sea salt or table salt?

Yes, You can taste it. Put a little of both in each hand and do a taste test. The table salt is nasty tasting. Try it. Imagine table salt with your magarita.

Of course there's a difference. Sea salt costs more.

I have read that table salt has aluminum in it and sea salt doesn't. Among other things, aluminum is implicated in alzheimer's.

Typical table salt has very small portions of Potassium-Iodide added to it (supposedly to prevent iodine deficiency disease of the thyroid gland) which some people (mostly those selling sea salt! ) claim is responsible for rampant hyperthyroidism.

The sea salt craze if fueled by the uber-health conscious folks out there but most of them are duped anyway. Most of what is sold as sea-salt is just as refined and processed as the table salt is.

There is iodized sea salt and non iodized.

Knowing and Using Quality Sea Salt

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras said that salt is born of the purest parents, the sun and the sea. All salt has its origin in the sea, whether it is taken directly from the sea or from deposits created millions of years ago by the ocean and salty streams that once flowed through caves and rock.

In its natural state, as it was in Pythagoras' time, salt contains a wealth of trace minerals in addition to sodium chloride. Salt (along with potassium) is one of the major electrolytes necessary to every cellular function. Unfortunately most salt today is stripped of all trace minerals and is highly refined. When the quality of salt in our diet is compromised, our well being may be (we believe is) compromised. The good news: Choosing and using a traditionally made, or minimally refined sea salt can have a profound effect on our health and the flavor and nutritional value of our food.

All salt is mainly sodium chloride. With fine quality sea salt the remainder is natural elements, trace minerals. With most refined salt the remainder is chemicals. Large commercial producers of salt add sodium Ferro cyanide and green ferric ammonium citrate, as anti caking agents. Iodized salt not only contains these chemicals, but also potassium iodine, dextrose to help stabilize the iodine, and sodium carbonate as a color preservative. Even if a salt is labeled ?'sea salt' it may be (and usually is) highly refined. Refined sea salt is made from high pressure extracted, sun evaporated salt that has been washed and then dissolved in regular drinking water. Chemicals are then added to the water to remove the remaining calcium and magnesium. This brine water is then re-evaporated and finally, to remove the last bit of moisture, it is heated again using a rotary filtration system. Sea salt that lists magnesium carbonate as an ingredient is usually processed this way, and best avoided.

Microwave drying of salt crystals is common practice; heating the crystals to high temperatures that cause them to harden. These types of salt require a long time to dissolve. They impede energy production of cells, and lengthen the time of digestion of food. Good quality sea salt dissolves faster, nurtures far better, and serves to catalyze digestion of food.

It is possible to find true sea salt that is processed naturally using traditional, time-honored methods that contain no additives or chemicals. Some of these salts like EDEN® brand, are an excellent choice.

Eden Foods offers two kinds of sea salts prepared in the ancient traditional manner: from the Isle of Noirmoutier, Brittany, France where salt has been harvested naturally from the sea for over 1500 years; and from the southern province of Algarve, Portugal located at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, which has supplied the entire known world with sea salt since ancient times.

Hand harvested from environmentally protected tidal flats, using ancient methods of naturally sun drying and stone grinding, Eden's French Sea Salt is slightly moist and flecked with gray minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, and zinc which comprise 8.6% of the salt. This is a very high mineral sea salt that is only 91.4% sodium chloride, where commercial salt or refined sea salt is 99.5% to 99.9% sodium chloride.

Eden's Portuguese sea salt is processed in the same manner up to a point. After harvesting, the salt crystals are washed three times in sea water. This brightens and whitens the sea salt while preserving its flavor and nutrients. It is then naturally dried and sifted to ensure a fine and consistent granule.

Many people like to have different types of sea salt. For example Eden's Portuguese salt is lower moisture, is a wonderful table salt, and is good for daily cooking. Many like to keep Eden's French sea salt on hand to enhance the flavor of food, or for pickling, canning, and baking. It is also a premiere bath salt. If one wants lower sodium and higher trace minerals, this is the choice.

Fine sea salt is best stored in

Edgar, your last post got to it first, but I came to post that sea salt retains trace minerals. I have the cheap-o standard salt to put in pasta water and such, but the sea salt (sometime with and sometimes without iodine) to add to foods.

coarse sea salt is best for seasoning meat. Some people use table salt but that is not a good choice.

how do they get the salt outta the table.

(I understand the sea...)

And then there's kosher salt, which I use instead of table salt. How does it compare to sea salt?

I'll ask this here and see if I get an answer: Is the salt in processed food iodinated?

I like sea salt - because I have these huge salt grinder thingy and you put it in and grind your own salt - it is like you are really fancy and overly too cool.

And I like the taste.

Shouldn't salt be avoided?

i never use it beyond what's already in food naturally or what's in pre-packaged foods

an interesting thing i've found while buying food for the food bank, no name food has way more sodium that name brand, also interesting that canned pasta sauce has more sodium that glass bottled brands (and of course food banks want cans so they don't break)

The American Heart association recommends a diet having less than 1500 mg NaCl per day.