Read 'The Quest for the best salt'

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Common table salt is a heavily refined substance containing only sodium chloride plus additives. The refining process includes washing or boiling the salt, adding strong chemicals and exposing the salt to extreme heat. It is then mixed with iodine, bleaching and anti-caking agents to create the bright white free-flowing product sold in shops. Because nearly everyone uses table salt, this is the salt used in medical research which, correctly, has found it to be damaging to health.

Most commercial sea salts are also ‘refined’ in the sense that the way in which they are harvested destroys nearly all of their minerals and trace elements (called ‘bitterns’).

Unrefined sea salt
Because every attempt is made to preserve the bitterns, unrefined sea salts (like Portugal's Ria formosa Salt and France's Celtic Salt) contain all 84 trace elements and micronutrients found in the sea. It can both lower high blood pressure and raise low blood pressure, and help rehydrate cells by removing extracellular fluid.
Interestingly, the large amount of extracellular fluid in the human body (typically three gallons in an adult) is a powerful argument that we evolved in the sea. The mineral content and balance of the two are almost identical. Diluted sea water is used as a tonic and has been found to reduce the sticking of blood platelets to cell walls.

Magnesium

The major mineral in unrefined (whole) sea salt is magnesium, adequate levels of which are essential to good health. Magnesium salts, for instance, stimulate white blood cell activity in the immune system, enhance the action of vitamins and enzymes, help process glucose and phosphocalcium, and help rid the body of any excess sodium.

Magnesium deficiency is a significant contributory factor in many diseases. It can be caused by consuming grains, vegetables and fruit grown on chemically-fertilised or pesticide-sprayed fields, by consuming white bread and refined grain products (refining whole wheat and polishing rice can remove 80% of their magnesium), and by using refined salt. Refined table salt contains either no magnesium salts or less than 0.03% and commercial sea salts usually around 0.1% instead of the 0.4%-1% average content in whole sea salt.

Sodium

Adequate supplies of sodium are also essential, as sodium combines with water and various ions (e.g. chlorine, potassium, calcium, hydrogen) to help many body functions. Sodium chloride, for instance, plays an important part in the primary processes of digestion and absorption by activating the primary enzyme in the mouth, salivary amylase. In the parietal cells of the stomach wall, it is used to make hydrochloric acid, essential to good digestion.

Inadequate levels of sodium chloride can:

• raise blood pressure
• accelerate ageing
• cause liver failure, kidney problems, and massive adrenal exhaustion
• tire the heart muscles, increasing the risk of heart attack

Blood Pressure

A Dutch study (covering 100 men and women aged 55-75 with mild to moderately high blood pressure) found that, when table salt (98% sodium chloride) was replaced with an unrefined salt high in magnesium and potassium, reductions in blood pressure equivalent to that obtained with blood pressure-reducing drugs was achieved.[1] A reduction in pulse rate was also recorded in the group given the unrefined salt. The benefits fell off after the study, suggesting that unrefined, mineral-rich salt needs to be a permanent part of the diet.

Low blood pressure is also unhealthy, causing, for example, low energy, cold hands and feet, dry skin and poor memory. Unrefined sea salt can also raise low blood pressure.

Read 'The Quest for the best salt'
Read 'Silly Sid the slug'
Read 'Salt-restricted diets can threaten health'

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