Do you use sea salt? If so, why?

Sea salt and table salt have the same basic nutritional value, despite the fact that 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.

The Mayo Clinic says so

Yes, I use sea salt. Why? It’s unprocessed. I refuse to eat processed foods. The article you linked pretty accurately describes why I choose sea salt. (paragraph 3)

Sea salt also tastes better, IMO.

I prefer to use sea salt in certain foods I eat. I really prefer to use sea salt when I’m making my homemade version of very spicy spaghetti sauce. The sea salt seems to offer its own unique touch of flavor and saltiness that just seems to compliment my sauce more. When it comes to simple things like fries, pizza, soup, etc I usually use the regular salt.

@SpatzieLover Just curious. What do you think the “processing” is that they do to salt? It’s not made from anything else, it’s dug out of the ground. It’s not treated for biologicals, since salt itself is pretty deadly.

What on earth makes scraping it off the top of the ground seem more natural than digging out of an open pit mine? It’s the same thing, just deeper!

By the way, salt itself is one of the oldest ways of “processing” foods to keep them from spoiling. It protects food from bacteria and mold. It changes the boiling point and desiccates food. Why would you use any salt?

Maybe she meant in quantities, e.g. one teaspoon of coarse sea salt will have less sodium than one teaspoon of table salt, because it is less compact; therefore less salt on the spoon, kinda thing?

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Sea salt I use more for dishes that require slow, long cooking.

I use sea salt because, as I understand it, it contains more trace minerals than regular table salt.

Yes. It tastes better.

@6rant6 I prefer to not eat anti-caking ingredients.

Why would you use any salt?

Didn’t you answer your own question @6rant6? By the way, salt itself is one of the oldest ways of “processing” foods to keep them from spoiling. It protects food from bacteria and mold. It changes the boiling point and desiccates food

Also, again: Taste. Salt & Pepper are used to draw out the flavor of foods.

Next, I have low blood pressure. I have never been advised to use less sodium by any physician. Usually they ask me if I still feel alive when they read my BP ;)

The larger granules really bring out the flavor in foods much better (I typically use it as a finishing salt rather than using it while I’m making the dish). I find the difference in taste quite astounding. But I’m also kind of a foodie, so I can see why some wouldn’t care much.

Yes I use it and other variations of salt product. There is a difference in cooking process and tastes with the various salts.

Would you argue that a coffee bean is a coffee bean, one pepper is the same as another pepper? Something grown in one part of the world is the same as another part of the world?

@spatzie… You have me very confused. According to what you wrote, you “refuse to eat processed food.” But now you’re saying you use salt for it’s preservative abilities? How is that not the same as processing?

@SpatzieLover You’re kinda lucky. Whenever I eat something rather salty my blood pressure and heart rate go through the roof, making it hard to relax and fall asleep at night. Plus, it’s almost always the cause of my pulsatile tinnitus flaring up. :/

I do not use bastardized food to preserve my organic food @6rant6.

@blueiiznh No, I wouldn’t argue that coffee beans are all the same. Would you say that a molecule of water out of the Pacific is different that a molecule out of the Atlantic?

@Keep_on_running, my grandma had the same: pulsatile tinnitus happen to her :( It was upsetting

@6rant6 Calling foods names doesn’t change the chemistry.

Tastes better and is not processed. That is all the reason I need to choose any one thing over another. But if we’re really talking salt + taste, pink himalayan salt is through the roof! It’s so delicious. But then I’m a salt fiend so I am particularly sensitive to my salty tastes.

@6rant6 Seriously, you should try varieties of salts. You’d understand the difference then.

I use foods and spices in there most natural states. Period.

@SpatzieLover So you don’t use any of these to preserve your food:
Sulfur
Erbium
Silicon
Fluoride
Rubidium
Iron
Gallium
Aluminum
Boron
Praseodymium
Titanium
Strontium
Bromine?

@6rant6 I would say that a drop of water from the pacific would taste different than the atlantic

@6rant6 Is that list supposed to be stuff we all have lying around our houses that we might decide to toss into the next dish we cook? I’m confused.

Ingredients of Table Salt

What is Propylene Glycol?

That’s a partial list of “trace elements” found in sea salt.

One of the most interesting things in the marketing campaign for sea salt is that aluminum, used in anti-caking ingredients, is seen as nutritionally beneficial when listed as a trace element.

@SpatzieLover Propylene glycol is antifreeze. Even your source doesn’t say that it’s in salt. It is used in some curing products but not salt.

Salt is not naturally white. Table salt is bleached. It often contains dextrose & tri-calcium phosphate and Silica Aluminate.

You can eat whatever you wish @6rant6. Your question asked why. I told you why.

