We have seen many “experts” lately talking about how sea salt cures everything! There are claims about “healing trace minerals” and other such benefits, but are any of them true? Is salt a medicine, as some gurus claim, or is it a poison, as the medical community believes? Let’s start at the beginning….
Where Does Salt Come From?
All salt comes from either the ocean or underground salt deposits.
Underground Salt Deposits – Salt deposits are underground concentrations of salt. They are basically oceans that dried up millions of years ago. Salt deposits must be mined, like any other mineral. This salt is sometimes also called “rock salt.”
Salt mining is done in two ways. Method 1: Salt is physically extracted in large pieces, and then crushed and processed. Method 2: Water gets pumped into the deposit, where it dissolves the salt and turns it into saltwater, which is then processed just like ocean water.
Saltwater – Saltwater is either collected from a salt deposit (as described in Method 2 above) or from the ocean into shallow, manmade “ponds” or huge containers called “pans.” The water is then evaporated out either by the sun or by heating the water. Once the water is removed, the remaining salt “sludge” is collected, cleaned and further purified.
Common Types of Salt
Sea Salt – Sea Salt is any kind of salt from any ocean. This is generally has the most variation, is the least processed and contains the highest amounts of things other than salt. They can be various shades of gray or even pink due to high levels of other minerals — minerals either from the ocean where it was collected or from the ponds where it was processed.
Pink Salt – This is “rock salt” (literally just salt from salt deposits) mined from the base of the Himalayan mountains in Pakistan. The pink color comes from iron oxide that natural occurs in the salt deposits. Interesting fact: the Himalayan Pink salts with the highest levels of iron still have less than 1mg of iron in a full day’s worth of salt — most have less than 0.3mg!
Refined Salt (also known as “Table Salt”) – This is the most common salt used in kitchens and at dining tables around the world. It’s just salt extracted from underground deposits as discussed above, and then processed to remove as many impurities as possible. Anti-caking agents are almost always used to keep it freely flowing. Iodine is sometimes added.
Kosher Salt – Kosher salt just means it has larger crystals, instead of tiny (“fine”) crystals. It usually has no additives like iodine or anti-caking agents.
Salt Flakes – This just means that it was processed in such a way that it makes pretty flakes instead of crystals. Other than that, “flakes” has no other meaning.
Contaminants in Salt
There is no pure source of salt in the world. Depending on where the salt comes from, there are varying amounts of:
- Sea Life (such as tiny shell-creatures, seaweed, etc.)
- Other minerals (such as iodine, iron, magnesium, calcium, etc.)
- Toxic minerals/metals (such as aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, etc.)
- Chemicals (such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, flame retardants, micro-plastics, etc.).
All salt goes through some kind of purification process because it comes out of the ocean or deposits full this stuff.
Sea life is pretty large and every purification process removes it, so you won’t find shell or plant bits in your salt, no matter what kind of salt you buy. Certain chemicals actually evaporate out along with the water, such as certain kinds of paint residues, some pesticides, and a few other industrial chemicals. Unfortunately, a relatively large amount of contaminants remains in the salt, even after purification.
Some of these contaminants have naturally been in the air, ground and water for millions of years, such as tiny amounts of aluminum and arsenic, and our bodies do have a limited system to remove small amounts of these toxins. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the toxins in salt today are not naturally occurring, or do not naturally exist in the concentrations we are finding them today, so are actually toxic to our bodies.
But how do toxins get into the salt? Aren’t the underground salt deposits protected?
The way ocean currents and air currents move causes polluted water and air from one part of the world to move all over the planet eventually. For example, the contamination from ancient Greek and Roman lead mines (lead is highly deadly!) were recently found in the ice core samples thousands of miles away in Greenland (Lead pollution in Greenland ice shows rise and fall of ancient European civilizations).
So throughout Europe, the ancient Greeks and Romans were mining lead, causing tiny particles of lead to fill the air. Then air currents carried those lead particles thousands of miles across land and ocean to Greenland where they collected in rain and snow, creating layers of contamination that scientists were able to see generations later. And while that contaminated air was crossing land and ocean, it would settle on the land and ocean as well. The lead that settled on the land would be carried deeper into the earth every time it rained, contaminating underground water and, you guessed it, salt deposits.
Since the fall of the ancient Romans, humans have only produced more and more toxins, which continue to spread through air and ocean currents. And every time it rains, those toxins are also pushed deep into the earth, and underground water and salt deposits. Even the most remote areas have been collecting man’s pollution for over 2000 years.
It is important to realize that it takes time for pollution to travel, so there are regions of air and water that are more polluted than others. Areas with massive manufacturing, like China, have horrific air and water quality, and over time, that pollution travels to the rest of the world.
Measuring Toxicity In Salt
Most people are familiar with what toxic chemicals and toxic metal are, and we talk a lot about these, but there is another toxin that is becoming more common that we need to discuss here, and that is microplastics. Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic. They can be as large as 5 millimeters, but the ones that we worry about are tiny — so tiny that they enter the body when breathed or eaten, and even enter our cells. According to this Harvard study, Microplastics Everywhere, “…microplastics have been detected throughout the human body, including in the blood, saliva, liver, kidneys, and placenta…. Studies in cell cultures, marine wildlife, and animal models indicate that microplastics can cause oxidative damage, DNA damage, and changes in gene activity, known risks for cancer development. Microplastics have been found in human breast milk and meconium, an infant’s first stool.”
