# What's the straight dope on Himalayan Salt and High Blood Pressure? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 26, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066 "2016-11-26T18:14:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/41 "2016-11-27T20:48:37Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Himalayan Salt does taste noticeably different than regular salt There is also a variety (which I had also never heard of before googling for this thread) called [kala namak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak), which is flavored and smelly. (And also pink, I’m wondering if that is actually what the OP has.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/42 "2016-11-27T21:24:39Z")
It doesn’t surprise me that some people say they prefer a particular variety of salt. There are factors that may influence this (crystal size, color etc.) but it is very hard to believe that the miniscule quantities of impurities in a given salt are going to significantly affect the flavor of a prepared dish. Cooks Illustrated did a blind (non-peer reviewed :)) taste test of various salts and found that its testers could not distinguish between the salts when in solution (i.e. water or chicken broth) but some liked fancy large crystal salts when sprinkled on a beef tenderloin dish (the “crunch” was deemed enjoyable). [Another intrepid experimenter](http://www.wwrecipes.com/salt-taste-test.htm) did a test on a number of salts (including one Himalayan variety) in solution and concluded that most testers didn’t have preferences but some liked certain varieties.\* The Himalayan salt came in second to an ordinary Kosher table salt which cost a little over a dollar a pound (the Himalayan was around $28 a pound and the less-preferred Le Paludier Fleur de Sel de Guérande clocked in at nearly $70 a pound. Probably the gourmets who shell out for Le Paludier Fleur de Sel de Guérande would insist it has a much superior taste. :dubious: \*the study’s design defects should be obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/43 "2016-11-27T21:34:37Z")
If you’re dissolving Fleur de Sel, you’re doing it wrong. It’s distinguished from other salts by the shape and size of its crystals, not by its impurities. When sprinkled on dry, they impart a different texture and eating experience. Whether this difference is a good one, or worth the price, is of course a matter of taste and not disputable, but the difference is certainly there. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/44 "2016-11-27T21:58:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Cooks Illustrated did a blind (non-peer reviewed :)) taste test of various salts and found that its testers could not distinguish between the salts when in solution… There have been equally embarrassing blind taste tests with wine experts. > **[Blind wine tasting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting)** > > Blinded wine tasting is wine tasting undertaken in circumstances in which the tasters are kept unaware of the wines' identities. The blind approach is routine for wine professionals (wine tasters, sommeliers and others) who wish to ensure impartiality in the judgment of the quality of wine during wine competitions or in the evaluation of a sommelier for professional certification. More recently wine scientists (physiologists, psychologists, food chemists and others) have used blinded tastings to... So I’m not shocked that tiny impurities in salt are not detectable as flavors under controlled conditions. It’s the foodie equivalent of the placebo effect. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/45 "2016-11-27T22:08:40Z")
I suppose next you’ll say you don’t recognize the incredible clarity and stage presence heard only through audiophile quality $500 HDMI cables. Philistine!! ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/46 "2016-11-27T22:33:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I suppose next you’ll say you don’t recognize the incredible clarity and stage presence heard only through audiophile quality $500 HDMI cables. Philistine!! Cheapskate. > **[The most expensive speaker cable in the world? - Audio and Sound](http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/11/most-expensive-speaker-cable-world-audioquest-audiophile/)** > > Audioquest Everest are the most expensive speaker cables in the world at over $21,000 for 3m. Audiophiles rejoice! Forget about Pear cables, you need REAL audiophile cable. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/47 "2016-11-27T22:44:58Z")
Agreed $500 is as nothing in the surreal realm of the audiophiles. OTOH, that $21,000 speaker cable carries an analog signal where if you squint real hard you could imagine a plausible physics reason that a difference might be measurable with fancy enough equipment. Albeit not with a human ear. HDMI cables carry digital domain signals. We don’t even get out of the physics-based gate. Pure salesman-driven reality distortion field there. Pure as in 100.000%. Which may not be much different from 99.99999999999% BS quantitatively speaking, but is qualitatively a whole different arena. ---
