About salt from the point of view of a chemist. Salt, types and scope, choose safe salt for health

Precisely for the purpose of finding out this portaleda. en asked experts:

Yuri Keselman, founder and owner of salt boutique SaltMakers:

“To answer this question, you first need to figure out what kind of salts exist.

Salt is divided into three types: table salt (that is, food), feed and technical. The main differences are in the content of NaCl, in food salt it should be at least 97%. If it is slightly less, salt is classified as fodder, and if there are a lot of impurities or trace compounds in salt, it is classified as technical.

According to GOST, we have 4 types of table salt that are allowed in food: rock; sea, or garden; lake, or self-planting; evaporation. They differ from each other in the methods of extraction, chemical composition - and, accordingly, taste. For example, salts can be different in salinity (although most often this is a rather subjective moment): it depends on the content of sodium chloride in the composition of the salt. Evaporated salt is almost 100% NaCl and has a strong, pungent salty taste. And in the red Himalayan it is only 86%: it has a more delicate, thin, with a slightly noticeable sour taste, and although from the point of view of GOST, such salt is no longer food, but technical, but nevertheless it can be eaten.

If we ignore GOST, there is also such a separate type as modified salts - or, more simply, cooked ones. For example, cherry salt - salt evaporated in cherry puree, or smoked salt - salt cooked over a wood fire. There is wine salt, which was invented in the 1960s and 1970s in America: salt is evaporated in various wines, and then even sometimes aged in an oak barrel in order to saturate it with additional aromas. Now such salts are widely used in cooking.

Now about what is better - coarse salt or fine. Large large crystals of salt can be better - and more useful - only on one condition: if it is natural sea salt, and the crystals of this salt have not been ground, but only mechanically collected.

But here, too, there are subtleties. There is, for example, quite well-known Cypriot salt, which is considered sea salt, although it is a technological product. Previously, extensive sea salt mining was carried out in Cyprus, but now there is only one salt lake left, and mining is prohibited: it is a reserve. But the manufacturing company has production in Cyprus, and therefore the salt is called Cypriot, although it is brought from the Middle East (from Egypt and Israel). This salt is purified, ground, minerals characteristic of sea water are added, evaporated - and it turns out, as it were, sea salt. Technically, of course, you can find the moment when this salt becomes sea salt according to GOST, but formally, I repeat, it is not sea salt. Large and small crystals of such a salt have the same properties. If we take real sea salt, for example, the famous Guerand salt, then its large crystals are more useful for one simple reason. For sea salt, such a parameter as residual moisture is very important, and the larger the crystal, the more residual moisture in it and, accordingly, the more trace elements. This is the only case when coarse salt is better than fine.”

Stanislav Pesotsky, chef at Björn restaurant:

“It seems to me that the question is not quite correct. There are many different salts - salt with additives, salt from some specific places, and so on. Each of them has its own special taste and properties, so for something it is better to use one salt, and for something else. I can’t say that coarse salt is better than fine salt, and rock salt is better than sea salt: this is a matter of personal preferences and taste combinations, and it all depends on what we want to get in the end.

In the store, we most often see three types of salt on the shelves - boiled salt, stone and sea. Naturally, there are many more subspecies, but these are the main ones. There are varieties of boiled salt: second, first, highest and extra. For example, the inscription on the label "Extra cooking salt" means that this is food salt, obtained by factory evaporation from brine, contains 99.97% NaCl. Salt is evaporated, purified and special anti-caking agents are added - in general, this is a long chemical process that speaks of the unnaturalness of this product. Now evaporated salt is iodized, mixed with sea salt, and so on. But still, I don’t like this type of salt at all: it has no taste, but only intensity - very sharp, even unpleasant. It is convenient to use such salt in food production: it is very cheap, you add as much salt as indicated in the recipe, and you know exactly the final result.

The next type of salt is rock. This is the salt I use in my kitchen, I really like it. It has a less salty taste than that of boiled water, and is not as intense. It is natural: salt is mined, ground - and now the finished product.

Sea salt is a much more useful product than evaporated salt or rock salt, as it contains not only NaCl, but also trace elements that are important for the human body. This one is much more expensive, and it has its own taste - light and elegant. Sea salt is much less salty than rock and evaporated salt, so when cooking, you need much more of it to make the dish salty.

Now about the compatibility of products. Every detail in the dish has a weight, everything is reflected in the final result. And there is such a thing as food pairing - the compatibility of products. For example, if we are preparing sea reptiles or sea fish, then it is better to use sea salt: this is logical, it will not only enhance their tastes, but also emphasize all flavors. And if, for example, we cook chicken soup, then we don’t need a sea shade, but we need salt that just salts the dish well - I would advise adding ordinary rock salt, boiled salt has too brutal intensity. As for different salts with a specific taste, here you also need to follow the logic. Take, for example, smoked salt: it will go well with meat dishes, giving them the flavor of an open fire, but it definitely should not be added to a vegetable salad or soup - it simply makes no sense.

