What's special about Himalayan Pink Salt for cooking/eating?

According to this site it seems that it’s best good for brining and using in a clear salt shaker to impress your guests.

You crack me up @ibstubro . You remind me of my favorite grandpa (not that you’re old, because you’re barely older than me. You just remind me of his personality)

Oh and your pic cracks me up because it says the salt is gluten free. It’s SALT! Of course it’s gluten free.

Ironic that the label says “The Purest Salt on Earth”, when pink salt actually contains 84 trace minerals. The color comes from iron oxide (aka “rust”). Some of those minerals are actually radioactive, e.g. polonium, radium, plutonium and uranium. Oh, and lead and thallium, notorious toxins.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t eat it; most of that stuff is present in very low levels. But I do get fed up with attempts to mystify food products through marketing slight-of-hand tactics. “Himalayan” sounds way more ooh-la-la than “Pakistani”, where the actual salt mine is. All of our food needs some kind of pedigree these days, it seems.

I saw the Himalayan pink salt at Costco it looked interesting,maybe I will try some. i use coarse Kosher salt mixed in my homemade dry rubs and mixed with the seasoning when I steam blue crabs. i have a grinder full of sea salt that I sometimes use on baked potatoes. I don’t really think that the flavor of the various salts differs a whole lot but the color and texture sure does.

From what I hear, if you can believe it, it has less harmful sodium than standard table salt.

I have some Hawaiian pink salt. It’s very yummy. I like salt so it’s all good. I have some black salt too. I’ve had the same few ounces for over two years now. I don’t use either much.

I rarely use kosher salt or coarse salt. I think it’s important for me to use iodized salt.

Ahem, @ibstubro it’s Himalayan Pink SEA Salt. Get the name right.

Anyway Himalayan Pink Sea Salt is superior. Manufactured salts contain nasty chemicals like Sodium and Chlorine. Did you know that chlorine was the gas used to kill thousands on World War I battlefields?

Also Himalayan Pink Sea doesn’t have high concentrations of iodine like table salt. Iodine suppresses the body’s natural production of goiters.

If I had no scruples, I could make big money writing for Dr. Oz

It makes nice lamps

I looked up where it comes from. Khewra salt mine It’s one of the oldest salt mines in the world. It is near two rivers, but no seas as far as I can tell. So I wonder how they can call it sea salt.

OK so @thorninmud said it’s got bad stuff and @jaytkay said it’s got good stuff. Confusing to say the least.

@jaytkay seems to be laying on the sarcasm. I’d take it with a grain of salt

Allowing your guests to “experience all the sensory delights of this amazingly pure flavor enhancer” should certain impress them @keobooks.
I can only picture your Gramps as a delightful old fart, so I’m flattered.

I think “The purest salt on Earth” was expounded upon by, _“Crystallized over 250 million years ago, ancient sea beds were covered by lava, protecting the salt from modern-day pollution, and lending to the belief that Himalayan Pink salt is the purest salt to be found on earth.”, @thorninmud. There was another site that I read, but didn’t link to, that said there’s no more reason to believe that the minute amounts of beneficial minerals will help you than to think the minute amounts of radioactive minerals will harm you. Also to @jca.
Hyperbole.

If you have a Big Lots near, @1TubeGuru, you can get some pink in a grinder for $2 right now.

I have heard that about all sea salt, @kritiper. However I heard some debate that it’s just the courser nature when using at the table…the bigger pieces give more bang for the buck.

Anything particular you use pink salt for, @JLeslie? Just on the table, or in something particular? I want some black salt!

MY bottle is clearly labeled “himalayan pink salt”, @jaytkay. “They” do claim there may be benefits to sea salt and course salt in general.

Yeah, the lamps look beautiful, @rojo. And the cooking/serving slabs are very cool looking. I was reading a site about the care and feeding of the serving slabs and it is evidently a serious pretension unless you eat sushi-type food very often.

Ancient sea salt, @keobooks. Ancient topography overlaid with 250 million years of dirt.

No nothing particular. For a short time I tried it as a diet aid. Lol. I figured part of my hunger is wanting/needing salt. I’d wet my finger and dip it in, like you do with the last bits of salt in a pretzel bag. That instead of overrating. I should probably try that again.

I should think of something to put the salt on. Maybe a white fish of some sort? I wonder if it would turn mashed potatoes or rice pink? That would be interesting.

@keobooks Almost all mined salt comes from beds of salt that were laid down when there was a sea in that region. Geology, yo!

*unless the salt was formed in a diapir (which is still sea salt, just displaced). Boy, autocorrect really does not like the term diapir. ;)

I use sea salt, but have a friend that uses the pink Himalayan salt. Same as the Himalayan salt crystal lamps that are supposed to keep the negative ions out of your environment. They are very cool, I have one, maybe I should just grind it up and make salt out of it. If you touch your tongue to the salt orb it is, well, salty. lol

GASP! @Coloma ~
Could it be…I’m out on a limb here…warm as well??

Been using it over the past few months, trying to see the benefits. We first started using it because my husband has high blood pressure and it is said that this is the answer to the salt issue. Seems like load of salty crapola, pretty pink grains, that’s all.