**Author:** ![doubleminus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@doubleminus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doubleminus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/48 "2016-11-27T22:46:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Another complication with using urine to measure salt intake is that urine isn’t the only way that the body sheds salt. It can also be lost in perspiration, which could easily be a confounding factor: People who exercise a lot will lose more salt in sweat, and will therefore have less in their urine… but maybe the real correlation there is that exercise reduces blood pressure. Normally, sweat is isotonic or perhaps a little bit more salty, it should not affect the blood sodium concentration. It influences the precision of salt consumption studies a bit for mostly sedentary people, but it is taken into account. BTW, athletes have been found to lose a lot of sodium since they perspire a lot. Football players in pre-season training have been measured to lose 2g/hour of sodium, which can easily induce hyponatremia if they would not consume isotonic/hypertonic sport drinks. Hyponatremia is a life-threatening condition, not easily treated. > [@](#): > > Salt in its natural mineral form is one of the oldest known diet supplements. The effect on the function of the body of one of salt’s constituent elements, sodium, has been well understood for at least two centuries. Formed into salt tablets, salt was used by laborers in warm, heavy industrial environments of North America in the late 1800s; it was also provided to soldiers by a number of national armies during World War II to assist combatants in dealing with dehydration in hot jungle and desert environments. For more than 50 years, salt tablets have been a staple in North American preseason football training camps, which are often held in the heat of July and August. In normal, older and sedentary people, lowish sodium can increase the rate of heart arrythmias. If atrial, it’s only a bad feeling (and an increased clotting danger). If ventricular, one may just drop dead. The reason for the concerned tone of this and my previous post is the anti-salt campaign waged lately, also in my country (Israel), together with the anti-sugar one. While some people might consume much too much salt, and even be addicted to it, I’m afraid that indiscriminately lowering salt consupmtion, especially in warm climates is very dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/49 "2016-11-27T23:17:06Z")
> [@doubleminus](#): > > …indiscriminately lowering salt consupmtion, especially in warm climates is very dangerous. Yes, aside from the now fairly well known risk for athletes, there have been some unusual instances of hyponatremia. There’s one story from a Grand Canyon boat trip (it’s in either Emerald Mile or Over The Edge) where two older ladies embarked on a trip and found the rapids very frightening, but continued nonetheless, wrapping themselves in waterproof outfits despite the high temperatures. They were following advice to drink plenty of fluids, but presumably sweating profusely and continuously and not following advice to eat salty snacks. They went down in quick succession, and both almost died, in part because the symptoms weren’t figured out immediately. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/50 "2016-11-28T00:02:38Z")
> [@doubleminus](#): > > Normally, sweat is isotonic or perhaps a little bit more salty, it should not affect the blood sodium concentration. … Huh? Serum normal is about 140 mmol/L. [Sweat](http://aqualyte.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/THE-SWEAT-GLAND-HOW-DOES-IT-WORK-AND-WHAT-FACTORS-AFFECT-SWEAT-RATE-AND-COMPOSITION.pdf) (see page 12) has a mean of 33mmol/L with a range of 20-80mmol/L. IOW hy_po_tonic. Rate of sweating also varies greatly. Of course with large volume of sweat loss absolute sodium loss can still be substantial, and if replaced (or over-replaced) with free water alone, especially beyond what thirst mechanisms would guide, serious hyponatremia can result (and has). Normally it doesn’t because normal homeostatic mechanisms usually keep serum sodium in a tight range. Here’s this from an article that [reviews](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4245554/) the methods of measuring population salt intake. > [@](#): > > 24 h urine collection is widely regarded as the gold standard method for assessment of intake, and is often used as the measure by which to compare and validate other methods of sodium intake assessment. As approximately 90% of ingested sodium is excreted in the urine over the same period an accurate 24 h urine collection reflects intake reliably. Variable losses also occur through sweat and feces, and have been estimated to be around 10% under normal conditions, but may be greater in hot climates, or among populations who are highly physically active. Seasonal variability has also been reported with the proportion of dietary sodium excreted in the urine noted to be lower in summer compared to winter The support seems to be [this article](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6486085). > [@](#): > > Twenty eight adults, 12 men and 16 women, participated in a 1-yr study designed to assess daily nutrient intake accurately. … Average urinary excretions of sodium and potassium were 86 and 77% of total intake, respectively … which if indeed all seems a bit thin to be basing a gold standard off of. As to the accuracy of spot urines correlating with 24 hour collection … the former article is critical, albeit of possible value for complete populations: > [@](#): > > Spot urinary sodium concentration (even when sodium: creatinine ratio is used to account for urinary concentration) is likely to represent sodium intake over a short time period (only a few hours). Diurnal variation of sodium has been described … This review concluded that a single spot urine is not a good reflection of 24 h excretion over the same time period [45]. Similarly, assessments using the mean difference ratio of Bland and Altman (usually considered to be a better method of assessing agreement between two methods of measurement than correlation) also show spot urine to be a poor predictor of 24 h excretion in