Is sea salt better than table salt to use as seasoning?

Hi Judy,

No, sea salt is not a healthier choice than table salt.  From a chemical and nutritional standpoint, both are sodium chloride and you want to limit your sodium intake to 2300 mg (~1 tsp of table salt) or less to promote blood pressure control.

If you use kosher salt, which has larger crystals, you benefit because less salt "fits" in one teaspoon due to the larger crystal size. A teaspoon of kosher salt provides about 1900 mg sodium. Sea salt is available in this larger crystal form, also.

All the best,

Lisa Nelson, RD, LN

The Heart of Health - Heart Health and Weight Loss Tips

Really? Your an expert and that is what you told someone???? Sea Salt is the best choice overall. Yes, Kosher Salt does have less sodium than sea salt but sea salt has less sodium than table salt and you do want to limit salt all together. Sea Salt retains all its trace minerals because the way it is harvested and this allows it to interact with the bodys cells. Table Salt is processd and stipped of all the trace minerals and does not interact with our cells and can leave some attached to our organs such as our heart and kidneys. Dont take my word for it, look it up there are plenty of scholarly articles that say the same thing

Reasearch shows any salt is better than no salt and people using Sea Salt do the best, on average, on blood pressure tests.

Regular table salt, is highly refined and has additives, chemicals, and preservatives. Many of the preservatives are not required to be listed on the container and include ferrocyanide, magnesium carbonate, and aluminum hydroxide.

High levels of aluminum are believed to be a major factor in the prevalence of Alzheimer's in the U.S.

Standard salt undergoes a refining process that strips it of 60 trace minerals, leaving a nutrient-free flavoring. Manufacturers put this refined salt into almost every prepared food, and it's even present in municipal water sources.

True Sea Salt matches the mineral level of the blood nearly exactly.

Avoiding salt is not healthy and too much Sodium Chloride (regular salt) is unhealthy. Sea Salt in a Macrobiotic diet is very healthy according to studies.

After days of researching on and off the web:

Kosher salt, sea salt, table salt and any mystical, high-priced salt from far-off lands all contain enough sodium to raise blood-pressure when used. Coarse kosher salt and all other large-crystal salts are no exception and are merely less dense (puffed up like popcorn) and merely contain more air than other salts. This is why recipes tell you to use more kosher salt to get the same saltiness into food. If you find that using kosher salt helps you to accidentally consume less salt by fitting less into a measured teaspoon then that is fine. But you are simply just measuring less salt and more air. If you're trying to consume less sodium, you could measure less of another refined salt like sea salt than the recipe calls for. Either way you'll be tasting less salt because in both cases you'll be consuming less. 

There is no way to trick your taste buds into tasting more salt than is actually there. You can only reorient your senses and gradually become acclimated to expecting less salt over time. 

For the additional debate: Facts as researched by current public health

First, evidence of sea salt's 80+ trace elements being of beneficial use to our body has still not yielded any convincing results. All "proof" found in articles and documents are still anecdotal and theoretical. It is common to read sea salt as being "more natural" because the salt is evaporated but not refined and baked.

However, the "interaction" of sea salt's "natural" trace elements could be low or non-existent in our body's chemistry. Allot of stuff passes through our digestion and our cells without notice or use. The "trace elements" found in sea salt (almost always unnamed and unexplained in articles) could be garbage passed through our body or simply dissolved but not used by our body. In short, it's guesswork by our best chemists and biologists. They've been studying it for a long time and still aren't sure or satisfied. Let us wait for definitive proof of benefit before writing articles proclaiming "natural" advice.

That being said, sea salt is still the best option for food salting merely for the lack of preservatives and non-caking agents that are suspect. Choose sea salt for this reason and not for the "natural trace elements" that only a chemist could detect. Additionally, kosher salt is also great for the same reason and is useful for salting your food's outer surface.

But, be sure you get iodine into your diet from another source like a multi-vitamin for proper thyroid health, pre-natal care and child nutrition (especially if you live more than 1,000 miles from the ocean.) Inland crop soils and livestock (including freshwater fish) are usually depleted of iodine. Iodine is a heavy element that our bodies have evolved to depend on by way of the oceans. Ironically, iodine from the sea is very important to our body's health but does not make it into sea salt in any useful amount. Iodine is one of sea salt's 80+ "natural trace elements" in low, useless, insignificant amounts. Bummer, huh. 

Also, don't let articles scare you by listing sodium iodide, potassium iodide, and/or potassium iodate as harmful additives to table salt. These are merely the chemicals from which our body naturally gets iodine. They are NOT evil, scary abominations. They are, in fact, iodine as it is found in seawater. You CAN find sea salt which has been iodized by any of the three compounds listed above but the end result is, as expected, regular table salt plus the "trace element" pixy dust people love about sea salt.

In summery,

1. Use sea salt or kosher salt in food to escape questionable additives.

2. Get iodide into your diet from something else like multi-vitamins or seafood.

3. Avoid reading articles offering simplified reasons for using "natural" stuff without lengthy explanation or linked sources to medical or chemical documents provided by a publicly-funded source. Preferably aged 3 years :)

~Jared Saverino