Salt / Сол

Salt is essential for life -- you cannot live without it. However, most people simply don't realize that there are enormous differences between the standard, refined table and cooking salt most of you are accustomed to using and natural health-promoting salt.

These differences can have a major impact on your staying healthy.

If you want your body to function properly, you need holistic salt complete with all-natural elements. Today's common table salt has nothing in common with natural salt.

Your table salt is actually 97.5% sodium chloride and 2.5% chemicals such as moisture absorbents, and iodine. Dried at over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, the excessive heat alters the natural chemical structure of the salt.

Sea salt and other speciality salts offer coarser, more irregularly shaped grains. Sea salt is harvested, either by hand or mechanical means, from seawater as it evaporates in the sun. The colour of sea salt is a reflection of the shore from which it was collected.

Before jumping in and filling your spice cabinet with a random selection of salty flavours and colours, it pays to investigate. There are dozens of speciality salts out there to choose from, hailing from all over the world.

Salt from India is traditionally called Black Salt, which is a bit of a misnomer as it is more of a pinkish grey. It is known for its faint sulphuric smell and its affinity for chutneys and savoury snacks. Vegans love it as it can add an “eggy” note to plain tofu.

Fleur de Sel is crystal white and a little moist. It’s one of the more expensive salts as it is hand-harvested off the coast of France. It has a delicate flavour and its crystalline glitter adds a finishing touch to fresh vegetables, salads, grilled meats and even dark chocolate truffles.

Hawaiian Sea Salt is the traditional unprocessed salt of the Hawaiian Islands and shows a warm red tint due to the iron-oxide in its native soil. Because of its delicate and less salty favour it’s used in a variety of recipes from vegetables to seafood. It’s particularly known for the delicate flavour it adds to poke, a Hawaiian side dish of raw fish, similar to sashimi.

Celtic or Grey Sea Salt also hails from the coast of France but is harvested in Celtic tradition by hand using wooden tools. This natural salt is one of the most favoured by health experts as it is harvested to retain valuable trace minerals.

Italian Sea Salt is harvested from the coast of Sicily and is neither too strong nor too salty. Another bright white salt, it highlights salads, sauces and is excellent for a finishing touch.

Kosher Salt is a basic “pure” salt and contains no additives or iodine. It’s used for all types of cooking and its coarse texture makes it excellent for brining.

Smoked Sea Salt is a flavoured coarse sea salt. It’s smoked over wood fires resulting in a brownish or grey toasted salt. It adds an amazing authentic smokehouse flavour to many dishes. But be wary when purchasing as it can be mistaken for artificially smoked salts.

Dead Sea salt refers to salt extracted or taken from the Dead Sea. It is a popular ingredient of many common bath products including bath salts, salt scrubs, foot scrubs, body wraps, bath bombs, soaps, and a wide variety of other cosmetic products, including makeup.

Halite, commonly known as Rock salt, is the mineral form of sodium chloride NaCl Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or grey depending on the amount and type of impurities. It commonly occurs with other evaporate deposit minerals such as several of the sulphates, halides, and borates.

Halite occurs in vast beds of sedimentary evaporate minerals that result from the drying up of enclosed lakes, playas, and seas. Salt beds may be hundreds of meters thick and underlie broad areas. In the United States and Canada extensive underground beds extend from the Appalachian basin of western New York through parts of Ontario and under much of the Michigan Basin.

Halite is often used both residential and municipally for managing ice. Because brine (a solution of water and salt) has a lower freezing point than pure water, putting salt on ice will cause it to melt. Another effect of applying halite to an icy surface covered with water is that it disrupts the interface in which water molecules are constantly replacing each other from liquid to solid. When NaCl (or other impurities) form a solution with water, part of the interface is blocked, and the crystalline structure of ice emits more water molecules than the liquid water is able to replace. Therefore, the presence of halite in solution with water itself melts ice. It is common for homeowners in cold climates to spread salt on their walkways and driveways after a snow storm to melt the ice. It is not necessary to use so much salt that the ice is completely melted; rather, a small amount of salt will weaken the ice so that it can be easily removed by other means. Also, many cities will spread a mixture of sand and salt on roads during and after a snowstorm to improve traction.

