Not all food items are the same. There are bad sweeteners, and there are sweeteners that don’t harm the body. The same thing can be said for salts. When you consume a lot of salt in you diets, you increase your risk of developing high blood pressure, reduced kidney function, or other forms of heart disease. You don’t need to douse everything you eat in regular table salt. You can get that salty flavor by only using a small amount of the salts listed in this article. Not only do they enhance the flavor of your food, they also bring a host of nutrients!
How can you discern the bad salts from the good salts? There are more and more salts hitting the market nowadays, so we are presenting you with three ones that you can always rely on.
1. Naturally Dried Sea Salt
Most foods are healthy in their natural state, and the same thing can be said for salt. Naturally dried sea salt is salt that has been made from natural seawater evaporation. This natural process allows the salt to retain a ton of essential trace minerals, which regular tables salts don’t have because of the refining process. The only concern with using unrefined, natural sea salt is whether or not it comes from a clean, uncontaminated source. Pacific sea salt from New Zealand or Hawaiian sea salt are great options. New Zealand waters may actually be cleaner than Hawaiian waters though. People in New Zealand have actually been mining for salt, and they created areas below sea level to dry the salt from the ocean. Some of those fields are still used today.
2. Pink Himalayan Salt
Pink Himalayan salt is a very popular salt in the culinary world. This rock salt is mined in the ancient salt beds of the Himalayas, so you can taste history when you season your food. Ok, maybe not, but you don’t have to worry about contamination because of how old the salt beds are. Himalayan salt, much like naturally dried sea salt, contains beneficial trace minerals and it looks pretty because it’s pink, which is due to the presence of oxide. Health studies have shown that pink Himalayan salt can help improve the body’s pH balance because it contains about 84 different minerals and trace elements.
3. Black Lava Salt
Hawaiian black lava salt is incredible. The name may seem slightly intimidating, or as though it isn’t meant for food, but the salt actually gets the color from the volcanoes. Not only does it mean the salt has activated charcoal, it also means that there is a heightened flavor profile. Aside from adding a somewhat smokey flavor, the activated charcoal helps to cleanse the body and improve digestive health. This means that you reap the benefits of activated charcoal every time you sprinkle this salt on your food!