Salt is perhaps the most ancient and most "scandalous" seasoning. At one time, it was worth its weight in gold. Salt has firmly taken its place in fairy tales, sayings and superstitions. Only one sign "Scatter salt - to a quarrel" is worth something. A whole ritual has been invented to neutralize the harmful effects! And how many copies are broken in the battle of opinions about the benefits and harms of salt, do not count! Some say that all living beings need salt and cite the example of elks, deer and cows that lick salt with great pleasure. Others call for moderation and even complete rejection of salt, citing numerous studies that have proven a direct relationship between increased blood pressure and the appearance of edema and other troubles on the amount of salt consumed. Let's try to understand this difficult issue.

The whole truth about salt, to begin with, let's answer the most common question - does our body need salt? There is only one answer, and it is non-negotiable. Yes, it's needed. Moreover, it is vital! Let's make a small digression into biochemistry. Salt is mainly formed by two elements - sodium and chlorine. Each of these elements performs its work in our body. Sodium is involved in maintaining water and acid-base balance, in the transmission of nerve impulses and in muscle contractions. Chlorine, among other things, is necessary for the production of gastric juice. Chloride, which is part of the salt, promotes the production of amylase enzymes necessary for the absorption of carbohydrate-containing foods. By the way, salt is practically the only and indispensable source of chlorine, since its content is extremely low in other foods. Salt is a natural enzyme stimulant. If salt is completely eliminated from the diet, then the digestive system will deteriorate, convulsions, weakness, loss of taste, fatigue, shortness of breath and interruptions in the work of the heart may occur.

But why, in this case, the consumption of foods high in salt can increase the risk of developing diseases of the heart, liver and kidneys, and a diet low in salt, on the contrary, is an effective means of preventing the occurrence of edema, decreased vision and proteinuria (increasing the amount of protein in urine)? Why do highly reputable experts scare us with osteoporosis and potassium deficiency in the body, while their equally reputable opponents prove that a salt-free diet helps get rid of acne and is effective for oily skin? What is most interesting, all these statements are true! How can this be? It's simple: in the heat of heated debate about the dangers and benefits of salt, many lose sight of one important circumstance - refining. Yes, refined foods will kill us!

Salt also did not escape refining. Fine salt of the class "Extra" is a product of thermal and chemical processing. Such salt not only loses its original structure and all useful properties, but also has carcinogenic properties and causes an increase in blood pressure. Before getting to our table, the salt is dried in huge ovens at temperatures above 650°C! At such a crazy temperature, salt molecules simply burst and change their structure. Then chemical moisture evaporators are added to the salt so that the salt is dry and does not stick together into an unappetizing lump. Instead of natural iodine salts, which are removed during processing, potassium iodide is added to the salt, which can be toxic if overeaten. So that volatile iodine compounds do not fly away ahead of time, dextrose is added to the salt, which gives the iodized salt a pinkish tint. To restore whiteness, chemical bleach is used ...

Just a big wash of some kind, by golly. As a result, salt becomes alien to our body. It is this salt that causes serious imbalances in our health. A paradoxical situation arises: people who eat a lot of refined salt have a thirst for salt. After all, refined salt does not satisfy the body's needs for trace elements, and we instinctively reach for salt, desperately trying to find what we need ... But sodium chloride in the form it turns into after purification and clarification is a poison for any living organism. Sea fish placed in a solution of ordinary table salt will not last long.

Our body needs real, untouched by civilization, salt. Sea salt is the best for our body and does not cause such horrendous effects (when consumed in moderation, of course!). Just don’t say that you have a pack of “real sea” salt in your kitchen, bought in the healthy food section of a supermarket - alas, this salt is produced by the same barbaric (more precisely, civilized) methods, but it costs many times more than usual . This is a double deception.

This is real sea salt. It is this salt, dried naturally in the sun, that contains elements of marine flora and fauna, from which our body receives organic forms of iodine. Iodine in these forms remains in body fluids for several weeks. According to the theory of acid-base balance, almost all chronic diseases are the result of acidification of the blood, lymph and all tissues of our body. And real sea salt is one of the alkaline elements that our body needs. In addition, natural sea salt is only 85-95% sodium chloride, the rest is all kinds of compounds that make our liquids (plasma, blood, sweat, tears) related to sea water. Sea salt contains almost the entire periodic table, except for gases, and these are 84 elements, and about 200 chemical compounds! The composition of a sea salt crystal is so complex that man has not yet been able to create it artificially. Yes, nature is still a better chemist than man.

Our country has huge reserves of salt. According to the type of production, domestic salt is divided into 4 types:

. Stone - mined by mine and quarry methods. This is pure, dry salt, it contains a fairly high percentage of sodium chloride - 98-99%.

. Cooking room - the brine extracted from the ground is evaporated and salt is obtained. The content of sodium chloride in it is also high - 98-99.8%.