So we definitely want to avoid as much microplastic exposure as we can, including from or sea salt. According to National Geographics: “Of 39 salt brands tested, 36 had microplastics in them, according to a new analysis by researchers in South Korea and Greenpeace East Asia.”
One of the most disturbing studies we have found on the pervasiveness of microplastics is Microplastics in Spanish Table Salt. This study analyzed the microplastic content of 21 different samples of commercial table salt from Spain. The samples were salts from deposits as well as from the oceans, before and after packing. The result of the study is that they found, “…no significant differences among all the samples.” So they found relatively equivalent amount of microplastics in all of the Spanish salt samples they tested.
Keep in mind that Spain is not a manufacturing hub like Asia, so the concentrations in Spanish air/water will be less than in Asia, but what this means is that ancient underground salt deposits were polluted with microplastics just as much as the ocean in the same region.
If you look at the first chart in this study of the oceans polluted with the most microplastics (Microplastics in the Southern Ocean), it shows that the East Asian seas had about 25 times more microplastics than the Mediterranean Sea or N. Pacific Ocean. For this reason, we definitely recommend avoiding food products (including salt) from Asia as this contamination is making it’s way into food produced in these regions.
The Best Salt Options
Obviously, for the health of future generations, we need to do what we can to reduce the pollution in the world (easier said than done), but in the meantime we need to do the best we can to find non-toxic food and other products.
Based on everything we have shown you on the concentrations of microplastics, we obviously would recommend salt from a country on or near the Mediterranean Sea or N. Pacific Ocean, and not near any major manufacturing, oil refineries, etc. Obviously not an easy ask.
Fortunately, one of our favorite toxin-investigators, www.MamaVation.com, tested 23 popular sea salts and has found those with the highest and lowest levels of heavy mentals. You can find their full article and test results, along with their lists of best and worst salts here: Sea Salt & Himalayan Salt Tested For Heavy Metals Like Lead & Microplastics
Their list of best salts includes: David’s Kosher Salt, Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, Hain Pure Foods Iodized Salt, Jacobsen’s Salt Company Kosher Sea Salt, Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, Morton Iodized Salt, Saltverk Flaky Sea Salt, and Wellesley Farms Mediterranean Sea Salt. (Note that these links are MamaVation’s referral links. MamaVation uses money earned through these links to fund further product testing.) After our own further research, the two brands we specifically recommend from the above list are the Saltverk and Jacobsen’s salts.
So Is Salt Poison or Medicine?
One of the biggest claims is that salt is full of trace minerals. Well what are “trace minerals”? They are just minerals found in small amounts in the body. The opposite are called “macro minerals,” which are found in large amounts in the body. The macro minerals are calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, and sulfur. All other minerals are considered “trace minerals,” including iron, manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, cobalt, selenium, and many, many more.
Let’s look at the claim that salt is a good sources of minerals. Not to pick on any one salt, but Celtic Sea Salt (harvested from the coastal regions of France) and is known for its grey color and is supposedly a rich source of minerals such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium. According to this producer of Celtic Sea Salt (Cultured Living), a typical batch of their sea salt is 0.12% Calcium, 0.13% Potassium and 0.45% Magnesium. So altogether, they contain less than 0.75% of these minerals. So if we estimate that 1 teaspoon of sea salt (the recommended daily intake of salt) weighs about 5,000mg, then a teaspoon of salt has less than 38mg combined of calcium, potassium and magnesium.
To put that into perspective, let’s look at a healthy meal. If you took 1 cup of raw spinach (30 grams) and cooked it down, it would contain 30mg of calcium, 167mg of potassium, and 23mg of magnesium. Half a sweet potato contains 35mg of calcium, 300mg of potassium, and 23mg of magnesium. A 4-ounce (quarter-pound) portion of ground beef contains 28mg of calcium, 400mg of potassium, and 25mg of magnesium. Altogether, that’s 93mg of calcium, 867mg of potassium, and 71mg of magnesium — 1031mg of just these three minerals in just one meal.
I hope that makes it clear how silly the idea is to get trace minerals from sea salt. The nutrient minerals in sea salt are insignificant, and you are potentially exposing yourself you other toxins. Eating high-quality food, along with a proper supplement protocol, will give you lots of nutrients.
Now let’s take Celtic Sea Salt one step further…. If you look at MamaVation’s testing of Celtic Sea Salt, they found 171ppm aluminum, 82ppb arsenic, 1.2ppb cadmium and 553ppb lead. As mentioned above, lead is deadly!
So while salt is essential for life, given the amount of toxins that can be found in salt, it’s obvious that you need to find the cleanest salt possible.
Add salt to your food to enhance the taste, but don’t go crazy with it. Most people eat too much salt these days. Although people with healthy kidneys can filter out excess salt, too much salt is still stressful to the kidneys and cause other problems as well. The recommended amount of salt a healthy person should consume is about 1 teaspoon per day. Less is usually recommended for people with kidney problems or high blood pressure, and more may be recommended for low blood pressure, or during excessive heat/sweating.