Table Salt vs. Natural Sea Salts: What the Difference Means for your Health

If you read a lot about nutrition, you hear about "giving up the white stuff".  Most people associate this with sugar, which is correct.  But, refined salt is another white food that will rob your body of health and your skin of its youthful glow.  Natural sea salts, on the other hand, can actually be a lovely, health-promoting food. In this article, I will explain what makes the difference.

​Salt has a very interesting history.  It has been universally valued for millennia and was even treated like gold and traded like money at one time.  This is because before the days of artificial refrigeration, the main method for preserving food was to treat it with salt. In some ancient societies, the roads and cities even developed as a result of the salt trade.  It is where the word “salary” derived from, and the expression to be “worth one’s salt” means you are competent and deserve respect.

However, this is not the same white table salt you now can buy for 99 cents per pound at the corner store... 

Refined Salt

​Salt shakers today are filled with “white poison” - no exaggeration. This refined salt has been treated with bleaching agents and purified at high temperatures, removing every natural mineral except sodium and chloride.  Then more additives are mixed in, like anti-caking agents, ferrocyanide, aluminum, iodine, iron, polysorbate-80, propylene glycol, silicon dioxide, and sugar. By law, 2% of salt can contain additives. 

Refined salt: STAY AWAY!

Many people associate salt with sodium and high blood pressure. Sodium works in concert with potassium to regulate fluid balance in your body.  Because sodium is needed to maintain blood fluid volume, excesses can lead to increased blood volume and elevated blood pressure, especially when the kidneys do not clear it efficiently. 

No real, whole food has a high salt content.  Hidden salt in refined foods now makes up the majority of sodium consumed - much, much more than the amount added by people with a salt shaker.  Foods like breads, crackers, chips, cheeses, peanut butter, salt-cured foods like pickles, canned foods, condiments, gravies, soda, nuts, restaurant foods, and processed meats are particularly high in salt.  So, giving up highly processed foods will naturally decrease the amount of refined salt you eat by a significant margin.

Ancestral people did eat a diet rich in salt, but that was primarily from potassium alkalai salts found naturally and abundantly in non-grain plant foods. Diets were once high in potassium relative to sodium, but now with the advent of salty refined foods, a reversal has occurred, sodium is consumed in excess, and incidences of high blood pressure have skyrocketed. Excess fluid retention also contributes to many conditions associated with aging such as rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones, and gall bladder stones. 
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Beyond harm to your health, excess refined salt robs your beauty because it causes your body to retain fluid and causes your tissues to swell, making you look puffy and even slightly unhealthy.  It makes your skin look dull and lackluster and will also make cellulite appear more prominent.  

Salt marsh harvesting in France

Natural Sea Salts

In contrast to refined salt, the naturally-occurring, unrefined salts used by ancestral people always had a slight gray, pink, or blue hue due to the presence of up to eighty different trace elements that are naturally found in seawater. 

​​Sea salt is approximately 84 percent sodium chloride and 16 percent naturally-occurring trace minerals.  This type of salt is not the kind associated with detrimental health effects; it can actually be a powerful healing substance. The balance and complexity of the trace minerals is the principal reason why the sodium in natural sea salts is much less likely to lead to high blood pressure and related problems.  In fact, only 15% of the population is genuinely sensitive to sodium and need to severely limit their salt intake.  The other 85% can enjoy moderate amounts of real sea salt.  Because every person is different, you will need to determine which group you belong in and if you truly are sodium sensitive (with your doctor's guidance) - just be aware that if you have blood pressure issues, refined salt and refined foods may be to blame, not sea salt.

There are actually many studies that completely turn the dogma to avoid salt upside down.  Decades of scientific research have failed to show the benefits of a low-salt diet, and in reality tend to show the opposite.  Low-salt diets are even associated with higher cardiac risk across multiple studies.  Also, if you come across scientific literature about salt, be sure to note if the study used refined salt or sea salt.  It truly makes a world of difference. (See HERE for a list of salt studies & conclusions.) 