Rock salt may also be used to make ice cream. It is not actually used in the ice cream mixture; rather, it is used to melt the ice surrounding the can holding the ice cream. Melting is an endothermic process, so when the ice melts it absorbs heat from its surroundings to store as latent heat, thus cooling the ice bath and quickening the freezing process. Crushed halite is also occasionally used instead of a slug or shot in shotgun shells as a less-than-lethal option, despite the fact that in order for this to be effective the shotgun must be discharged from a very close distance.

Himalayan crystal salt is over 250 million years old.

 This is by far the purest salt available on earth and is absolutely uncontaminated with any toxins or pollutants.

Himalayan salt is a marketing term for Halite from Pakistan, which began being sold by various companies in Europe North America, and Australia in the early 21st century. It is mined in the Khewra Salt Mines, the second largest salt mine in the world, located in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan, about 300 km from the Himalayas, about 160 kilometres from Islamabad, and 260 kilometres from Lahore, and in the foothills of the Salt Range.

The salt sometimes comes out in a reddish or pink color, with some crystals having off-white to transparent color. It is commonly used for cooking similar to regular table salt, brine, and bath products.

The salt's unique structure also stores vibrational energy. All of the crystal salt's inherent minerals and trace elements are available in colloidal form -- meaning they are so small your cells can readily absorb them.

The Crystal Salt from the Himalayas does not burden your body as other salts do. It is very difficult for your body to absorb too much crystal salt since there are powerful and effective feedback loops that regulate this process. Natural crystal salt always promotes a healthy balance and does not contribute to high blood pressure like typical table salt.

Crystal Salt's array of elements forms a compound in which each molecule is inter-connected. The connectedness allows the vibrational component of the 84 trace elements present in the salt to be in harmony with each other and adds to the ability to promote a healthy balance. When it comes to the power of natural salt, nothing compares to Himalayan Crystal Salt.

Many people believe sea salt is a healthy alternative to table salt, but this is no longer the case. The oceans are being used as dumping grounds for harmful toxic poisons like mercury, PCBs and dioxin. Reports of oil spills polluting the sea are becoming more frequent. With some 89% of all the sea salt producers now refining their salt, today's sea salt simply isn't as healthy as it used to be.

If you were to look into a microscope at sea salt you would see it has irregular and isolated crystalline structures disconnected from the natural elements surrounding them. Thus, however many vital minerals it may contain, they cannot be absorbed by your body unless the body expends tremendous energy to vitalize them. Your body's net gain is small compared to the great loss of energy.

Because the crystalline structure of crystal salt is balanced, it is not isolated from the 84 inherent mineral elements, but is connected to them in a harmonious state. This means the energy content in the form of minerals can be easily metabolized by your body. When you use this salt it has a vital energetic effect. Your body gets an ample net gain with little energy loss.

Mined salt, or rock salt, is also a poor substitute for Himalayan Crystal Salt. While natural rock salt comes close to being intact and is more valuable than industrial table salt, from a biophysical as well as bio-chemical perspective, it holds little value.

The elements contained in rock salt lack sufficient compression to be included in the crystal web, but are only attached to the surface and in the gaps of the crystalline structure. It is the considerable pressure that brings the elements to a colloidal state - where your cells can readily absorb them. The valuable elements found in rock salt are useless because your body cannot absorb and metabolize them.

More recently, large crystal rocks are also used as Salt lamps. A salt lamp is a lamp carved from a larger salt crystal, often colored, with an incandescent bulb or a candle inside. The lamps give an attractive glow and are suitable for use as nightlights or for ambient mood lighting. The largest producers of this product are located near to the source in Pakistan, with Poland and Iran also offering variations.

The world’s seas, lakes and mines offer hundreds of different salts, each imparting local flavour to local cuisine. Bringing some of these tastes home is exciting. Start by adding a little at a time and experiment with some of your favourite recipes.

You can make your own flavourful salt by adding to it herbs, spices,  liquids. See a recipe (in Bulgarian language) here: 

Vintage-Merlot-Gourmet-Sea-Salt

and here (English language): Lemon-Rosemary-Sea-Salt