electrolytes sufficiently to get the body moving again.

For adrenal exhaustion patients who also have access to food-form high-sodium foods, Aajonus recommended tomatoes, celery, and avocados as alternatives to salt even in this context, since they deliver the sodium the adrenals need without the ionic disruption.

Plain water was identified by Aajonus as a disruptor of electrolyte balance, though through a different mechanism than salt. Water is a solvent. When consumed without the ionic and nutrient matrix that food provides, it can absorb only about 8 to 10 percent of its H2O content intracellularly. The remaining 90 percent circulates in the body as a solvent, leaching minerals, electrolytes, and other nutrients out of the blood, the neurological system, and the limbs.

The result is a paradox: the more water a person drinks, the more the skin dries, the looser the muscles become, the more thirsty the person feels, and the more water the person wants to drink. The standard recommendation of eight glasses of water per day was, in Aajonus's view, an artifact of bottled water marketing rather than physiological necessity.

Aajonus reported drinking as little as one cup of water per week during fall and winter, and up to one to two liters per week during summer and spring, which he approximated as about one cup per day at the high end. His preferred hydration water was Gerolsteiner, described as naturally sparkling water in which the carbon dioxide layer from the well is pumped together with the water into the bottle without synthetic carbonation. He distinguished this from San Pellegrino and Perrier, which he indicated had changed their processes in recent years.

The reason he accepted naturally sparkling mineral water at all was its electrolyte content and the ionic properties conferred by natural carbonation. Drinking one to two cups of naturally sparkling mineral water daily, he stated in one source, helps restore the electrolyte balance and oxygen level in the blood and reduces adrenaline production. In another context he described using naturally sparkling water such as Gerolsteiner, Ramusa, San Faustino, and San Pellegrino as a component in the sport drink formula, noting that the natural carbonation came from the carbon layer in the well rather than synthetic gas injection.

When water is ionically bound within food, the situation is entirely different. Tomatoes contain 96 percent water; milk contains 96 to 97 percent water; meat contains at least 55 percent water. All of this water is electrolyte-bound and ionically bound, meaning that when the cells go to utilize it, they do so through ion attraction, absorbing the H2O together with the full nutrient network carried by the ion. Aajonus contrasted this with consuming plain water: "You get it from your foods, not from some machine." Food-bound water is 90 to 100 percent absorbable and utilizable intracellularly; plain water is only 8 to 10 percent absorbable, with the remainder acting as a systemic solvent.

Aajonus developed what he called the MySport formula, or sport drink, as a food-based alternative to commercial electrolyte drinks. He consistently described it as containing "real electrolytes," contrasting it with Gatorade, which he characterized as chemical electricity that is short-lived and unsustainable. Athletes drinking a gallon of water at a time, in his observation, grew weaker during competition; athletes sipping a quart of the sport drink formula remained clear and focused for six hours of tennis without weakening.

The formula he described in one version consisted of: 1 cup tomato puree, 2 cups cucumber puree (peeled), 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 tablespoon lime juice, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons coconut cream, 2 to 4 tablespoons of dairy cream, and optionally 1 to 3 eggs for athletes, blended together to make approximately a liter of fluid.

A related hydrating formula described in another context used: whey (as the base), chunks of tomato or cucumber blended in, 1 to 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar depending on body size, a one-inch cube of pineapple, 2 tablespoons each of lemon juice and lime juice, 2 tablespoons coconut cream, 2 tablespoons dairy cream, and 2 to 3 eggs (3 if eggs are small). This was blended to make a quart.

A third version described for energy and hydration combined: honey, lemon juice (1 teaspoon), lime juice (1 teaspoon), up to 3 tablespoons of honey total, optional grated ginger, all blended together and sipped in no more than three sips at a time throughout the day. This was described as the formula his tennis champions used.

