It doesn’t matter whether salt is apt or not. We don’t actually die without consuming salt per se, because in consuming food, we satisfy any ordinary need for sodium. Salt as a seasoning is, in nearly all cases, a luxury and not a necessity. If you really want scripture for the wine thing (aside from the to me compelling case concerning the wedding of Cana), here is something from the OT that once upon a time used to trouble me:
Granted, fresh grape juice would certainly make anyone’s heart glad, but grape juice doesn’t stay fresh for long. You either drink it or (nowadays) bottle, can, freeze it, or you ferment it. The ancients didn’t have the means to preserve by the first three. They used the fourth. There simply was no alternative, except in some folks’ wishful thinking. There’s NOTHING wrong with abstaining from alcohol so long as one does it in a spirit of love and humility. There’s nothing wrong with drinking alcohol in moderation, so long as one does it in a spirit of love and humility.
As for the subjects of David’s song, wine made their hearts glad. I think it’s a stretch to insist that refers only to fresh grape juice. In fact, I think it’s frankly dishonest, even though one really, really wants it to be the truth. The law of the tithe states that a man could exchange his tithe for money if he lived too far to conveniently transport his produce, livestock, etc. to Jerusalem. Once he got there, he could exchange the money for food and drink (explicitly specifying “strong drink”) and feast with his family and servants. (Interesting that a great deal of the tithe ends up being spent on festival foods in many of the prescribed holidays, but that’s another subject.)
I’ve actually agonized over this for decades, Hermano. I was raised a Methodist back when Methodists were fairly adamant about teetotalism, including my dad–and I loved my dad and greatly respected him. Now that he’s gone on ahead to be with the Lord, I still feel the same about him. He was, imo, mistaken about this. Scripture does not teach teetotalism. It just doesn’t. Now you may legitimately conjecture that loving servants of Christ have a duty not to imbibe because of the harm alcohol does to many people. That would imo at least be a viable position. If that’s your position, it doesn’t really matter what the bible says about it. If you can make the case that it’s unloving to drink alcoholic beverages, then you’ve made your point completely. I just don’t see that this is always the case. Sometimes it IS the case, but then sometimes it’s the case that it’s very unloving to give your aunt a box of chocolates for Christmas. We all have our weaknesses. Just because I shouldn’t eat a super duper deluxly huge chocolate peanut-butter caramel pecan sundae doesn’t mean that it would be wrong for YOU to do. If I were having a weak day, it might be more loving for you to ask me to have a cup of coffee with you than to suggest a pop-in to the local homemade ice cream shoppe, but that doesn’t make ice cream eating a sin. And before you might possibly suggest that over-eating isn’t nearly as harmful as over-drinking, I suggest you visit your local Sam’s Club and take note of the young people riding around on the scooters provided for the old and feeble–because they can no longer comfortably support their own weight as they navigate the grocery store to purchase–well–stuff they really ought not eat in many cases. ANYTHING can become sin when done to excess. Even chocolate.
This isn’t meant as a diatribe against your ideas. If it’s sin to you, then it’s definitely sin, and you shouldn’t do it. It’s not sin to me. I seldom drink, but I don’t in any way consider it sinful to have a glass of wine if I want to. Nor to share it with others who aren’t alcoholics or who don’t consider it sin for a Christ follower to drink. Jesus drank, and while He probably had grape juice in the few weeks during which it was available, there’s no way He could have drunk unfermented “wine” year round without miraculous intervention. It just wasn’t even a possibility.