. Sadochnaya - is formed during the evaporation of sea or salty lake water in special pools. Differs in the lower content of sodium chloride - 94-98%. In addition, such salt contains many more other ions, so it may taste different.

. self-landing - mined from the bottom of salt lakes. This salt settles to the bottom naturally. Lake Baskunchak is the largest deposit of such salt in our country.

In garden and self-planting salt, sodium chloride is the least, so it is this salt that is considered the most beneficial to health.

Any salt is a former seabed. From sea salt, literally saturated with iodine, Russian salt is distinguished by its complete absence. Therefore, you should pay attention to the exotic pink Himalayan, red Hawaiian, black Papuan, healing French or Epsom salt (not to be confused with a laxative!).

Some experts consider French sea salt to be the best. For example, CelticSeaSalt is a slightly moist grayish salt, which has one of the highest concentrations of nutrients in the world. Another fork of French salt - Fleur de sel - is harvested by hand from the surface of the water. It looks like flower petals (which is reflected in the name). Gray Sel Gris contains valuable antioxidants, the special taste of this salt is given by the oceanic microalga Dinaliella salina contained in it. Salt is mixed with algae, herbs, pieces of dried vegetables. It turns out fragrant and useful seasoning. The French even smoke their sea salt on chips from old oak chardonnay barrels, resulting in a cold-smoked delicacy with a wine flavor.

Pink Himalayan salt (halite) is a pure crystalline salt that formed over 250 million years ago. This salt contains copper, magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron and many other minerals. Iron is what gives Himalayan salt its pink tint. On plates of pink Himalayan salt, you can cook like in a pan. Just put a piece of meat or fish on a heated plate of salt and fry as usual. Salt is not necessary!

TO red Hawaiian salt owes its color to finely crushed clay, which is mixed with ordinary sea salt. This salt is not as salty and takes longer to dissolve. Hawaiian salt is mined by hand by evaporation from salt lagoons. A variety of Hawaiian salt - black - is especially rich in minerals due to the admixture of the smallest particles of volcanic ash.

Indian black salt is not black at all, but rather pink. It is high in sulfur and other minerals, and smells and tastes like a heavily spiced egg. It is because of the smell that Indian salt is far from suitable for all dishes, but according to naturopaths, it is easily excreted from the body and is not deposited in the joints.

The Papuans extracted salt in a rather original way: they collected wooden sticks soaked in sea water in the sea and burned them at the stake. Salt was obtained with a high content of activated carbon, which made such salt an excellent absorbent, as well as potassium, sulfur, iron and other trace elements. She has a slightly eggy taste, which not everyone likes.

And in Russia since ancient times they have been preparing Thursday salt - also black. The process of preparing such salt was rather laborious: ordinary salt was mixed with kvass, green cabbage leaves, rye flour and wild herbs and burned in an oven. Our ancestors were much wiser than us - not knowing anything about chemistry and biology, they purified salt from all harmful organic compounds, heavy metals and excess chlorine. Black salt is enriched with calcium and finely porous coal, this salt retains water less than usual in the tissues of the body and removes toxins.

During the preparation of different dishes, salt is used in different ways. For example, here are some rules:

. Salt the meat broth before the end of cooking, otherwise the meat in it will be tough.
. Salt vegetable and fish broths immediately after boiling.
. Salads should be salted before dressing them with oil - salt does not dissolve well in oil.
. Salt the water for cooking pasta before putting it in boiling water, otherwise the pasta will stick together, even if you rinse it well with hot water after cooking.
. Salt potatoes immediately after boiling water.
. Salt fried potatoes before the end of frying. If you salt it before, then the slices will be fried and soft.
. When cooking, it is better not to salt the beets at all, it is already tasty.
. During frying, salt the meat at the moment when a crispy crust forms on it, otherwise it will lose juice and be tough.
. Salt the fish 10-15 minutes before frying and wait until the salt is well absorbed, then the fish will not fall apart during the frying process.
. Salt dumplings, dumplings and dumplings at the beginning of cooking.
. If you accidentally oversalted the soup, before the end of cooking, dip a gauze bag with rice into it for 5 minutes - the rice will “take away” the excess salt.

About iodized salt is worth mentioning separately. The fact that you can’t pickle cucumbers with it has long been known - cucumbers become soft, lethargic. It is also believed that iodized salt should be added to ready meals and salads, since iodine evaporates under the influence of high temperature. This is true, but if you decide to bake homemade bread with iodized salt, then most of the iodine will remain in the finished product.

