Table Salt vs Himalayan Pink Salt: What’s the Difference?

More and more people are discovering something new on their tables – it’s pink salt. You may associate the Himalayan mountain range with Mt. Everest, but the fact is, one of the best things from the Himalayas is its salt. Within the mountains, lay crystallized sea salt beds. They are protected by snow, ice and once lava. Himalayan sea salt is considered to be one of the purest salts on earth. Salt is a necessary ingredient in every human’s and animal’s life. In order to survive, we need salt. However, conventional table salt is not the same as Himalayan Pink Salt.

Salt and You: An Intricate Mineral Balance

Salt is an essential part of all human and animal life. What make’s salt so invaluable? It is the sodium / ions that the salt possesses.  Our body uses salt to maintain some of its essential functions. For example, salt is used to uptake certain nutrients from our intestines. Salt also helps to maintain fluid in our blood cells and to relay information in our muscles and nerves. Our bodies don’t naturally produce salt, so its up to us to give it to our body. Our bodies relay on a correct balance of nutrients to maintain its vital processes that are needed for survival. This balance is very fragile and one mineral may affect all the others. As you can see on the left, Sodium (derived from salt), chemical symbol Na, affects other minerals as well. Certain people believe that any health issue that you may have can be traced back to an imbalance or a deficiency of nutrients in your body.

Recommended Daily Intake of Salt

The FDA recommends that a common person ingests no more than 2,300 milligrams of salt per day. Which is just about a teaspoon. However, some people (“individuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults”) may be more sensitive to salt, therefore they may have to limit their diet to 1,500 milligrams of salt. Too much salt may lead to increased blood pressure, osteoporosis (disease which makes your bones more fragile and vulnerable to fractures) and stomach cancer.

A Salty History

Believe it or not, salt has been used for thousands of years. The earliest instance found was in Romania and China 6000 years ago, where salt was extracted by boiling spring water . In the ancient world, Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Byzantines,  Egyptians and the Hittites put extraordinary value on salt. At one point, salt became such a valuable commodity that it is said that it was used to pay soldiers in ancient Rome. Due to the scarcity and the never-ending need for salt, it even started wars. In 1877, San Elizario Salt War started over huge salt lakes in Texas. There were many more instances such as this. It may seem outrageous to you now, but it may make more sense than the never ending wars over sparkly metals such as Gold, which our bodies have absolutely no use for.

Table Salt: How it’s Made and Its Short Comings

Table salt is perhaps one of the most common household items and ingredients in cooking. In conventional table salt, the salt is processed to remove all “impurities”.  These impurities happen to be essential minerals needed for your body. After this “chemical cleaning”, what’s left is 99% sodium chloride. Sodium chloride which is not in its natural form. As mentioned before, table salt is a highly refined product.  Additives may be also added to prevent clumping and better the pouring process. Aluminum hydroxide is sometimes used, which deposits to our brains and is related to Alzheimer’s. The high balance of sodium chloride in table salt makes it easy for a person to exceed the daily intake limit. While our bodies need Sodium for survival, it also needs the other minerals which are removed from natural salt in order to make table salt.

A New Kind of Salt: Himalayan Pink Salt

The gem of the Himalayan Mountains, pink salt, is said to be the purest salt on earth. As the lava and mountain protected salt, it has been untouched for millions of years and not exposed to the modern day pollution. Himalayan salt happens to be 85% sodium chloride,  and the remainder contains over 80+ minerals. These minerals can help your body balance your PH, regulate water content, remove toxins, help absorb nutrients, prevent muscle cramping, create balance and more. Himalayan Pink Salt is used in modern cooking around the world, in producing some of the world’s finest food. Known for its pure taste and its unique pinkish hue, the Himalayan Pink Salt is one of the top choices for salt.

Why It’s Important to Choose The Right Salt

If you consider the fact that an average person consumes between 4,000 – 6,000 mg of salt per day, you can see why some people are suffering from certain illnesses. Heavy salt users may ingest up to 10,000 mg of salt per day! Which is four times the recommended amount. In any case, these amounts are not healthy. But when you realize that all of this salt is processed table salt, which contains 99% sodium chloride, it makes the matters worse. It does very little good to your health, but it may contribute to cellulite, rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney and gall bladder stones, and more. Choosing the higher quality salt and limiting it, may have great effects for your health.

– See more at: http://www.organics.org/table-salt-vs-himalayan-sea-salt-whats-the-difference/#sthash.axkS94sB.dpuf

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