Salt is salt, as far as the basic ingredient goes. Some sea salts may contain trace elements. You can buy mixtures of salts now. That being said, your regular basic table salt contains non-caking agents. How do I know? I buy salt in bulk for one of my soap products. We have a huge chocolate factory in town and they buy their salt from the same outfit. The chocolate factory wanted to create a fully organic bar of chocolate and they couldn’t use the regular salt they usually get. My salt guy told me he had to hunt high and low to find bulk stock of salt without the free-flowing agent in it.

There are LOADS of anti-caking agents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticaking_agent Look for the E number on the back and use this handy guide in Wiki to see what it is.

Salt is naturally very white. Table salt is not ‘bleached’ with bleach. It can be refined in several ways, including having water added and have it go through evaporation techniques where the salt is exposed to nothing more than water and heat from the sun, but sometimes, in vacuum process, soda ash and caustic soda are used to precipitate impurities out. (for anyone who likes green olives, they are processed with caustic soda as well.)

Here is a process used at a salt pond in New Zealand as well as a plant near where I used to live. I thought this was pretty interesting. http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/production/1H.pdf

I love me some late night chemistry reading. GQ!

Sea Salt for your reading pleasure.

I use sea salts when cooking I would prefer to eat the least processed foods as possible. I also by sea salts from different areas to add a little different flavor variations.

No. There is no chemical difference to normal salt, as they are both processed the same way.

@Keep_on_running Use uniodized salt and have your system checked for sensitivity to iodine. Are you allergic to shell fish, by any chance?

Which brings me to ANOTHER point. There is iodine added to most salt brands. It is not a bad thing for most people. It is actually good, sometimes and completely harmless mostly. Like all things you eat or but on your body, educate yourself about it and make INFORMED decisions.

Only in my crisps.

@cazzie No, I can eat shell fish without any worries. Seeing a doctor is probably a good idea.

@ucme dang it… now I want potato chips.

@cazzie Here, try these

Morton’s has iodine and other elements.

Sea salt (All salt is from the sea) tastes better.

use morton’s for your icy driveway.

@blueiiznh That’s an ad. You’re confusing marketing with information.

You know, I’m all for perception when it comes to eating. If you think something is better, you enjoy it more, regardless of whether there is any difference. Seems to me that sea salt feels more artisan in the kitchen. And that’s fun, so that’s great too.

If you think it tastes better, you probably enjoy it more. The plate we serve it on, the music that’s playing while we eat, the words that appear on the menu change the way we perceive food and how much we enjoy it.

But it’s not sane to call it “healthier” or “lower in sodium.” I still don’t get “processed versus unprocessed” in describing salt. And there is no way that the people you are feeding can tell the difference __except perhaps in your smile.__

I just find that lake salt doesn’t have as good a taste.

@cazzie The ancient sea salt I most commonly use has 10% of the daily recommendation for Iodine. Some sea salts have none or almost none.

Where does Kosher salt fit into this discussion? That’s what I use because it was recommended by an excellent chef I know. Your discussion makes me wonder.

It’s usually made without additives @Sunny2. Most good chefs use Kosher salt, unless they specify the use of sea salt for a dish.

Here’s a good article that compares Table Salt, Kosher Salt & Sea Salt.

@SpatzieLover Thank you!

“Salt is salt” Hmm,
Doesn’t sea salt have the same proportion of potassium chloride to sodium chloride that our blood has, and trace elements that are similar too, making sea salt a good replacement for electrolytes lost through perspiration and urination especially ?
Excess consumption of regular table salt can cause electrolyte imbalances leading to muscle cramping and worse. Sea salt is less likely to cause these problems.

@dabbler Sea salt has 2% as much potassium as it does sodium, while our bodies have 160% as much potassium as sodium. I’m thinking this means that sea salt is a lousy way to get potassium.

Isn’t sodium and electrolyte? So displacing sodium (or chlorine for that matter) with anything else can only replace one electrolyte with another. Seriously though, the amount of trace elements is so small in sea salt that it can’t have make any significant contribution to nutrition.

Are you saying that an excessive consumption of sea salt would not produce electrolyte imbalances in the same way? Common sense tells me it would. I’m really trying to understand this, but it all seems like such marketing babble, not chemistry.

Have you ever heard of Fleur de Sel? I have tried it and I am sorry but I don’t get what all the fuss is about. A friend of mine who is a big foodie raved about how good it is and I bought some. I suppose it all depends on how you use it and how sensitive your palate is.

Lately I have been using Kosher salt a lot and I do think it tastes different and definitely like the little crunch it gives. I started using it on roasted vegetables. I baste them with olive oil and sprinkle the Kosher salt on, then roast them. Mmmm, it is so good. Love the crunch. And Kosher salt is not expensive.