What should you do if your doctor has prescribed a salt-free diet? It is easiest for raw foodists - their body can extract the necessary microelements from plant products, and they get iodine from raw seaweed. If you are not a supporter of raw food, then first of all completely refuse the use of refined salt. This means that cheese, sausage, mayonnaise, ketchup, any fast food should simply disappear from your diet. Try not to buy bread in the store, bake your own, homemade, mixed with bran on natural mineral water. Onion juice, cumin and other spices can be added to the dough. It is impossible to eat pasta without salt - so do not eat it! And it's better for the body. And steamed fish and jacket potatoes do not require salt at all. Eat more lemon and apple juice, herbs, onions, garlic, fresh vegetables, fresh and dried seaweed - all these are sources of natural salt. Pound 1 part of salt with 12 parts of crushed sesame or flaxseed - you get gimmassio, a healthy and tasty seasoning. At first it will be very difficult, but over time you will get used to the taste of natural food and become a connoisseur of it. In any case, remember the measure. A healthy person should consume no more than 4 g of salt per day (this takes into account hidden salt in prepared foods and semi-finished products). And one more thing: the lethal dose of salt for any of us is only 30 grams. Like this.

Larisa Shuftaykina

How can salt be used?

2. For cosmetic purposes

Fine salt is used in many scrubs that are easy to make at home. The naturalness of this component and its natural texture provide a good result and no harm to the skin. However, it is important to remember that for people with too sensitive skin, it is also better to refrain from such methods or try them very carefully, salt causes irritation and redness.

If a piece of plaster has fallen off or a small hole needs to be repaired (for example, from a nail), then a mixture of water, salt and starch can be used. Cheap, easy to do yourself, and you don't have to take extra steps to fix it.

Of course, such a solution may not withstand the load, this must be taken into account. But it is quite possible to return the former attractiveness to the interior and hide minor flaws.

Here the functionality of salt is very extensive. For example, figures can be made from salted bread. Salt can create an interesting texture for some paints. In the end, craftsmen simply lay out paintings from salt, sometimes achieving amazing detail and elegance. Of course, such a work is very easy to spoil with one careless movement, but being captured in the picture, it can always please the author.

Salt: white, pink, black, extra, iodized, diet, sea, pink, black - and this is not all the salt that can be seen on sale. Moreover, each has its own purpose - one is suitable for salads, the other for pickles, and the third is recommended as a disease prevention.

Salt is a paradoxical product. On the one hand, its mining has always been super profitable, and white crystals were often used as money and were equal in value to gold. On the other hand, the reserves of salt on Earth (unlike gas and oil) are inexhaustible and it literally lies under our feet. The attitude of people to the snow-white product is also ambiguous. We can live without it, moreover, nutritionists call it "white death" - if the industry halved the amount of salt in products, it would save 150,000 lives a year. But we are downright drawn to the salty. In general, no matter what doctors tell us about the dangers of salt, not many people are able to completely refuse it. The rest need to somewhat limit its consumption and choose for themselves the most useful variety of the product.

Biography of salt

The bulk of the salt that is on our shelves is of domestic origin, because its reserves in Russia are among the largest in the world. Almost the entire Russian product is called "Edible Salt", and it is made in accordance with GOST R 51574-2000. When buying white powder for your dishes, be sure to find the GOST indication on the package - it guarantees the quality of the goods - and read how it was obtained: the amount of harmful sodium chloride and the presence of useful minerals depend on this.

Salt by type of production in Russia and CIS countries divided into four types.

• Stone is mined by mine and quarry methods. It is very pure in nature, the content of sodium chloride in it is quite high (98-99%), and there is little moisture.
• The evaporation process is done like this - first, a brine is extracted from the ground, then water is evaporated from it and salt is obtained. The content of sodium chloride in it is 98-99.8%.
• Garden salt is formed by evaporating sea or salty lake water in special pools. The content of sodium chloride in it is less than in other types - 94-98%. In addition, there are many more other ions in garden salt, so it can differ in taste.
• Self-planting is mined from the bottom of salt lakes - it settles naturally. The largest deposit of such salt in Russia is Lake Baskunchak. Netting and self-planting salts have less sodium chloride and are therefore considered healthier.

The second grade is not a marriage

When buying salt, you should pay attention not only to the method of production of the product, but also to its grade - extra, highest, first or second. This is a technical characteristic of the product, which shows how strongly it is cleaned and crushed. Just do not think that extra is good salt, and the rest is bad. From a health point of view, the lower the grade and the closer the composition of the salt to natural, the better. For example, in the extra, the amount of harmful sodium chloride is maximum (99.7%), and useful salts of potassium, magnesium and calcium are minimal (0.01-0.02%). This is the result of processing.

But in a poorly purified salt of the second grade, NaCl is already 97%, and good ions are 0.25%. Therefore, try to use extra infrequently, for example, in salads. For hot dishes, it is better to take healthy coarse and unprocessed grayish salt. And especially it is indispensable for canning. By the way, you can find out how coarse the salt is in the package without even opening it. Extra is always very small. For the rest, the grinding number is indicated specifically. The smallest of them No. 0 is used for salt of the highest and first grades - the main part of its crystals is not more than 0.8 mm. Larger grinds are designated by numbers 1, 2 and 3, and they are in salt of the highest, first or second grade. The largest crystals can reach 4 mm. Such salt, if desired, can always be ground during cooking with the help of a special grinder - this is exactly what chefs do.

