Types of Salt in the Market

If you pay some attention on the health issues today, there are many articles discussed about the effect of salt in our diet. In the market today, we can find it in many forms and each carries different contents depend on the application, flavor and place of origin. Some is claimed to be better than the other in terms of mineral contents and processes, so we need to know what we consume everyday and do we have better options?

Table salt
It is what we buy from the shops and consume in our food everyday. We use it for cooking most of the time because it is the cheapest and easily available. It contains mostly sodium chloride with additional of iodine. It is currently produced by evaporation of sea water or brine. Usually it is obtained from brine wells and making use of energy from sunlight. Other than cooking, it is also used in manufacturing of pulp and paper, produce soap and so on. Recently there are many health issue associate with it especially high blood pressure.

Kosher
It has a much larger grain size, and a more open granular structure. It is coarse-grained and free of additives that tend to cause pickling solutions to cloud.

Sea salt
It is believed to be better in taste and texture. It is also the coarse and unrefined sea salt that contains many minerals, such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, and sulfate. It generally lacks high concentrations of iodine an element essential for human health, it is not necessarily a healthful substitute for regular iodized table salt

Black salt
It is usually found in Indian markets and sounds uncommon to people in other locations. The characteristic is that it is strong in flavor. The structure is unrefined, and it is actually pinkish gray and has a strong sulfuric flavor. In traditional medicine, it is considered as a cooling spice in Ayurvedic medicine.

Bamboo salt
It is roasted in bamboo and contains more types of minerals balance that is suitable for our body. It is originated from Korean traditional medicine practice. It is believed that it contains the benefit of salt, bamboo and yellow clay that mixed together during the burning process. In order to enhance the benefits, it is repeatedly roasted in bamboo for 3-9 times before it is good for consumption.

Rock salt
It is also called halite and it is inedible. It is the mineral form of Sodium Chloride (NaCl), typically is colorless to yellow, sometime may also in light blue, dark blue, and pink depending on the amount and type of impurities. The primary use is to make ice cream. It is also used to clear highway from icing during winter.

Understanding salt can help us a lot and it is the basic to our health, the reason is simple, because everybody needs it. Our body needs it to stay healthy and nutritionally balanced provided we take the correct type. We need more mineral balanced type of salt to maintain the proper function in our body and stay in good health.

by Steven Chai, a purchasing manager in metal scrap industry, affected by financial crisis and go into home business. He started up a new website for Bamboo Salt.