The instruction to sip rather than gulp was essential to electrolyte delivery. If a person gulps any liquid, approximately 90 percent of the H2O in it goes directly to the kidney and exits the body, meaning the nutrients and ions never deliver water to the cells. The ionic bond between nutrients and H2O is what carries water intracellularly; destroying that by drinking too fast wastes the electrolyte delivery entirely.

A version for emergency energy or in situations where fatigue is severe enough to interfere with work included: 3 ounces lime juice, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, approximately 3 ounces honey, 4 to 5 tablespoons coconut cream, all blended and placed in a half cup to one cup of naturally sparkling mineral water.

Vegetable juice was identified as a major source of mineralizing and alkalizing electrolytes, and Aajonus distinguished it clearly from the ionic disruption caused by isolated mineral supplements. Green vegetable juices alkalinize the blood without causing imbalances, whereas alkaline mineral supplements do cause imbalances.

The basic alkalinizing juice he recommended was 80 to 90 percent celery with 5 to 10 percent parsley, which he described as sufficient to alkalinize the system and stimulate the pancreas, liver, and blood toward better digestion. A more general vegetable juice formula he recommended was one-third carrot, one-third celery, one-third cucumber puree, with 10 percent cilantro or parsley, or alternatively 5 percent parsley and 5 percent beet. For people with protein digestion difficulties, beet at 5 percent was included because of its natural chlorine content, which supports hydrochloric acid formation.

A broader vegetable juice formula given in the newsletter context for ionic restoration was 30 percent celery, 20 percent carrot, 5 percent cilantro, 5 percent parsley, 5 percent zucchini, and 35 percent cucumber puree, with the cucumber peeled, sliced, and blended separately in a canning jar with enough of the other juices added to fill the jar, plus a little honey as preservative.

Celery was always the dominant ingredient, and the reason given was its high food-form sodium content. Aajonus said that celery is "concentrated sodium" in food form, meaning the sodium is properly bound and dispersed rather than clumped, and that two to six years of heavy celery consumption may be necessary for people who have accumulated significant toxic salt deposits in their systems. The goal was to use celery's food-form sodium to help flush out rock-form salt while still maintaining the electrolyte sodium balance the body requires.

Beet juice was noted as capable of lowering bacterial levels and causing fatigue in some people, so it was limited to no more than 5 percent of the juice volume, up to two or three times per day. Cucumber puree was identified as a key component because of its hydrating and ionic properties, and should constitute at least 55 to 60 percent of the juice mixture for people whose systems carry heavy toxic sodium loads.

The number of vegetable juices per day recommended varied from one to four cups or more depending on individual need, level of toxicity from prior cooked food consumption, and whether the person was a vegetarian. Former vegetarians were advised to use less vegetable juice than those coming from a heavy cooked-food background, because a history of alkalinizing diets can over-alkalinize the system and destroy the bacterial and enzymatic environment needed to digest animal fats.

Aajonus described electrolyte and ionic imbalances as something that can be partially addressed through two physical therapies in addition to dietary changes: lying on healthy ground and bathing in healthy water. He stated that the original and perfect ionic balances may never be completely restored, because the body has been exposed to non-organic ions that have become part of its structure.

To decrease the time needed to restore ionic balance while following the Primal Diet, he recommended: lying on healthy ground for a minimum of 40 minutes daily for 4 to 8 weeks, or daily long baths in healthy water for a minimum of 40 minutes for 6 to 8 weeks. A cotton, silk, or wool blanket or towel could be placed between the body and the ground. Lying on sand, such as at a beach or desert, was also identified as helpful for rebalancing ions.

For people bathing in municipal water, which contains industrial toxins, Aajonus recommended adding 1 to 1.5 cups of raw milk, 2 heaping tablespoons of sun-dried sea salt, and approximately 3 tablespoons of raw apple cider vinegar to the bath water. In the newsletter source the proportions given were 1.25 to 1.75 cups raw milk, 3 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar, and 2 tablespoons sun-dried sea salt per bath. The purpose was to neutralize the industrial toxins in municipal water rather than to provide electrolytes to the body through the bath.