In addition to ordinary salt, you can see iodized salt on the shelves. Doctors recommend adding it to all meals to prevent thyroid diseases, because most of the inhabitants of our countries do not have enough iodine. For enrichment with this useful element, extra, premium and first grade salt is used, but always finely ground.

If you prefer an iodized product, look to see if it is fortified with iodide or potassium iodate. The World Health Organization recommends adding a second one - in this form, iodine is more stable. By the way, there should always be an inscription on the package: "The useful life of iodine is 2 years." But this does not mean that after this time the salt must be thrown away - it simply turns into ordinary salt.

Many housewives believe that it is useless to cook with iodized salt, supposedly the necessary element is lost during heat treatment. This is not entirely true. Russian scientists conducted special tests - they baked bread with enriched salt. The results were very good - 75% of iodine remained in the finished product. In soups, stews and fried dishes, the useful element is preserved even more, because their cooking temperature is much lower and they are usually salted at the very end. So calmly use iodized salt in any dishes, except for pickles and marinades: cucumbers become soft.

dietary product

To reduce the harm that salt causes to the human body, doctors have invented a dietary product. Since we get 1.5-2.5 times more sodium than we need, and we often lack other elements, part of the NaCl in the new salt is replaced by potassium and magnesium. For example, in the domestic product of sodium chloride, only 68%, potassium chloride - as much as 27%, and magnesium sulfate - 5%. In Australia, studies have recently ended on the effect of dietary salt on hypertensive patients - in people who took it instead of regular, their upper pressure decreased by 5.4 mm Hg. Art.
Dietary salt is undeniably healthier than regular salt, but many consumers dislike its taste and degree of salinity.

sea ​​beauty

Sea salt is becoming more and more popular. From the point of view of the production method, it is a garden product - it is formed after the evaporation of sea water under the action of the sun and wind. As a result, salt is more useful - there is relatively little sodium chloride in it (94%), but there are natural impurities of iodine, potassium, magnesium, calcium and sulfates.

Sea seasoning can be not only in the form of ordinary crystals, but also in the form of transparent plates; the French call them Fleur de sel (“salt flowers”). However, they make a similar product not only in France, but also in Spain and Portugal. It is mined manually - thin crystallized plates are “torn off” from the very surface of sea water. Since this is a hand made product, it is expensive. At about the same price as sea salt, they also sell pink Himalayan salt - this is a white-gray product with a pink tint. It is mined in the mountains of the Himalayas.

A reasonable conclusion is that it is better not to spend an expensive delicacy product on cooking, but to use it directly while eating.

black delicacy

Now very expensive black salt is becoming popular in the world. It is mined using the practically old Papuan method, described by Miklukho-Maclay - earlier, the natives collected sticks soaked in water in the sea and burned them. Salted ash was black salt. Paradoxically, but it is much more useful than white - it is rich in iodine, potassium, sulfur, iron and other trace elements. But black salt has a slightly eggy flavor that not everyone likes.

What to look for on the package when choosing salt

• The product's name- edible salt.
• Mode of production: boiling, stone, cage or self-planting.
• Salt type: extra, superior, first or second.
• Grinding number or size of salt crystals.
• Enrichment Information. In iodized salt, they indicate which substance was used - potassium iodate or potassium iodide, and also give the concentration of iodine in the salt and how long it will remain in it. In a dietary diet with a low sodium content, they provide information about the potassium and magnesium compounds that are added to it.
• Additive Availability Information- anti-caking, stabilizing, etc.
• Consumption recommendations(usually no more than 5-6 g per day).
• Company name. Postcode, city, street, house number, phone.

How to salt

• Meat fish. If they are salted at the very beginning of cooking, they will turn out to be dryish - the salt will draw all the food juices out of the fibers. Therefore, you should put the crystals at the very end of frying or after a protective crust appears on meat or fish.
• Vegetables and vegetarian soups. Salt 5 minutes before the end of cooking.
• Beans, peas, soy. In salt water, they do not boil well, so it is better to salt them almost ready - a few minutes before removing from heat.
• Fried potatoes and french fries. Salt only after frying, otherwise the potatoes will not be crispy.
• Soup. It is better to salt the meat broth 15-20 minutes before removing from heat. Add salt to the ear immediately after removing the foam.

Polina Soboleva

I was inspired to write on this topic by the desire to bring some clarity to the ideas about some chemical aspects of our being. Taking advantage of the fact that chemistry is a science that is not very popular among the masses, advertisers and the press sometimes give us such pearls that I don’t have enough words to describe emotions. So let's try to slightly dispel the fog, well, so that it is interesting and relevant for our conditions. Recently I came across a similar translated publication, also about salt. Serious and well done, however, slightly not about our reality.

So - about salt

So in Africa it is traded. The thickness of the pieces is probably determined by the thickness of the formation. Weak layers.

