Salty Goodness
By: Shoshanna Levy
Published: June 1, 2011

One of the biggest nutritional myths is that salt is bad for you. The human body needs a balance of sodium and potassium to work properly. The issue is actually with the quality of the salt. The standard ultra-processed table salt gets stripped of it's minerals during the refining process, and what's left is only the sodium chloride. 
Then anti-caking agents are added which prevent the salt from mixing with water in the box and in the body, which prevents it from regulating hydration. Table salt even contains sugar, in the form of dextrose. This nutritionally devoid substance is indeed not beneficial for humans, and is the same salt that winds up in most processed foods. Then all salt gets unfairly demonized as being a health threat. 
Nutrient dense salts such as Himalayan, Celtic, French Grey, and Hawaiian Black are loaded with alkalizing trace minerals. Quality salts balance electrolytes and PH levels, are necessary for digestion and bone density, and help carry nutrients into the cells. Even quality salt should be consumed in moderation, but perhaps it's time to switch what's in your shaker.

Comments:
by jiminy
February 8, 2012

Wow, this is a really irresponsible, ill-informed post. 
First of all, you didn't mention iodine. Two billion people are iodine-deficient, and it's the leading cause of mental retardation in the world. Iodized salt has been called the single most cost-effective thing we could do to improve public health. You should not demonize iodized salt.
Second, I actually agree with you that salt has been demonized excessively, but you draw the wrong conclusion. 
It's actually quite common for something to be an essential nutrient, but dangerous if you eat too much. You need salt. And if you don't have high blood pressure, you probably shouldn't fear it. But if you do, too much sodium can be dangerous. And many people do eat too much sodium. The trace minerals in sea salt are all well and good, but they don't reduce the amount of sodium. 
If you eat too much sodium and it's raising your blood pressure, you need to cut down on salt, and it doesn't matter what kind.
But you need to make sure you get enough iodine. Many geographical regions have enough iodine in the soil that you don't need to supplement; but many don't, and their children lost 15 points of IQ.  check out this article, it's very sobering:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/16/health/16iodine.html?pagewanted=1&fta=y
I like to eat natural salt because it tastes better and has some minerals. If you want to do some research and post things, why don't you look into this: Is eating only natural salt a problem in America, or should we be making sure to get enough iodized salt. I'd read that. But just telling people to eat pink salt, without even mentioning heart disease and iodine deficiency, is really irresponsible.