This is my first post, but I hope you can give me some insight. Does sea salt have any health benefits over regular table salt? A co-worker with high blood pressure says he’s allowed to eat the sea salt, but not the regular stuff. Gimme the skinny!
I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him…
salt is salt.
Sea salt doesn’t have added iodine.
Thanks, Handy! That’s what I told him too! The only reason I can think of is that sea salt may not be made up up regular NaCl… I dunno, maybe potassium chloride too?.. Damn, I really shoulda paid attention in school!
I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him…
sea salt is supposed to have all sorts of naturally occuring trace elements in it thought benificial by health food people. Its also a courser consistancy and used by a lot of gourmet cooks for its texture.
I found this chemical analysis of sea salt - provided by the people selling it.
http://www.nhe.net/salttest.htm
Unfortunately, I didn’t find a similar chart for table salt - but I did find a site that sells salt in really cool rainbow colors!
I read a story about fasting in a magazine a couple of years ago. In it, after fasting for several days and subsiding on liquid and a special broth, to “clean the imputities out,” the faster is to mix an exact amount of sea salt with water and down it quickly.
Supposedly, the mixture mimicks the internal weight of a human, and as such makes its way straight down everything without a belly stop at all. It then comes out the anus.
According to the article it worked, and but was that a yucky mess of stuff in his intestines… I wonder if regular salt would have achieved the same desired results?
Yer pal,
Satan
My roommate swears sea salt has a stronger flavor than the regular stuff, which I find hard to believe – but then, she’s the one who watches Food Network 24-7.
“I’m not sure who’s watching TV these days, but they’re not getting any smarter.”
Id rather have that iodine. Its a very important item to get.
Salt is salt though. Want coarse salt? You can also buy that. Water softener salt is huge 
By the time sea salt is refined, the difference between it and table salt is inconsequential. According to Robert L. Wolke’s What Einstein Didn’t Know (misleading title, since it’s more about everyday science than physics):
“The sea salt that’s sold in supermarkets and health food stores is no richer in minerals, no less refined, and no different in flavor than ordinary table salt.”
Other points made:
All commercially sold salt originallly cames from the sea (mined salt comes from ancient dried-up seas).
Salt sold for table use in the US, must, according to law, be at least 97.5% NaCl. Not much room for other minerals. (Most – including sea salt – is 99% pure.)
Whatever additional minerals were in the sea salt originally are removed in the refining process.
Sea salt in itself is a very poor source of iodine. It’s only when you iodize it as part of processing that there’s any apprciable amount.
Grinding salt is a waste of time. You need to grind pepper or else the oils in it evaporate and it loses flavor. But since salt is rock, there’s nothing to evaporate.
Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction.
www.sff.net/people/rothman