To salt or not to salt. Why salt at all, maybe better without it? Salt substitute? Valuable salt with minerals and pink color - why does a goat need a button accordion? Sponsored posts are a good way to cook noodles for your ears.

So, let's continue our games. Today we will begin, to the best of our ability and ability, to clarify a number of kitchen issues, because chemistry is not only boring lines in a textbook. Chemistry surrounds us and even boils inside us, these are also new materials and technologies that surround us. Yes, you can’t make a microcircuit without a chemically ultra-pure and homogeneous silicon crystal or other semiconductor.

Questions of what to eat and how to cook, what, where poisonous is contained is a favorite topic of online publications. If you read all this, and, God forbid, believe all this, it’s like the balls will hit the rollers in your head. Let's try not to hurry, to understand today's topic.

Salt and salt, what to take from it ... Aha! Food supplement, this is your salt. Poisonous. The lethal dose for the average person is 200 grams. Salt distorts the taste of foods so much that we start eating them in quantities that are large enough. About the tastelessness of products without salt - check, I'm not afraid. Excess salt increases blood pressure and acidity, it is generally harmful, as is excess food in general. Just trouble. It seems to be true. But this is not 100% true, even in very black, there is a little bit of white and vice versa. And, it would seem, a natural product, and even an ancient one - basically, we eat salt from ancient marine sediments, so modern technological pollution and radiation (modern, created by man) cannot be there. For some reason they forget to talk about it in advertising. Why advertise it - the cheapest product.

Salt layer. Layers of salt deposited in antiquity are visible

Salt is rock- this is a crushed layer of the ancient dried up sea, ancient grains of sand come across in it, and there are impurities of natural sea salts of potassium, calcium, magnesium. It is these impurities that have a beneficial effect on the rigidity of pickled cucumbers.

Cooking room or salt Extra, this is salt purified by recrystallization, and from impurities, and from grains of sand.

This is how rock salt is mined. The thickness of the reservoir, not like in Africa

A little iodine compounds are also added there - such salt can smell of iodine, but you don’t need to be very angry about this, iodine protects against a number of serious health problems. When they are absent, we tend to underestimate them, and if they happened to us, then we would suffer all our lives. So let's be patient. And I live by the sea, on the coast with iodine is better, but I eat and do not buzz.

Now the question is - what if we do not eat salt at all? If you eat foods without salt at all, and with a heavy load, and even in the heat, you can even die. From lack of salt. Salt is excreted with sweat, the same sodium chloride (and not only). Heatstroke, if anyone has encountered it, this is a violation of the water-salt metabolism.

Here we will talk a little about how salt is used in the body., because the importance of salt for the body is not only in its participation in the formation of hydrochloric acid from it for the digestion of food. It's like in that story about a boxer who was asked why he needed a head. - "And also, I eat it" - was the answer. Salt in solution consists mostly of sodium and chlorine ions, and is used by our body in the mechanism of transmission of nerve impulses - signals that go from cell to cell. This means that any movement of our body and organs does not occur without the participation of salt. How it works: - It is clear that there are no wires in the body, so the cells manage with their processes - sometimes quite long, they are called axons and dendrites. But this is not important, what is important is that the cell needs to transmit an action signal to another cell. This is done electrically.

A part of the cell receives an electric potential due to the difference in the concentrations of potassium and sodium. According to the principle of operation, it is similar to the operation of a battery - ions back and forth, and now there is a current. In order for this mechanism to work, an increased concentration of potassium ions is maintained in the cell, and outside, in the intercellular space, there is more sodium. When it is necessary to transmit an action signal, the cell in this place changes the potassium-sodium ratio (channels are opened that let sodium in or other channels let potassium out). It is clear that the ratio of sodium-potassium concentrations must be maintained very accurately - if it is violated, the transmission of impulses is disrupted. Life stops. From here we can understand why cardiologists are so busy with this potassium - it is very, very important - the heart is the most important muscular organ and if there are problems with impulses in it, it is bad for the whole body.

Also from salt, our stomach prepares hydrochloric acid, which digests food. Excess acid leads to heartburn, various inflammations, up to an ulcer. Disadvantage - does not allow normal digestion of food.

So again - everything is good in moderation, salt too.

In heat, heavy physical exertion, along with sweat, a significant amount of salt is excreted. It is salts that a living organism tries to retain potassium salts. In this case, there may be an imbalance of sodium / potassium - heat stroke.
Once in Germany, a nurse was tried - a mass murderer. In fact, she killed hopeless patients, probably out of pity. An injection of potassium chloride, as reported in the press. The balance is broken and...