What about iodine (which is necessary for thyroid health)? Sea salt does contain some natural iodine (but less than the added amounts in refined salt).  Some of the best whole food sources of iodine include seafood, sea vegetables and seaweed (like kombu), cranberries, navy beans, strawberries, and dairy products. Some sea salts are also enriched with iodine.

Want even more info about "The Salt Controversy"?  Click the button below to download a great paper written by a NY Professor of Medicine all about it. It's a fantastic and interesting read!

Download: The Salt Controversy

Pink Himalayan Salt

​Sea salt has many benefits:

1. It is one of the most alkaline foods on the acid/alkaline spectrum. It helps keep you in homeostasis.
2. It helps with muscle contraction by helping your brain communicate with your muscles - so that you can move on demand via sodium-potassium ion exchange. It can prevent or help with muscle cramps.
3. It helps in the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach – this aids in absorption and in nourishing your body and skin with needed nutrients.  It is also used to transport amino acids from the gut into the blood. 
4. It helps in the transportation of nutrients into and out of your cells.
5. It balances or reduces fluid retention. 
6. It maintains and helps regulate blood pressure.
7. It supports the function of your adrenal glands, which produce dozens of vital hormones. It’s needed for stress management and good quality sleep.
8. It provides needed electrolytes and trace minerals in natural, safe, effective concentrations.
9. It increases the glial cells in your brain, which insulate, support, and nourish your neurons. Both sodium and chloride are also necessary for the firing of neurons and nerve conduction.
10. It tastes delicious!

Grey Celtic Salt

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​Smart steps:

• Give up the refined foods that contain lots of refined salt.  To learn how, download my short, free e-book Make a Fresh Start with Whole Foods!
• Throw away all the white, refined salt in your home and office. Replace it with lovely sea salt in your salt shaker and in your recipes made from whole foods. (See the end of this article for the brands I like.)
• Carry a travel-size salt shaker in your purse or briefcase.  Fill it with sea salt & use it at restaurants or anytime you can't find the good stuff!  ;-)​​

​Your appetite for salt is actually dictated for your need for it, which can change from day to day.  (This doesn’t apply to refined salt necessarily, because it has some addictive qualities.  It is theorized that the cravings for salt are actually cravings for the other trace minerals found in sea salts.)  If you’re used to eating salty refined foods, you may find that you need to re-calibrate your taste buds.  Not much salt is needed to enhance the flavor of whole foods. This is something to be aware of, because as we age, the sense of smell and taste typically decline.  It’s also vital to remember that any salt requires adequate quantities of water in order to function beneficially in your body, so keep yourself nicely hydrated!

Fun Fact:  Salt enhances foods in many ways beyond just tasting salty. Salt improves the overall flavor of foods by the suppression of bitter tastes and enhancing the sweetness. Salt can also improve the perception of thickness, mask metallic or chemical off-notes, and round out overall flavor while improving flavor intensity. 

​Which sea salts to try:

I'm a fan of the three brands below.  When buying salt, be sure to note whether it is fine or coarse ground.
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• Redmond Real Salt, which is pink, is what I primarily use in my salt shakers and in recipes.  It's a great every-day salt.  A++
• Celtic salt from Selina Naturally is awesome, too.  It's typically grey in color.
• The Spice Lab mixes up many types of gourmet flavored salts, which are fun and make great gifts.

Redmond Real Salt

Selina Naturally

The Spice Lab Salt

​Sources:

• The Nutrient Dense Eating Plan by Douglas L. Margel, DC
• Staying Healthy with Nutrition by Elson M. Haas
• ​The Guilty Pleasure that Could Save You From Heart Disease by Dr. Mercola
• Taste and Flavor Roles of Sodium in Foods: A Unique Challenge to Reducing Sodium Intake, a study by the Institute of Medicine (US)

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