Let the fun begin...

...enough with the boring stuff.

The Myth: Sea Salt is healthier for you
'Junk Food' Equivalent: Table Salt

Recently there has been yet another diet trend that has taken over our labels and even fast food restaurants. SEA SALT.  From Wendy's™ to Planter's™Peanuts, this stuff is being used everywhere.  And there is this myth going around that it is better for you than regular salt.  Hmmmm....really?  Salt in general has been under a lot of heat lately, so what's all this fuss really about?

Well I'll tell you right now, sea salt is not better for you...sorry.  Nor are Wendy's new "Natural Cut Fries."  In fact, they contain more sodium than the original ones did.  And what's natural about them?  They cut them with the skins on.  Yep that's it.  And Wendy's boasts that this "keeps them crisper and hot for longer."  Right Wendy's, I'm sure its the skin on the end.  It has nothing to do with the sodium acid pyrophosphate that keeps them from turing brown.  It also has nothing to do with the fact that you fry them twice, once before shipping.  Oh and the dextrose you powder them with, that doesn't preserve them at all.  That skin is mighty powerful.

This is a perfect example of food industry trickery.  A company takes a food, calls it natural, and it tricks people into thinking it is healthier.  The CEO actually said that he couldn't actually make them all natural without raising the price. So instead he labeled them natural-cut.  Typical.  Okay, enough on that rant.

Table salt is sodium chloride, and its the sodium we worry about.  Too much of this (which trust me we all get way too much) can have some negative effects on our health, the main one being that it is directly correlated to the development of high blood pressure.  High blood pressure increases your risk for kidney disease, stroke, heart attack...thing you don't want.  Current recommendation is to keep sodium intake under 2300mg a day, 1500mg if you're over 51, are African American, or have high blood pressure already.  Good luck.  This can be hard to do.

So why sea salt?  Sea salt has a slightly different make-up than table salt.  It contains a few different minerals in it, but the amounts of these are really tiny.  The truth is that sea salt has almost an identical amount of sodium in it as table salt.  The real difference is in the taste.  Some people say it tastes 'less salty.'  But didn't you put salt on your food so it tasted MORE salty?  I don't get it.  I would imagine you have to have a pretty sophisticated palate to tell the difference.

So there you go snooty salters.  Sea salt away, just don't look down on us table salters, okay?