Salt, Himalayan, Pink and others are not all they seem but sometimes more

Am so pleased somebody raised this. Na Cl sodium chloride is ionic and no one can tell when analysing a product whether the Na came from NaCl or another source. The hardening of arteries etc is from excess Sodium the chloride is not the culprit so shouldn’t we be warning about 'Sodium content not sodium chloride or salt
content.

“Nutrition Information” labels on food do list Sodium content, not salt content, which is ~2.5X larger.

It turns out sea salt has plastic microfibres popping up around the globe. It is possibly a more ‘interesting’ debate than iodine or anything else.

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Here’s a good summary for the debate about whether different salts are nutritionally different by Diet vs Disease

Basically, there is no practical difference whatsoever. Because the level of other nutrients is so low, it’s on par with homeopathy. Eat whatever salt you prefer for crunch value or iodine value :slight_smile:

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So maybe we can add the benefit of Himalayan pink salt having less plastic to the list of it’s benefits, which I believe previously stood at “its a pretty pink colour” :wink:

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Indeed, rock salt seems to be preferable over sea salt now.

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We recently investigated the health claims around Himalayan salt:

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I would expect that most foods will contain some form of plastic fragments (plastic fragments from plastic manufacturing/of on packaging or plastic which is knocked off surfaces through processing/handling/packaging). I expect that it would be especially relevant to those which are processed or have plastic packaging/manufacturing plant parts made of plastic.

Most journal papers seem to focus on plastic residues leaching into foods or plastic in the environment rather than plastic fragments within foods. Here is a popular article about this. Maybe plastic in salt is the least of our worries.

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If it’s not the least, it is at least one of the many … weltschmerz …

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Hello, a piece on television a month or so ago was on the quality of these salts currently on the market. I could not obtain details of the research done by Nutrition Australia? so I could ensure I did not purchase the toxic brands.
Can anyone help please?
Thanks.

Choice have a review of Pink Salt https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/groceries/herbs-and-spices/articles/salt-himalayan-rock-sea

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You can download the report here https://nraus.com/rethinkpink/

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I watched a documentary some years ago regarding the poor in Nepal being placed at rrisk of serious health problems as they could not afford sea salt and only consumed rock salt which did not have any iodine.

A person only needs around a single teaspoon of iodine in their lifetime but without it, especially whilst growing up, serious problems occur.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61321-9/fulltext#:~:text=Iodine%20deficiency%20disorders%20(IDDs)%20had,be%20back%20on%20the%20increase.

Hilmalayan pink rock salt comtains very little iodine.

“Although pink Himalayan salt may naturally contain some iodine, it most likely contains less iodine than iodized salt. Therefore, those who have iodine deficiency or are at risk of deficiency may need to source iodine elsewhere if using pink salt instead of table salt.”

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I opened this link, and read it - thank you.
But - it was undated (or the date was difficult to find??..). This isn’t the first time I have noticed that articles may be undated: I get very annoyed when googling topics on the Net, when it is unclear when the information was published.
Maybe something for Choice to fix?

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Some articles are true no matter what date they were first published at. Salt doesn’t change it’s benefits or makeup. It is salt and the makeup of pink salt remains a steady state outcome.

But some articles do require dating, I’m not sure if any of those require dates when they don’t have them.

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If you are referring to the CHOICE article on the site itself, yes it was difficult to find a date, but at a quick look it seems the article was likely published on 28 February 2018 at 09:09:15 and last modified on 19 November 2018 at 17:48:43, approximately :wink: I’m guessing in both cases it is local time in Sydney … There are all manner of factors that could affect whether those dates are accurate, but they seem to be the best we have …

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Thanks. Very interesting. But could not spot the date of that Report. Woolworths sell 1 kg for $2.99 so is the cheapest around by far, and as I have not used salt in my cooking, except for cheese scones, (nor eat fast foods and rarely eat out), my sodium reading from my regular hair analysis is that I am on the borderline between low and medium reference range.
I only use it for am and pm daily gargling. Also have seaweed with my rice weekly, so that covers the iodine aspect, hopefully. But do wash/soak my vegetables in a regular salt&soda solution daily.
But will consider not bothering with the pink salt as not sufficient benefits. Thanks again for your response .

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Superb, THANKS. At a glance, it is not as usual friendly for the layman consumer as we are interested in ‘THE BOTTOM LINE’ of which is best to purchase, like Choice does.

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So zackarii’s ‘nraus’ Report would be mofre up to date re products.