4 Answers

The main thing sea salt has going for it is happy vibes. Salt mines have long been proverbial sites of drudgery. In contrast, you rarely hear anyone gripe about having to get back to the beach.

The alleged health benefits of sea salt, ranging from improving digestion to imparting "harmonious energy," are credited to minerals and trace elements that are refined out of table salt. Since the underground salt deposits that produce most table salt are the result of evaporating seawater or salty lakes, you'd think the chemistry would be pretty much the same, and mostly it is. Both rock salt ( i.e., from mines) and sea salt contain, besides sodium chloride, such chemicals as calcium, potassium, and magnesium sulfates. However, when a large body of water evaporates, the chemicals in it precipitate out in stages - calcium compounds get deposited first, then sodium, and finally magnesium and potassium. Because of this, a rock salt deposit is often a more homogenous mass of sodium chloride than what you get by drying out seawater commercially. Since rock salt destined for human consumption is typically processed to remove grit and other impurities, by the time it reaches the shaker table salt is nearly pure sodium chloride.

Sea salt generally is far from pure - the impurities are its big selling point and frequently an identifying mark, such as the tiny bits of clay that give gray sea salt its color, or the iron-rich red volcanic clay added to Hawaiian sea salt. Although fans tout sea salt's trace elements, the major constituents are the aforesaid calcium, potassium, etc. The importance of minerals in the diet can't be dismissed; after all, the iodine commonly added to table salt helps prevent thyroid conditions. But there's little (actually, from what I can tell, no) research demonstrating that consuming sea salt is helpful in ways that consuming the ordinary kind isn't. Conceivably a benefit will someday be shown; for example, a few studies claim mineral-rich Dead Sea water - when bathed in, not drunk - is useful in treating psoriasis.

Meanwhile, as with all health fads, be careful that in your quest for self-improvement you don't make things worse. You're right in supposing that sea salt can be contaminated - industrial water pollution, in fact, has led some French sea-salt works to shut down. Sea salt also usually contains less iodine than you find in iodized table salt. Goiter has largely disappeared in the developed world; why help bring it back?

13 years ago. Rating: 2
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Sea salt is supposed to be healthier.

13 years ago. Rating: 1
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I thought that sea salt was healthier too, but there is info. out there to the contrary. Basically the mined salt is more pure, or cleaner.

13 years ago. Rating: 0
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My wife uses Kosher Salt in most of her cooking because its cut bigger than table salt so she uses less. Sea Salt is supposedly healthier and has other minerals in it.

Too much salt is no good for you anyway so ALL SALTS S*CK. ;)

13 years ago. Rating: 0
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