How did prehistoric humans meet their daily sodium needs?
In: Biology
There’s sodium in the environment. Other lifeforms also need sodium, so eating anything will give you sodium. Before water purification technology, all water was slightly salty, thereby giving everyone a baseline level of sodium.
People who ate a lot of meat and fresh vegetables would be okay without additional salt as those have enough sodium to keep you alive. But once people transitioned to agriculture they would have needed to find extra sources of salt – not just for actually eating, but also for food preservation. Native Americans for example would collect water from briny springs and then boil it to get super-salty water that could be added to foods as a kind of condiment. Other people had other sources of salt – the Halstatt salt mine in Austria for example was being used at least as early as 5,000 BC.
Historicaly, salt was more valuable than gold. Not just for seasoning and preserving food. Wild animals often have sources of mineral salts that they exploit. Sometimes you just need to find the right rocks to lick.
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