In answer to the question, “Is there a difference between sea-salt and ordinary table-salt?” Mayo Clinic dietitian Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., replied, “Sea salt and table salt have the same nutritional value. The real differences between sea salt and table salt are in their taste and texture.”

Table salt is a fine-grained salt that often contains added iodine (iodized salt). Iodine is necessary for normal thyroid function. Some table salt may also contain an anti-caking ingredient.

Sea salt is harvested from seawater through evaporation. Table salt is typically from rock salt, which is mined from mineral deposits and then vacuum evaporated. Both types of salt can be fully refined, and the end result is pure sodium chloride.

So, if all salt is mostly sodium chloride and all types have the “same nutritional value” as stated above, then how is it possible that some salts affect food differently than others? Could it be that combinations of trace mineral elements make one salt taste differently than another? Sure, that’s one reason you probably have a favorite bottled spring water. But trace mineral elements aren’t the main reason. The main reason has to do with each salt’s crystallization, which, in essence, is a salt’s texture. A salt’s texture depends on the environment from which it comes, no different than a snowflake.
But do they both have the same nutritional value? Let’s start with the process(es) that bring both to your table.

Sea Salt Refinement

The story of Celtic Sea Salt began thousands of years ago, when the Celts discovered a way to harvest salt from the ocean using the sun, the wind and shallow clay ponds. Pristine ocean channels spiral water into concentrating ponds. The flowing mixture is carefully stirred by the salt farmer with his rake-like stirrer. Greyish-colored crystals form in the sun and are gathered by hand into baskets where they are left to dry in the sun.
(note: No electricity is used in the gathering or refinement of Celtic sea salt.)
The ionizing action of the clay in the ponds, coupled with the farmer’s method, passed down through generations, encourages the bioavailable array of trace elements to crystallize with the salt in a balanced matrix.

Light Grey Celtic Sea Salt is a coarse, moist salt that gets a light grey hue from the clay from which it is harvested. It also contains 82 other minerals, in addition to sodium chloride.

Table Salt Refinement

Table salt is a fine, granulated-evaporated salt produced in vacuum pan evaporators. Virtually all food grade salt sold or used in the United States is produced by vacuum evaporation of brine. First, rock salt mined from the earth is crushed and mixed with water to produce brine. Water is evaporated from purified brine using multiple-effect or vapor recompression evaporators in systems typically containing three or four forced circulation evaporating vessels connected together in a series utilizing electricity for power. Steam from boilers supplies the heat for evaporators and is fed from one evaporator to the next to increase energy efficiency in the multiple effect system. Once heated, this “feed brine” enters the crystallizer vessel where salt is precipitated. Vapor is withdrawn, scrubbed and compressed for reuse in the heater.

Prior to this mechanical evaporation, the brine may be treated to remove minerals that can cause scaling in the evaporators and adversely affect salt purity. Chemical treatment of the brine, followed by settling, reduces levels of dissolved calcium, magnesium and sulfate. Sulfuric acid treatment or chlorination may be used to remove hydrogen sulfide, and hydrochloric acid will neutralize brine used in diaphragm cell production of chlorine and caustic soda. Brine purification has become increasingly important to produce high purity salt.

Next a solution of potassium iodine or KIO3 is sprayed onto the crystals as they pass down the conveyor belt.

Ultimately, weak brine from either process is recycled to the solution mined cavern.

So, how is it possible that both have the same nutritional content when all the minerals have been eradicated from the latter?

I eat only sea salt. The darker the color, the more flavor it has due to its mineral content.  I find that using the coarse style of salt keeps you from eating too much.

Besides, an eight-year study of a New York City hypertensive population stratified for sodium intake levels found those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those on normal-sodium diets — the exact opposite of what the “salt hypothesis” would have predicted.

Salt is necessary for a healthy body. More on this later.

In the meantime, please pass the salt grinder.

Laurel Robinson has a degree in Dietetics and is a Master NLP Practitioner. Currently she teaches weight-loss and seasonal cleanse classes. One is beginning in early May. She also works as a psychologist and life coach from her office on W. Colorado Avenue. Call 708-0356 or email laurelmrob@yahoo.com.