So, let's talk about fashionable and expensive varieties of salt: - sea and Himalayan. They are promoted as a useful alternative to the usual "white death". It is very difficult to find clear and correct information among advertising publications. Lies, ignorance, distortion - in the end, they manage to explain the question in such a way that I, a person with a good chemical education, feel dizzy. First, I tried to find out the composition of commercial sea salt: - 97-98.5% sodium chloride, the rest, as it is said: “1.5-3% are useful macro- and microelements extracted from sea water (potassium, calcium, magnesium, iodine, etc. .)." Moreover, the site does not even hide anything - the title is “divorce in Russian”

Sea salt - fashion accessory

Maybe it's me who has no sense of humor, and there is a subtle banter? .. Well, very subtle.

Lord, please give me patience! “Useful macro and micro elements extracted from sea water ...” no one extracted them. In a shallow puddle, sea water evaporates, under such conditions salt begins to fall out first of all, the smaller the puddle and the harder (that is, the faster the process) evaporation, the more impurities from sea water are captured by salt crystals. The crystals that have fallen to the bottom are raked up, depending on the technology, with something. This is the product. The remaining brine is drained - there is little salt left in it and a lot of potassium and magnesium salts - and they are bitter. Therefore, it turns out that, depending on the moment of raking the crystals, the composition of the salt can change very much.

This is how sea salt is mined

The composition of ocean water, taken from Wikipedia. In ocean water (I took data on it, although they do not differ much by sea - but ocean water, it is the basis) - almost 78% sodium chloride, that is, salt. The remaining impurities are magnesium ions - 3.7% (if we count on pure magnesium), calcium - 1.2% (the same), potassium 1.1%, in the form of chlorides, sulfates and even bromides. The rest, up to the sum of 100%, will fall on sulfate, chloride and bromide - ions associated with these calcium, magnesium and potassium - after all, we consider them to be pure ions. Naturally, almost all other elements are also contained, but already at all, in negligible quantities. Not without difficulty, we managed to find more detailed data on the composition of edible sea salt: - calcium - no more than 0.5%, potassium 0.2%, magnesium - 0.1% As you can see, it is much poorer than the composition of sea water. Let's try to calculate what proportion of minerals we get from "sea salt". Let's assume that we eat 10 grams of salt a day, which is actually a bit too much, because there is salt in bread, sausage, etc. It turned out that 10 grams of “sea salt” contains 3% of the recommended daily allowance (RPN) of magnesium, 6% of calcium, and 1.1 percent of potassium. However, the composition of such salt can change many times from batch to batch, which is also not encouraging. In terms of iodine, sea salt is 40 times poorer than iodized salt - the technology is such, a part disappears, iodine is such, and they don’t add it there, as much as there is, there is so much. A more stable iodine compound, potassium iodate, is added to iodized salt (it does not erode so much), and then, in a year, interacting with oxygen and carbon dioxide of the air, iodine evaporates almost completely. So it is wrong to consider sea salt as a source of minerals. Let's have a little fun, read more about salt, and I will comment. I was very impressed by the expression “by vacuum evaporation of the brine, almost all useful compounds are destroyed - 99.9% NaCl remains in such a salt. I call this salt "white death", the consumption of which should be strictly limited "How to understand - potassium chloride or magnesium sulfate will be destroyed by evaporation? These are not vitamins that will turn into something less valuable, simple salts have nowhere to break down further, moreover, from vacuum evaporation. By the way - the most sparing way, the temperature of the process is 30 degrees, in the absence of oxygen in the air. Even vitamins are not destroyed. Only I personally doubt that such an expensive technology will be used to prepare simply purified salt. Not why. Maybe the writer is referring to those 2% impurities that are separated during purification? Yes, they are useful, but with drinking water we get much more of them. So, in purified salt, it is really 99.9% sodium chloride. We are told that this is called "white death". So sea salt, in which sodium chloride is 2-3% less, should be called "98% white death." The advertiser does not know what scientists proved 250 years ago - substances do not disappear and do not appear from nowhere (Our sun M.V. Lomonosov was also working on). And yet, he claims that due to two to three percent of impurities, the remaining 97-98% became honey. On the face of an attempt to make a barrel of honey from ... uh - available substances and a spoonful of honey. In reality, the harm has decreased by only two or three percent, and even then, provided that you do not add more salt to compensate for the lack of salt. In practice, impurities of magnesium and calcium can significantly affect the hardness of cucumbers during pickling and boiled vegetables during cooking - due to the content of magnesium and calcium salts, although the proportion of magnesium and calcium from tap water is large on the scale of our consumption. By the way, powerful osmotic (membrane technology) water purification systems can significantly reduce the content of these important elements in drinking water. This should simply be taken into account in your diet, so that later troubles such as frequent bone fractures and rapid tooth decay do not happen. And crumbs from sea salt will not help here. Dairy products, mineral water, etc. A sure indicator of low calcium/magnesium content in the water - no scale in the kettle.