individuals. For example a comparison in a New Zealand population showed that indicated that for 95% of cases, the ratio of the estimated 24 h urinary sodium using the INTERSALT formula will be between 0.46 and 2.56 times the measured 24 h urinary sodium for the same 24 h time period [44]. > > However many studies have shown that the mean population intake derived from spot urine sampling using predictive equations to estimate individual mean 24 h excretion approximates the mean 24 h excretion of that population, indicating that it may be a useful tool for monitoring population sodium intake … I’m not getting where the confidence in the 90% value assumption in 24 hour collections for all subpopulations inclusive of salt-sensitive hypertensives emerges from or why anyone would assume that diurnal variation of renal salt excretion in salt-sensitive hypertensives would necessarily be the same as in normotensives and non-salt-sensitive hypertensives. It seems that trusting spot urines _is_ especially unjustified. Again, I suspect I am missing something (or somethings) but I still can’t figure out what it is. ---
**Author:** ![doubleminus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@doubleminus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doubleminus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/51 "2016-11-28T01:20:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Huh? > > Serum normal is about 140 mmol/L. Sweat (see page 12) has a mean of 33mmol/L with a range of 20-80mmol/L. IOW hypotonic. You are, of course right. I messed up with the calculator when inputting the data for sweat. The football guys had an average of 50 mmol/L with very little variance. Also intuitively, it so _salty_. Right - because sweat evaporates.:smack: So the body is smart enough to hold onto most of the electrolytes when sweating. I will look into the other issues. ---
**Author:** ![doubleminus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@doubleminus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doubleminus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/52 "2016-11-28T01:33:42Z")
At least in the paper I based my post on, they use “Kawasaki Formula” - for whatever it’s worth: > [@](#): > > We used the Kawasaki formula to estimate 24-h urinary excretion of sodium and potassium from a fasting morning specimen and used these estimates as surrogates for daily sodium and potassium intake (in grams). Previous studies have reported that this method provides a reliable estimate of sodium intake in healthy Japanese participants (r=0·73) and this was replicated later in Japanese participants with hypertension (r=0·69 in those on blood pressure medication, r=0·66 in those not medicated),21,22 and more recently in Chinese participants with hypertension (r=0·64).23 We did further validation of the method in 1083 people from 11 countries,24 and showed that the estimated sodium excretion from the morning urine specimen shows a good correlation with direct measures of sodium excretion from the actual 24-h urine collection (intraclass correlation coeffi cient of 0·70 [95% CI 0·61–0·77] among individuals with hypertension and 0·71 [0·61 to 0·78] among those without hypertension). Further, the blood pressure change per g of sodium was 2·11/0·78 mm Hg, which is consistent with the results of a meta-analysis of sodium lowering randomised controlled trials ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/53 "2016-11-28T02:42:12Z")
_Most important of all_, Himalayan salt buyers: make sure the product you buy is _non-GMO_! Fortunately sellers are aware of this problem and make sure their salt has [not](http://www.iherb.com/Himalania-Fine-Pink-Salt-10-oz-285-g/50193?gclid=Cj0KEQiAperBBRDfuMf72sr56fIBEiQAPFXszc6kxx3FQqkK61qU24vQbQNdolZPkMi1wIMK6n6fHZUaAsxY8P8HAQ) been genetically altered. [These folks](https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Himalayan-Gourmet-Chemicals-Non-gmo/dp/B007PR93EU) offer Himalayan salt that is Organic, Natural, Kosher and 'Halall" in addition to being non-GMO. Buy with confidence. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/54 "2016-11-28T02:54:07Z")
I’m not sure it actually matters whether sweat is more or less salty than blood. It could still have an effect as long as it contains any salt at all. Consider two subjects, A and B. Both consume the same amount of salt in their diets, both drink enough water to maintain hydration, and both are healthy enough that their bodies naturally maintain equilibrium of salt concentration. A exercises a lot, and so sweats a lot, losing a significant fraction of his dietary salt input. For whatever’s left, his kidneys do their job and take it out, to keep his levels stable. B doesn’t exercise, and so sweats only a little (everyone sweats some), and so his kidneys filter out almost all of the salt he eats. In other words, for a body in equilibrium, daily salt intake should equal salt output in sweat plus salt output in urine (I’m ignoring other avenues of loss like tears, because I assume they’re insignificant). So someone who loses more in sweat should lose less in urine, given the same input. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/55 "2016-11-28T04:36:31Z")
