Everything you need to know about salt

1. Rock salt. This is the salt that is mined in salt mines. It is one of the most popular, and in our understanding it is a slightly grayish or yellowish salt from the Artyomovsk deposit. We have it the cheapest and very popular. But, in fact, when there are many impurities in such a salt, it is often given a different name, and it has a rather high price. For example, black Himalayan salt.
2. Table salt. It is also one of the most popular and cheapest. Table salt is maximally purified from all kinds of impurities and its taste is richly salty. It is believed that this salt is not the most useful in comparison with others.
3. Iodized salt. With the help of potassium iodide or iodate, ordinary rock or sea salt becomes iodized. The use of iodized salt contributes to the normal functioning of the thyroid gland, which means the production of the hormone thyroxine and triiodothyronine.
4. Kosher salt. This is ordinary table salt with large granules, obtained by a special method of evaporation. Kosher salt gets its name from its use to get rid of blood on kosher meat by rubbing it. It has no particular taste, but it is never iodized.
5. Extra salt. It is very easy to use and has a clean, salty taste. But the snow-white color is the result of chemical bleaching, and so that it does not get lost in stone, special substances are added to it, which also do not benefit the body. Thus, it is the most harmful type of salt.
6. Sea salt. Real sea salt is very useful for the human body and, in addition to sodium chloride, it contains 84 trace elements from the periodic table. But, unfortunately, it is impossible to buy real healthy sea salt in the store: the process of its production pursues only profit.
7. Black salt (or Thursday salt). It was made by our ancestors, mixing ordinary salt with rye flour, herbs and other ingredients, and then fired in the oven. Such salt is surprisingly useful for the body: it almost does not retain water, promotes the elimination of toxins and contains many useful substances.
8. PAN-Salt Pan-salt is made by reducing the sodium content of regular table salt and adding 25–40% potassium chloride and 10% magnesium sulfate. In addition, pan salt contains the amino acid lysine, which eliminates the metallic taste of iodine. Two teaspoons of pan salt contains as much sodium as one teaspoon of table salt. In fact, pan salt often does not reduce sodium intake, as it is added to food in large quantities to achieve the usual taste of food.

In fact, there are many more types of salt, but it is simply impossible to list them all, since new ones appear every day, by mixing the above types of salt with various spices or, for example, by smoking.

Sources of significant amounts of minerals are grains (especially whole grains), potatoes, fruits and vegetables, as well as berries, milk and dairy products, fish, poultry, eggs, meat, added dietary fats, nuts, seeds, oilseeds, but not salt. Only iodized salt can be considered a complete source of iodine.

In addition to ordinary salt, you can find salts of different colors with different names (for example, Rose, Himaalaja, Hawai, Pärsia) on sale, the composition and color of which depend on the place of production. Despite the fact that they often contain a whole list of minerals, none of these salts contains any of the minerals in such an amount that it covers a significant part of the daily requirement.

In addition, salt is produced with various flavor nuances. This, for example, flavored, garlic, smoked salt. Salt is also added to many spice mixtures (for example, to a pepper mixture). So in the case of spice mixes, be sure to read the label to find out how much salt they contain.

In the production of meat, salt with the addition of nitrite is often used. Nitrite salt is a highly purified salt specially designed for the meat industry. This salt gives the meat a pinkish-red color and inhibits the development of unwanted microorganisms, thereby extending the shelf life of the product.