A Grain of Salt
A Grain of Salt
The label “sea salt” is reassuring; it sounds so elemental. Yet, how much relation do these snowy granules have to ocean water? Because I prefer to leave nothing for granted, I decided to engage in some casual research.
Sea salt is a broad term referring to salt derived directly from evaporated ocean or sea water; there is no guarantee, however, about the processing it undergoes afterwards. In fact, in his article “A Pillar of Salt,” Jon Barron maintains that “much of the salt labeled ‘sea salt’ is actually refined table salt unless the package is clearly labeled ‘unrefined’”
Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., a nutritionist with Mayo Clinic, states that “Sea salt and table salt have the same basic nutritional value—both mostly consist of two minerals—sodium and chloride. However, sea salt is often marketed as a more natural and healthy alternative. The real differences between sea salt and table salt are in their taste, texture and processing, not their chemical makeup.”
So what of those articles and studies about the benefits of sea salt? They are actually referring to unrefined sea salt, a different thing altogether. Let us make several contrasts. (Note: Processing of sea salt may vary from producer to producer. An interested consumer should educate himself about the methods and health values to make the best choice available to him. For the purposes of this article I am comparing common refined sea salt to sea salt produced by the Celtic Sea Salt® company.)
Appearance and Flavor
“Sea salt” has a finer flavor and texture than most other common table salt. It is snowy white, very dry, and it pours easily.
Unrefined sea salt is a naturally moist salt, slightly gray in color, with an exquisite briny flavor.
Harvesting & Preparation
Processors may use any of several methods for processing and refining brine for use as culinary salt. According to How Products Are Made, the most common process uses a multiple-effect vacuum evaporator. Visit the link at the end of the post to learn about various other processing methods for salt.
Most brine is processed by a multiple-effect vacuum evaporator. This device consists of three or more closed metal cylinders with conical bottoms. Brine is first treated chemically to remove calcium and magnesium compounds. It then fills the bottom of the cylinders. The brine in the first cylinder passes through tubes heated by steam. The brine boils and its steam enters the next cylinder, where it heats the brine there. The steam from this brine heats the brine in the next cylinder, and so on. In each cylinder the condensation of steam causes the pressure inside to drop, allowing the brine to boil at a lower temperature. Salt is removed from the bottom of the cylinders as a thick slurry. It is filtered to remove excess brine, dried, and passed through screens to sort the particles by size. Salt made this way is known as vacuum pan salt and consists of small cubic crystals.
How Products are Made, Vol. 2
[This salt is heated to twelve hundred degrees Farenheit; a high temperature which alters the molecular structure of the salt.]
Unrefined sea salt is minimally processed to provide the purest, most natural source of sea salt. That produced and sold by the Celtic Sea Salt® company is harvested with wooden rakes, air and sun-dried in clay ponds, and gathered with wooden tools. Never is metal allowed to touch the salt, in order to preserve its living enzymes. (Does metal actually harm enzymes? I’ll have to check that out sometime.)
Minerals and Trace Elements
As with common table-salt, most so-called “sea salt” is denuded of its precious minerals. (It is said to have more minerals than common table salt, however.) Evaporated salt intended for food is refined up to 99.99% sodium chloride before it is combined with the additives. The human body has a difficult time handling this near-pure sodium chloride.
Incidentally, the mineral elements extracted from the sea salt garner as much or more profit for the processors than the salt itself. Incidentally, 90 percent of the refined salt is sold to laboratories; only 10 percent is sold for culinary use, a real industrial leftover.
Potassium-iodine is often added in a pretense of returning the salt’s nutritional value. This inorganic iodine is more difficult for the body to assimilate than the natural iodine that has been removed.
Unrefined sea salt is only 82 to 84 percent sodium chloride. The remaining percentage consists of magnesium (about 14 percent), and over eighty vital trace minerals including bromine, calcium, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, vanadium, and zinc. It also contains living enzymes.
Additives
Refined sea salt, however rustic its label, may not be as straightforward as it seems; often additives and chemical treatments have been used to create a more uniform and “clean” appearance. Other ingredients are added to stabilize the iodine and to prevent absorption of water and caking: dextrose (a sugar), magnesium carbonate, calcium silicate, calcium silicate, calcium phosphate, magnesium silicate, calcium carbonate, aluminum silicate. Because the dextrose stains the salt purple, it must then be bleached white.
Unrefined sea salt contains no additives.
Health
Many of the concerns about salt intake—high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, fluid retention, osteoporosis, kidney stones, hypothroidism—are valid when one understands how the body reacts to near-pure sodium chloride. They are not so applicable when one’s salt intake is unrefined sea salt.
Refined and unrefined salts act and react differently in the body. The body finds the harshness of near-pure sodium chloride (about 97.5% sodium chloride and 2.5% chemical additives) very difficult to handle. It overburdens the elimination systems and causes the premature death of cells due to dehydration. The minerals which have been removed would have neutralized or offset these effects.
The additives commonly included with refined sea salt also pose health concerns. The anti-caking additives prevent the salt from mixing readily with water—and they continue in that role within the body. Thus, the salt is effectively prevented from accomplishing its vital function of regulating hydration.
In contrast, unrefined salt is credited with tremendous healing virtues, many of which have the exact opposite effects of refined salts. It helps to maintain healthy fluid balance, replenishes electrolytes lost in sweat, helps normalize blood pressure (lowers high blood pressure and raises low blood pressure), builds the immune system, aids in healing, and helps balance the body’s pH. The appropriate magnesium content helps to quickly and completely eliminate unused sodium from the body, preventing harm. This is the form of salt that the body recognizes and is designed to utilize.
Price
Yes, one must consider the pocketbook. Unless you purchase in bulk, unrefined seal salt may cost twice as much as refined sea salt, perhaps even more. Recall, however, that in paying for unrefined sea salt you are purchasing far more than sodium chloride! You are purchasing salt (and precious minerals) that your body can actually use.
Sources and Further Reading
Celtic Sea Salt (shop for unrefined sea salts)
Celtic Sea Salt Health Benefits (at Juicing for Health)
Salt (How Products are Made, Vol. 2)
Nourishing Traditions (Sally Fallon)
A Pillar of Salt (Jon Barron)
Real Food: What to Eat and Why (Nina Planck)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010