Salt, no one really gives it much time of day. It is after all just salt. In fact if there were anything we would associate it with, we’d probably say that would be hypertension. So again, perhaps the less we hear of it and the less we touch the grainy stuff the better it is for us; Right?
Wrong…because avoiding something that is bad for you is completely different from being ignorant towards the truths that surround it. You see, salt like many other foods/food elements deemed bad for health has been in general, greatly misunderstood. In order to know what’s best for us and our family we should appreciate the facts about it and not the perceptions of it.
What exactly is salt?
Salt is a colourless or white crystalline solid dietary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride that is essential for animal life, but ironically toxic to most land plants.
What is salt used for?
There are as many uses for salt as there are kinds of them.
Most commonly used, salt is
- a culinary flavour of taste/food seasoning,
- an important preservative
- an Emergency fire extinguisher
- a Weed killer
- a tester of egg’s freshness (if it floats in a salt solution the egg is fresh, otherwise it’s probably turning on the stale side)
- a natural anti-bacterial so it’s great as a mouth rinse or as an emergency wound cleaner
How many kinds of salt are there?
I suppose it could be divided into salt for industrial/commercial/medical use and salt for consumption.
Is salt bad?
No. If used appropriately (correct amount, correct type), salt is not bad for you.
Do we need salt?
Yes we do. Salt or sodium, is an electrolyte that our body needs. To keep the body healthy, cells need to have a lot of potassium inside and a lot of sodium in the fluid outside. It is when the balance is tipped of the scales that we find health issues emerging.
How much is enough?
We need less than 500 milligrams of sodium a day to stay healthy. The truth is we don’t need to consume table salt because salt naturally occurs in a variety of different foods that we eat.
Salt is basically salt, no matter how you shake it. Myth or fact?
Myth because not all salt is created equal. Salt can come from various sources, in general there are:
- Mined salt/rock salt
- Sea Salt
- Himalayan Crystal Salt
Table salt is generally mined salt and it is different from salt from other natural sources because it has been heated up to 1,200° F, refined to remove most of the natural elements (the good stuff) and iodized. Grocery store salt ends up mostly containing only chemical sodium chloride.
Sea salt has always been sung praises above table salt because it is harvested from the sea (either dehydrated from seawater through evaporation or harvest of salt deposits laid down centuries ago).
But as pollution takes its toll on the environment, the oceans are being used as dumping grounds for harmful toxic poisons such as mercury, PCBs and dioxin, sea salt simply isn’t as healthy as it used to be.
So what’s left? Himalayan Crystal Salt that originated from the evaporation of the primaeval sea which was powered by the sun’s energy over 250 million years ago- at a time when pollution did not exist and Earth was a still a pristine ecosystem. It is fully unrefined.
Our ancestors would have died of hunger if salt was not available for preserving food.
Exactly but these days society shuns the use of salt in food preservation. Oh how the times have changed…
Salt has many uses and we under estimate it. We only need a small amount in our diet, but it is very important.