Aajonus addressed the ionic environment in the air and the effects of pollution and electromagnetic fields on the body's ions. Ions carry a negative charge; protons carry a positive charge. When pollution is heavy, in the air or in the body, it destroys ions, leaving an excess of positively charged protons that cause disruption and destruction. He described this as similar to a broken or split atom bouncing without control and causing mass destruction.

He tested ionizing machines in laboratory conditions from 1973 to 1974, running diesel exhaust into a room to observe the interaction. His conclusion was that ionization is beneficial in principle but that mechanical ionizers cannot achieve the balance that living plants achieve naturally, because machines cannot continuously calibrate against changing conditions the way plants do. He recommended oxygen-producing plants, specifically naming dracaena (described as looking like a corn plant) as superior to mechanical ionizers for maintaining ionic balance in living spaces, because plants exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen in continuous reciprocal balance with the people sharing the space.

Mechanical ionizers could only reach a balance if tested constantly. Plants, he said, know how to balance the cycle naturally.

EMF, or electromagnetic fields, were identified as disrupting the ionic balance of the body and potentially preventing full restoration of proper ionic states. He referenced several sources on EMF effects and noted that the original and perfect ionic balances may never be fully restored because non-organic ions from environmental bombardment have become incorporated into the body's structure.

While vegetable juice provided the alkalinizing minerals and electrolytes needed for detoxification and enzymatic restoration, Aajonus identified cheese and honey together as "your best concentrated mineral supplement." The ratio he specified was approximately one-sixth honey to cheese; for example, one tablespoon of cheese combined with a proportional amount of honey. This combination provides dense, bioavailable minerals that replace those leached or used up in detoxification, rebuilding cellular mineral stores without the ionic disruption caused by isolated mineral supplements.

He contrasted this with commercial mineral supplements, including liquid forms. He stated that what a person gets from a half-cup of raw milk plus cheese is equivalent to what a full bottle of a commercial supplement like Floradix provides, with the food-based source being fully utilizable and the supplement largely wasted. CoQ10 and similar isolated supplements were characterized as potentially toxic, particularly for people with arrhythmia or other cardiac conditions.

The combination of vegetable juice for alkalinizing electrolytes and cheese with honey for concentrated mineral replacement was his two-part answer to the electrolyte and mineral deficiency created by years of cooked food eating.

Aajonus characterized edema, the retention of fluids in the body, as sometimes a mineral deficiency or mineral imbalance in which cells are unable to utilize water. The recommended approach was to avoid all salt, and to drink honey mixed with fresh raw vegetable juices or fresh raw tomato puree while eating no-salt-added raw cheese at the same time. He described this combination as correcting many mineral imbalances. Raw fish and fresh air and sunshine were also noted as supportive.

This is consistent with his broader framework: edema from mineral imbalance is not corrected by increasing water intake or taking isolated mineral supplements, but by restoring the ionic structure of the blood through food-form minerals delivered in their natural nutrient networks.

Whey, the liquid byproduct of cheesemaking, was identified as a rich source of electrolytes that does not carry the dangers of salt. For adrenal exhaustion specifically, Aajonus stated his preference had shifted over time toward recommending whey rather than salt, because whey provides the electrolytes needed to restore function without causing the ionic clumping and cellular destruction that even a few grains of medicinal salt can produce. Whey was also described as suitable for incorporation into sport drink and hydrating formulas.

Aajonus used urine color as a practical indicator of electrolyte and nutrient delivery to cells. If urine is clear, very few nutrients are being delivered to the cells. The H2O in the system, unable to be absorbed intracellularly without the ionic carrier network, is simply passing out of the body. This produces genuine cellular dehydration despite apparent hydration. The more water a person drinks, the clearer the urine becomes, the drier the skin becomes, and the more fluid is actually lost from the cellular interior. This is why he described the relationship between water intake and dehydration as a self-reinforcing cycle.

---