**doubleminus** thank you for including that. **Chronos** yes. Deducing intake by way of 24 hour urinary excretion assumes that other sources of losses are constants (or at least insignificantly variable) across the conditions in question, including the condition of those with presumed defects in urinary sodium excretion. Which is probably true but dang for a question of this much health importance it would be nice to actually know it to be true. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/56 "2016-11-28T05:41:14Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > So a higher salt intake is the **ONLY** difference between a primitive lifestyle and a modern lifestyle? > :smack: > > Methinks that your critical thinking skills need a tuneup. You should read Diamond’s entire chapter on salt and modern life. It’s a bit more detailed, here’s a sneak peek: > [@](#): > > …Instead, salt intake is commonly estimated from 24-hour urine collections, but those values are subject to huge variation from day to day, depending on whether one happens to eat a Big Mac or a can of chicken noodle soup on some particular day. Despite those causes of uncertainty, many natural experiments as well as manipulative experiments indicate to me that variations of salt intake within the normal range do affect blood pressure. > > Regional variation, migration, and individual variation provide natural experiments. Salt intake is higher for coastal people than for interior people in Newfoundland and in the Solomon Islands, and it’s higher for rural Nigerians living near a salt lake than for nearby rural Nigerians not living near a salt lake; in each case the higher-salt population has higher average blood pressure. When rural Kenyans or Chinese move to cities, their salt intake often rises, and so does their blood pressure. Salt intake in Japan nearly doubles from south to north to reach its maximum in the already-mentioned Akita Prefecture in the north, and that salt trend is paralleled by a trend in hypertension and in deaths from stroke. Among individual Japanese in a single city (Takayama), hypertension and stroke deaths increase with salt intake. > > As for manipulative experiments, Americans on a (mildly) low-salt diet for 30 days, New Guineans on a (mildly) high-salt diet for 10 days, and Chinese on a (mildly) low-salt or high-salt diet for 7 days al experienced a rise or fall in blood pressure paralleling the experimental rise or fall in salt intake. > > Epidemiologists in a suburb of the Dutch city of The Hague, with the cooperation of the mothers of 476 newborn infants, randomly assigned the infants (most of them breast-fed) for six months to either of two diets of food supplements differing by a factor of 2.6 in salt content. The blood pressure of the slightly high-salt babies increased progressively above the blood pressure of the slightly low-salt babies over the course of the six months, when the experimental intervention ended and the babies proceeded to eat whatever they wanted for the next 15 years. Interestingly, the effects of those six months of salt intake in infancy proved to be permanent: as teen-agers, the former slightly high-salt babies still had blood pressures above those of the slightly low-salt babies (perhaps because they had become permanently conditioned to choose salty food). Presumably to write a book like this, he spent a bit more time that we have researching the effects of salt. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/57 "2016-11-28T11:56:08Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > _Most important of all_, Himalayan salt buyers: make sure the product you buy is _non-GMO_! Non-Geologically Modified Ore? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/58 "2016-11-28T12:46:31Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > You should read Diamond’s entire chapter on salt and modern life. It’s a bit more detailed, here’s a sneak peek: > Presumably to write a book like this, he spent a bit more time that we have researching the effects of salt. FWIW I do not think the low salt skeptics dispute that high salt diets are associated with an increased rate of hypertension. Or that lowering from a high salt diet is advisable for someone with hypertension who is eating a high salt diet. The debate is over what level of salt intake is advisable for the general population and how low is advisable. Is the best endpoint to measure the incidence of hypertension or the outcomes that hypertension is supposed to be the surrogate for (cardiovascular disease, strokes, and deaths of all causes)? Is there evidence of sufficient quality to support the recommendation to aim for the current AHA goal of under 2400 mg per day for all? It of course gets complicated by the fact that the main source of sodium in the American diet is not the salt shaker at the table or even in the kitchen but processed foods intake. With that as the context I must admit to being surprised that a lower salt diet is not minimally a better _marker_ of less risk of adverse health outcomes than there seems to be good evidence for. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/59 "2016-11-28T23:10:10Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > _Most important of all_, Himalayan salt buyers: make sure the product you buy is _non-GMO_! > > Fortunately sellers are aware of this problem and make sure their salt has [not](http://www.iherb.com/Himalania-Fine-Pink-Salt-10-oz-285-g/50193?gclid=Cj0KEQiAperBBRDfuMf72sr56fIBEiQAPFXszc6kxx3FQqkK61qU24vQbQNdolZPkMi1wIMK6n6fHZUaAsxY8P8HAQ) been genetically altered. > > [These folks](https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Himalayan-Gourmet-Chemicals-Non-gmo/dp/B007PR93EU) offer Himalayan salt that is Organic, Natural, Kosher and 'Halall" in addition to being non-GMO. Buy with confidence. But is it gluten-free? PS Thanks for the chuckle. I needed that. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066/60 "2016-11-29T00:40:30Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > But is it gluten-free? Also, dry aged. Wet aged salt is noticeably inferior. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-himalayan-salt-and-high-blood-pressure/773066.md?page=4)