"A pinch of salt"

In her article titled "Take it with a pinch" in Mumbai Mirror dated 21st January 2008, nutritionist Naini Setalvad takes a view on salt. She says that table salt has nothing in common with the original natural salt. Refined table salt is 99.99% sodium chloride. It is made of uniformly fine crystals - made fine by a 648 degrees Celsius oven heating process and then flash cooled. It is then combined with a number of additives; potassium iodine is added to iodise it. However, iodine is very volatile and oxidises immediately when exposed to light. Because of this, dextrose, a simple sugar must be added to stabilize iodine. This would turn the salt purple and therefore a little sodium bicarbonate is mixed in to bleach the colour to a more marketable white. Finally, they are coated with compound such as sodium silico aluminate to make the salt that is 'free flowing'.

I had also addressed a question related to salt in the section on Health queries.

The natural varieties of salt do not contain iodine but fresh fruits, vegetables, sea vegetables, curd etc are also good sources of iodine. Moreover, we need only about 1 teaspoon of iodine throughout our lifetime and the body does not store it. For more on iodine read these articles - 1 & 2.

More than 5 gms of salt per day is not good. Its effects can be varied - water retention, high blood pressure, weight gain, burden on kidneys, not completely soluble in water therefore tends to harden arteries, interferes with elimination of certain wastes from the body etc.

On the other hand, natural salt regulates water content, is vital to nerve cells, balances blood sugar, aids absorption of food, clears sinuses, makes the bone structure firm.

Even our taste buds prefer natural salt. Natural salt tastes slightly sweet, smooth, pleasant and satisfying as against sharp, acrid, lingering, metallic taste of table salt. Try it yourself and see!!!