Let's continue - large grains of salt are pleasant to look at, and slowly dissolve, therefore they taste good. And here's another, let's see an advertising fragment - generally worthy of "entering the anal to historians": - "Firstly, the salt located in the bowels of the Earth is exposed to high pressures and temperatures, becomes plastic and thanks to this it comes to the surface of the Earth, creating huge peaks. What happens to 1.5-3% of the elements at this time? Most of them disintegrate…” Oooh, the atoms disintegrate from pressure, the man is strong, he tears the rails with his hands. Temperatures are high. He obviously confused the dried-up ancient sea with a kimberlite pipe, where diamonds were born. And where do we have such huge peaks of salt in Ukraine? And in Saxony? And in Belarus? The ancient sea was large, it evaporated slowly, so the separation turned out to be very good, there are few impurities, but it's like where. Yes, the earth's surface moved, bent, but it is important that the upper layers did not let the water down, otherwise the salt would be washed away. In Saxony, more than 150 years ago, when they began to explore salt layers, they even wanted to stop work, because the upper layers were rich in potassium and magnesium sulfates, and there was little salt. These are now potassium salts - very much appreciated. Then it was not so. Only when they drilled deeper did good salt come out and people realized what value lies there.

Oh yes! Another property of salt with impurities is that it cakes much more strongly.

The next item will talk about pink Himalayan salt.- I found, like, an honest post about her. Underground rock salt, slightly colored with iron salts - well, there was a lot of iron in that ancient sea, it’s not scary. And then - fanfare! - "According to various sources, Himalayan salt contains from 82 to 92 trace elements, while in ordinary table salt there are only 2." What are the 92 microelements, the last non-artificial element is uranium, number 92. Let's subtract the inert gases, there are 6 of them and technetium, it is not at all in nature, it is artificially obtained, which is why it is called so. Why are inert gases - and they do not react with anything in nature, so they cannot stay in salt. And why do we need them, if they do not affect the body in any way. In fact, at high pressures of these gases, they slightly affect the very transmission of impulses, and something like intoxication is obtained. But where is the salt, and where is 10 atmospheres of xenon. So, it turned out 85, counting with polonium and other less dangerous poisons. I found an extract of these analyses. After all, they were not too lazy to do analyzes for elements that are almost absent in nature. In fact, about 30 elements were found, the remaining figures show that the content is lower than the sensitivity of the method used or it is not found in nature, since it is not stable. Moreover, the sensitivity is good -1 milligram per ton. However, in sea water, and in us, all this can also be found. It's all about the accuracy of the analysis. Ohmurez. It is concluded that they found, although experience has shown that they did not find it. Where is the logic? Yes, and with microelements it is not so - the encyclopedia gives the following definition of microelements: "chemical elements necessary for living organisms to ensure normal functioning." There are not so many of them - about 15 pieces, up to 30. So in fact - salt is like salt, though it is beautiful and the crystals are pleasant.

Pink Himalayan salt - glamorous

So eat whatever salt you like, but remember, it's just salt. Sea and stone - with impurities of magnesium, calcium, potassium, which is sometimes not bad. The salt is peeled, fine - it pours well. The main thing is not to dramatize the issue of choice - a good mood is a very important factor in our well-being.

But there are other options for replacing salt - salt where the content of sodium chloride is greatly reduced. Replacing with something else. This is already in the case when it is clearly impossible, but you really want to. This is already with doctors and specifically. I met only one of them - salt in which 30% salt and 70% potassium chloride. Of course, the taste is very different - if you lick it, it’s even burning, but potassium is very necessary for the cardiovascular system, so this is quite an option for anyone who needs it. I use a little. But don't get carried away! Excess potassium can be dangerous too! In case of kidney problems.

Conclusions: What kind of salt you like, eat this. Replacing with sea salt - will not solve anything. Just salt less. Avoid iodine. Stone - good for pickling cucumbers, and generally not bad. Sea and Himalayan - look beautiful in the salt shaker.

classic salt. The main thing is not to overdo it.

In conclusion, I will add that there is another interesting use of salt and mines remaining from its production.- treatment of asthma and other lung diseases. Plant pollen, bacteria and any dust do not get deep underground, it is dry there. In a salt mine, the air contains mainly small particles of salt. Experts will tell you more, but treatment by staying in salt workings has long been known and the reviews about it were the most positive.

In Belarusian salt mines. Underground children 8).

Please note that what I am telling you is not a ban or an order on how to live. This means that now it is considered that it is better to do this, and I tried to figure it out and bring it to you. In the end, after all, not all of us do exercises, although this is useful?

If you liked this post, there is more about sugar / carbohydrates: About sugar. What are the sugars. About maple sugar and is it sugar? What do a lobster, a tarantula, a Christmas tree, a mushroom, honey, and a Qassam rocket have in common. We put a chemical experiment on the transformation of starch ... How to show off erudition. Fructose - benefit and harm, two sides of the issue. Who is to blame for the fact that the stomach hurts from milk. How is it that sour jam is less candied. What is sugar made from? About cane sugar - we eat for its taste.

Tags:

• sea ​​salt
• Himalayan salt
• potassium salt
• which salt to choose