Maybe you could mix it with a black Hawaiian for a 50’s motif, @ZEPHYRA! :-)

They do claim that using course salt (of any color) and help reduce your sodium intake.

@keobooks All salt deposits were made by ancient bodies of salt water evaporating.

It tastes good and has trace minerals. I use redman realsalt

I seem to always use Mortons. It comes in a little white plastic cylinder with a matching brown one that has pepper in it. Sometimes it has pictures on it and we buy it to snazz up the table.

Ugh… shaker salt is about the nastiest thing you can put on your food. Its ground too fine and too easy to overdo it. Kosher salt all the way, please.

Fads

Don’t say that! My grandmother told me that when I was a kid!

Anything that make you more conscious of the salt you use is probably a good thing.

I used my Himalayan Pink Salt for the first time last night in lobster bisque, and you’re certainly aware of how much you use when you have to grind it out and the see it dimple the surface.

Maybe I am just in that kind of mood today but for some reason “Himalayan Pink Salts” has a vaguely erotic and somewhat morally dubious ring to it.

and it would make a great name for a punk band

Ugh… shaker salt is about the nastiest thing you can put on your food. Its ground too fine and too easy to overdo it. Kosher salt all the way, please.

Despite my over-the-top comments above, the following is offered at face value.

It is true that kosher salt tastes much better than iodized table salt.

I was happy to find coarse ground iodized sea salt as a happy medium.

The iodine is added for a reason – iodine deficiency was linked to developmental problems and goiter – iodised salt is a very easy and cheap way to fix that across the population.

So if you stop using iodized salt, please make sure you are getting iodine somewhere else.If you want some motivation Google up some photos of goiter (warning, it’s gruesome).

@jaytkay I guess you could just start eating grapefruit peels. Gag! lol

Here’s an interesting tidbit about iodized salt that I often wondered about, and now answer.

“If you are eating a healthy, balanced, varied diet, you’re probably getting enough iodine and don’t need to use iodized salt. I myself use both unrefined (gray) and refined (white) sea salt, which I prefer to commercial salts that often have additives I don’t like, such as aluminum compounds to prevent caking. Sea salt contains trace amounts of iodine.”

Andrew Weil, M.D.

If you rustled up 4 or 5 more kinds of salt, you could throw yourself a salt tasting party . Sounds like oodles of fun, sitting around tasting salt. Be sure to have LOTS of drinks handy.

Someone has been there, done that, @keobooks.

Apparently a “Salt Tasting Soiree” closely resembles a cocktail party, but for the fact that the author never gets around to mentioning booze in the “Repurposed Aarnio Bubble Chair as Wine Chiller”.

“Grab a picked egg and a brewski and pass that grinder of pink shit.”

I was in Trader Joe’s last night and bought 4.5 oz of Himalayan Pink Sea Salt in a grinder, $1.99. It says “Product of Pakistan, packed in South Africa.” I’m eager to try it! :)

Did they have Hawaiian black, @jca? I want some just for the hell of it. I’ve been using my pink and I like it just for the fact that it is:
#1) Pink and
#2) Direct from lands far away.

See, Joe’s was as cheap as Big Lots!

@ibstubro: I have to check. Lately, I’m in TJ’s every few days (as I found their cat food to have a really low ash content, which is great), so I’ll check and let you know.

@ibstubro – if the Big Lots is only 4 oz, the TJ’s is cheaper (as it’s an extra half oz for the same price).

Did someone mention this yet? I just read the Himalayan pink has naturally occurring iodine in it. I’m not sure if that’s true?

1. Rich in minerals

Himalayan salt’s biggest draw, of course, is its dense concentration of minerals. According to a spectral analysis provided by The Meadow, Himalayan salt contains 84 minerals, electrolytes and elements – a staggering number considering that only 118 elements are known to science.

For this reason, adding more Himalayan salt to your diet can help rectify virtually any mineral deficiency you might have.

Himalayan salt contains iodine, magnesium, zinc, iron and calcium – the five minerals in which the United States population are most deficient.

Source
January 29, 2014

“Contains 84 minerals” means nothing if the amounts are tiny.

“The amount of minerals in it is too minuscule to make any difference, and we already get plenty of the same trace minerals from other elements of the diet.” Link

@ibstubro ” Himalayan salt contains 84 minerals, electrolytes and elements – a staggering number considering that only 118 elements are known to science.”

Minerals are usually made of a combination of elements, so there are many, many more minerals than 118. A small number of minerals are native element minerals, which are composed of only one element.

Q: ” I just read the Himalayan pink has naturally occurring iodine in it. I’m not sure if that’s true?” @JLeslie

A: “Himalayan salt contains iodine, magnesium, zinc, iron and calcium – the five minerals in which the United States population are most deficient.”

It’s not my opinion or assertion but an answer to a question posted here with citation and context that I seemed appropriate included.
Please feel free to bicker with the author.

Actually himalayan Pink salt is very good in quality and use less in cooking…

Spam awake!

I’m actually looking to buy my second container of Him. Pink Salt.
I use it constantly.