About Sea Salt

When the words Sea Salt comes to mind most people might assume that this is the only place that salt comes from. However natural salt can also be found in:

• lake beds
• river beds
• salt ponds
• underground caves

In culinary salts these salts might be referred to as lake salts or rock salts, depending upon their origin. If the salt comes from the sea then it is a sea salt.

Salt is everywhere.

So if it’s everywhere, does that mean we have enough salt in our diet? And what is the difference between sea salt and refined salt? With any food in a diet you can take it to the extreme and eat too much. If you like sweet flavours you might like to eat a lot of sweet food. Sweet food usually contains sugar and too much sugar in a diet can lead to illnesses like diabetes. If you like salty food you may consume foods that contain salt. Too much salt in a diet can lead to problems like high blood pressure which can ultimately affect the heart. However, in our diet we may be unaware that we are eating a high amount of salt. It all depends on what food products are bought. That is why it is important to read the label. Salt is there to enhance flavour. If food is unflavourful more salt is added. The reason it’s unflavourful may be that the food that is mass produced is not of the highest quality. However, there are other ways to add flavour besides just sodium. Unlike refined salt, Sea Salt contains higher levels of other minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium) the body needs. The flavour is still enhanced, but with less sodium.

Refined salt has had many of these minerals removed through various processes.

• Mechanical harvesting from dirt or concrete basins with bulldozers and piped through metal conduits
• An artificial process to make the salt free-flowings
• Brought to an extreme heat level that causes a crack in its molecular structures
• Essential minerals are removed that are required for our physiologys
• Additional chemical additives (inorganic iodine, plus dextrose and bleaching agents) mixed in to make it bleached (mask impurities) and iodized

While it’s important to remove the larger toxic impurities from the salt for human consumption, pure refined or even kosher salt without other minerals doesn’t make it healthy. Unrefined salt is vital to our body in several ways:

• extraction of excess acidity from the cells in the body, particularly the brain cells
• balances the sugar levels in the blood
• nerve and brain cell communication to process information
• absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract
• a strong natural antihistamine
• makes the structure of bones firm
• for sleep regulation, it’s a natural hypnotic