Is it true that sea or Himalayan salt is more useful than cook?

There is an opinion that eating sea and pink Himalayan salt is more good for health than ordinary. We checked whether this is so.

On sitesdedicated to cooking, you can often meet information that sea salt Contains A large number MineralsTherefore, it is much more useful than usual. Write About it and Manufacturers Such salt, and Sellers "Healthy" products. Some sources even have Comments doctors - supposedly, such salt contains the amount necessary for our body nutrients. Many write On the Internet and about miraculous properties Himalayan pink salt. Such articles can be found in publications About a healthy lifestyle, on sitesdedicated to seasonings, in shops Eco -products. Approvedthat this is "the purest salt on earth", Free from foreign impurities that she Contains more than 80 useful minerals and Useful For the eyes, bones, connective tissues.

First of all, it is worth noting that in our analysis it will be about the use of salt for food, since often sea and other types of salts are used for inhalations, spa procedures, in cosmetics and for other purposes.

Sea and stone salt Produced In different ways: the stone is mined in underground salt mines and then cleaned of impurities, and sea is evaporated from the water. Pink salt is mined in different ways: for example, in mines in a deposit in Pakistani Punjab (this is the largest deposit of such salt) or from salty lakes In Crimea. At the same time, underground salt deposits are located in those places where there was once also water, so we can say that initially any salt is sea.

Both sea and stone salt by more than 90% consist From sodium chloride. The prone salt usual for us is produced from any type of raw materials. Its main difference is that it passes Cleaning From other minerals and impurities, then it is crushed. Sometimes an anti -monitoring substance is added to it, which does not allow salt to get into lumps (there are some fears on this subject, but European agency on food safety and American Control For sanitary supervision of the quality of food and medicines, these additives considered quite harmless subject to dosage). Also in many countries, salt is artificially enriched iodineWhich is very useful, since iodine deficiency can cause many health problems, primarily with the thyroid gland. The Ministry of Health of Russia even Offered Make salt iodine mandatory.

Sea salt (more precisely, what is sold in the store under the name, since we have already found out that the table salt also “left the sea”) does not undergo such careful cleaning, therefore, in addition to sodium chloride, in it Contained And other elements useful for humans, such as magnesium, calcium and potassium. Eat They are in pink salt, as well as zinc, iron and some other substances. It is impurities that give her such an unusual shade. Some sellers even indicatethat such salt contains more than 90 “amazing minerals”, but among them there are, for example, Polonium, Radiy, Uranus and others Radioactive Elements, as well as arsenic, mercury and lead toxic in a certain concentration. In sea salt, due to pollution of the oceans can contain heavy metals and even microplastics.

However, is it really unpeeled salt is more useful due to the content of micro- and macroelements? Consider the example of calcium. Pink Himalayan salt Contains 1.6 mg of calcium per 1 g. Daily norm consumption for an adult - 1000 mg. It turns out that in order to get it, a person needs to eat about 625 g of salt per day. WHO advises Use no more than 5 g - 125 times less! As we have already found out, any salt by more than 90% (usually about 97%) consists of sodium chloride, which means a maximum of other minerals that may be contained in the very recommended daily portion is a total of 150-500 mg. For comparison, in addition to calcium, a person needs 300-400 mg per day Magnesium and 3500–4700 mg potassium. Moreover, all these Substances easily get From others products Nutrition. 

Thus, there is no evidence that a tiny number of minerals contained in unpeeled sea and pink salt can have a serious positive effect on human health. Harriet Hall, Doctor of Medical Sciences from the USA, and at all calls The popularity of Himalayan salt "The victory of marketing over science and common sense." At the same time, pink salt can contain toxic and even radioactive impurities, and in sea - microplastics and heavy metals. The good news is that they are unlikely to be able to badly harm, since there are as few of them as useful substances. In addition, iodized salt is one of the important sources of iodine necessary for human health, and unpeeled salt crystals do not enrich them. Therefore, it is worth choosing a salt based on taste preferences, and not hypothetical benefits.

Most likely not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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