Not All Salt Is The Same. Which Is The Healthiest?

Salt is an essential kitchen ingredient across many different cultures — but not all salt is the same, and ,in fact, there are far more varieties than most people are aware of. We've all heard that too much is bad for you, and that too little can be dangerous, too. Which salt is healthiest, though, and how should you choose which one to buy?

A valuable commodity

Salt has been a prized mineral since time immemorial.  It is often said that Roman soldiers were paid in salt, from which originates our modern word ‘salary’ and the phrase ‘any man worth his salt’. In actual fact salary refers to the money the soldiers were paid, with which to buy their salt. But it still shows what an expensive and important commodity salt was in those days.

Salt was historically a very important commodity for a number of reasons, but from a food perspective it was revolutionary. Not only did salt enhance the flavor of almost any food, but more importantly salt enabled food to be preserved.  In the days before refrigeration this was tremendously useful.

It enabled food, when plentiful, to be stored for use later when it was scarcer, and protected people from eating spoiled or rotten food.  It also meant that food could be transported and traded around the world, as well as sustaining the crews of ships spending months at sea.

We might now take salt for granted, but we enjoy it just as much as ever.

Not so prized but still needed

Nowadays it might not seem so revolutionary or precious but we still have a need for salt. Although we’re told to watch our salt intake, it is essential that we do have some salt in our diet.

Do we need to use salt?

Much of our food already contains salt – and not just the obvious ones like potato chips and salted nuts.  Natural foods like cheese are a good source of salt and many processed foods contain it.  So we probably don’t need to add salt – at the table or in cooking.  But need aside, it is a fantastic flavor-enhancer, bringing out the flavor of many foods and improving the palatability of others. 

Not all salt is the same

Before the commercialization of salt production, it was obtained from all manner of natural sources.  These were as diverse as dried marine algae, seawater soaked peat (which was dried and then burned to produce salty-tasting ash), dried fish eggs as well as fermented fish blood and organs!  As you can imagine, these salty flavor-enhancers contained a lot more than just sodium chloride, the main constituent of salt. 

Even today, most salt is sourced ultimately from the sea, but there is still great variation in the mineral content of different commercially-available salts.  

What is ‘table salt’ and is it harmful?

This is sodium chloride that may well have been sourced from the sea, one way or another, but is heavily processed and refined so that the other minerals are lost. 

Because the introduction of refined table salt led to an increase in thyroid problems (‘goitre’), iodine – an essential element of thyroid hormone – is added to it in many countries around the world. But if you eat a balanced diet with fresh produce you are unlikely to be deficient in iodine.

You may also prefer to consume salt that has retained its natural iodine and mineral content, rather than relying on it being added.

Table salt also has chemicals added as anti-caking agents, to stop the salt from clumping together when it naturally absorbs moisture from the air.

Sea salts

Sea salt is often recommended as an example of unrefined salt.  But as mentioned, even refined table salt may have originatedfrom seawater. 

Pollution aside, the key differentiator for sea salt is whether the other minerals it naturally contains are left in, or processed out.  And depending on where it originates, it will contain Differing mixtures of other minerals and salts. 

If you are concerned about pollution you could also look for salt obtained from potentially cleaner sources.

Himalayan Pink Salt

This is extracted from dried seabeds existing millions of years ago, in Pakistan.  Because the salt was laid down so long ago, it is less likely to be contaminated in the same way as our oceans are today. The salt is allegedly processed by being stoneground and reputed to contain as many as 84 different minerals, including iodine.

It is recognisable by its pale pink color – those against table salt recommend that white salts are avoided as the color is a sign of the processing, as with sugar. 

Celtic Salt

Another example of an unrefined mineral-containing salt containing is known as Celtic salt which is obtained from the sea off Brittany, France and is a characteristic grey or sandy color.

Choosing your salt

Himalayan and Celtic salts are two examples of commercially available unrefined salts, but there are many others available around the world.

Two factors may be helpful if you wish to avoid refined table salt. One is the color – if it is pure white it is unlikely to contain other minerals. 

The second is that it is likely to be refined table salt if the label indicates that the only ingredients are sodium chloride and an anti-caking ingredient.

What are the benefits of unrefined salt?

But these minerals are likely to be present in tiny trace amounts, so the unanswered question is whether there is enough to benefit you and whether you were deficient in them in the first place.  If you eat a healthy balanced diet, you probably do not need that extra ‘top up’ but equally, having those minerals is unlikely to do you any harm.