@6rant6 I’m certainly not an authority on the matter. But typical table salt doesn’t have any potassium chloride and the sea salt has some. And while potassium and sodium have the same electron valences (can compound with the same other elements the same ways) their differences will be a matter of degree. I.e. they are similar but they aren’t the same.

Excessive consumption of sea salt would cause the same troubles as too much table salt (blood pressure elevation?) will but as far as replenishing lost electrolytes, seems like sea salt would be better.
You do see potassium chloride as an ingredient in most sports drinks, following sodium chloride. And lots of athletes will prescribe bananas – relatively rich in potassium chloride – for avoidance of cramps (along with them being yummy and energy rich).

I know that personally we use sea salt to salt our food, and in summer especially I don’t get leg cramps after running (and sweating a lot) unless I’ve had table salt instead recently.

@Earthgirl That’s what I’m reading around the net, that the texture is significant. Foods like pretzels would be greatly enhanced.

@dabbler So it’s really a loss of potassium and not generic electrolytes that are are the issue. That makes sense. Let me look up the contributions of the things you’ve mentioned:

A gram of sea salt contains 1.2 milligrams of potassium. A gram is how much salt McDonald’s puts on 3 large orders of fries.

A banana contains 806 mg of potassium

12 ounces of Powerade contains 65.8 mg of potassium.

A bottle of gatorade has 91.3 mg of potassium.

Adults are recommended to get 4.7 GRAMS per day of potasium.

So you’d need to consume 400 grams – not quite a pound – of sea salt a day to satisfy 1/10th of your daily needs. Or to look at it another way, half a banana has as much potassium as a pound of sea salt.

I think you’ve been marketed to, not informed. If I’m wrong, please clear it up for me.

Sea salts may contain trace minerals. Again, read the ingredient lists. If it just says ‘Sea Salt’ you can’t be sure exactly what you are getting.

@6rant6 is right. We don’t get our RDA of magnesium or potassium through salt based sources. If we tried to do this, it would just give us diarrhoea.

@6rant6 Good info, thanks. I like the way sea salt tastes anyway (so I’ll keep using it), but good to know it doesn’t have that much KCl.

@6rant6 It was posted as an example of the various types of products.
You asked if I use it and why. Asked and answered. That’s my take

@blueiiznh“For your reading pleasure.” is what you wrote. If I wanted to read ads, don’t you think I could find them on my own?

I prefer to use either/both Kosher salt, sea salt for two reasons.

Regular Mortons table salt is very fine. The other two are larger granules and easier to add more precisely by feel. And they don’t stick to your hand afterwards.

But taste is also an issue for me. Some people really perceive no taste difference so I can understand why it wouldn’t seem that important.

But both the added iodine (to prevent goiter) and other ingredients routinely added to keep it from clumping up create a taste that’s off-putting to me. So I don’t use it.

Because of the larger granules in Kosher or sea salt, clumping isn’t an issue and I’m not worried about lack of Iodine so I just don’t buy regular table salt.

Sea salt at Trader Joes is economical enough and so is plain old Kosher salt.

But, I typically don’t like much salt in most of my foods anyhow. The main reason I dislike the majority of fast food places is the enormous amounts of salt they dump into their foods. Totally ruins the taste for me.

@6rant6 I posted it as reference to show differences. It was meant in no way to second guess your ability to find things on your own. . I feel like you are attacking me in giving you an honest reply to your question. I recall this on a question about the Library. My sincere apology if it insulted your intelligence.

When people say “sea salt has less sodium,” it is usually a garbled way of saying “I find sea salt to be more flavorful, so I can use less (thereby decreasing the amount of sodium I take in overall).” This is at least what people I know who make the claim say when asked for clarification.

@SavoirFaire I have seen and read a lot of recipes. Often people recommend sea salt. I have heard people assert it tastes better. Not once have I heard anyone say, “I use less because it’s sea salt.”

@6rant6 I’m just reporting what I’ve heard. My mother says that because sea salt tastes better, she can use less of it. She is not the only person I’ve heard make this claim.

@SavoirFaire If someone thinks it’s true, I guess that’s all it takes.

@6rant6 Well, that’s all it takes to affect their behavior. I’m not a chef of any kind, however, so I have not done any side-by-side comparisons. I suppose it would be a good experiment.

Perhaps what people who assert that they use less of it may be referencing is the simple fact that because of the larger size of the granules, it usually averages out to double the AMT in baking and other measurements; ie: in recipes calling for ½ tsp of (regular) salt it is necessary to use a full one tsp of sea salt.

@Buttonstc looking here it seems that there might be a 20% difference in amount per teaspoon, not a 50% difference. Still that’s significant, I agree.