Top 6 Benefits of Sea Salt

Salt has been used as a natural flavoring for thousands of years, and it’s so vital to our existence that a portion of our tongues is even designated to taste saltiness. However, in recent years, salt has come under fire and has been characterized as an unhealthy substance that we should cut out of our diets in favor of heart health.

That being said, not all salt is created equal and there is definitely a difference between unrefined, mineral-rich varieties like sea salt versus salt that has been heavily processed and stripped of all of its natural nutrients.

So is sea salt good for you? Does sea salt have iodine? And which types are best when it comes to your health? Keep reading for everything you need to know about this common kitchen ingredient.

What Is Sea Salt?

All types of salt including table salt originate from a sea or a salty body of water, but not all salts currently on the market actually come from the oceans in existence today. What does that mean? Salts that are not sea salt are often derived from underground salt deposits left behind by seawater at some point.

Sea salt is a type of salt produced from the evaporation of current seawater. The evaporation is accomplished by either open-air solar evaporation or by a quicker vacuum evaporation process. Some of the pricier sea salts available today often come from the slower sun-fueled evaporation method. When you eat a sea salt that has experienced very little processing, you have a salt that contains health-promoting trace minerals. It also has natural flavors and colors that make it a lot tastier and more interesting to use for cooking as well as homemade beauty products.

Sea salt can be either unrefined or refined, although unrefined sea salt is generally recommended to maximize its potential health benefits. Refined sea salt, on the other hand, is washed to strip it of its trace minerals and often contains harmful food additives trigger leaky gut.

Top 6 Benefits of Sea Salt

Rich in Trace Minerals
Prevents Dehydration and Balances Fluids
Loaded with Electrolytes
Promotes Brain, Muscle and Nervous System Function
Supports Digestive Health
Promotes Nutrient Absorption

1. Rich in Trace Minerals

High-quality sea salts typically contain upwards of 60 trace minerals and for specific types like Himalayan sea salt, that number is said to be closer to 84. Either way, sea salts are a great source of micronutrients.

It’s become harder and harder to obtain trace minerals from the foods we eat due to the lack of nutrient-rich soil. However, trace minerals are still abundant in our planet’s seas and oceans, from which we get a variety of sea salts.

2. Prevents Dehydration and Balances Fluids

Here’s how sodium works within the body: water follows salt, which means if you increase your sodium intake too much, water retention also occurs. At the same time, the opposite is also true: a loss in sodium results in a loss in water, potentially causing symptoms like dehydration and extreme thirst.

By consuming sea salt in moderation each day, you also ensure that you are maintaining sufficient sodium levels, which helps balance your sodium-potassium ratios. Sodium and potassium are two electrolytes that work together to ensure that there is proper fluid balance in your body’s cells as well as your blood plasma and extracellular fluid.

3. Loaded with Electrolytes

The minimal processing of unrefined sea salt enables it to retain much of its natural mineral content. Sea salt contains many of the major electrolytes, like sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium, that are absolutely essential to good health.

Electrolytes have so many important functions from regulating your heartbeat to allowing your muscles to contract so that you can move. Sea salt in moderation can help in avoiding an electrolyte imbalance, which can cause all kinds of serious negative symptoms, including some that are potentially deadly.

4. Promotes Brain, Muscle and Nervous System Function

As a good source of sodium, sea salt is essential for proper brain, muscle and nervous system function. Not only does sodium play a role in regulating your body’s fluid balance, but it’s also required for the transmission of electrical signals in the body. Why is this so important? Without the proper transmission of electrical signals in the body, so many things can get thrown off.

Without this communication system working as it should, the brain, muscles and nervous systems are especially inclined to suffer. Both too much and too little sodium cause cellular malfunction. So as much as you hear about making sure you don’t get too much salt in your diet, it’s also absolutely just as important to make sure we get enough.

5. Supports Digestive Health

Not getting enough salt in your diet can also negatively impact your digestive health. In fact, a lack of salt in the diet can lead to a reduction of hydrochloric acid (HCL) in your stomach. If you have low stomach acid, it can seriously throw your digestive system out of whack, contributing to issues like heartburn, stomach pain, vomiting and constipation. (5) Consuming the right amount of sea salt can help your body produce proper amounts of HCL since sea salt provides chloride, one of the building blocks of stomach acid.

6. Promotes Nutrient Absorption

Having enough stomach acid also helps our bodies to absorb vitamins and minerals like calcium, zinc, iron, folate and vitamin B12. For this reason, consuming a high-quality sea salt regularly can help your body absorb more nutrients from the foods that you eat. This is great news since it’s not only what you eat, but how your body processes what you eat that gives your body the essential nutrients it needs on a daily basis.

Types of Sea Salt

There are many different types of sea salt available, each of which varies based on where it originates and the health benefits that it provides. Here are a few of the most common types of sea salt on the market today:

Himalayan Sea Salt

Many believe Himalayan sea salt is the purest salt available on the planet. With a history dating back to Earth’s creation, it’s believed to be composed of dried remnants of the original, primal sea.

Known as “pink gold” or “pink sea salt,” Himalayan crystal salt is actually a beautiful translucent pink and contains all of the elements found in your body. Because of the amazing nutrient load, doctors of functional medicine report that regularly eating pink Himalayan salt can help:

Regulate the water content throughout your body
Promote healthy pH balance in your cells (particularly your brain cells)
Promote blood sugar health and help reduce the signs of aging
Assist in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your body
Absorb food particles through your intestinal tract
Support respiratory health
Promote sinus health
Prevent muscle cramps
Promote bone strength
Regulate your sleep
Support your libido
Promote vascular health
Regulate your blood pressure with sufficient water and potassium intake
Celtic Sea Salt®
Another ancient commodity, Celtic Sea Salt® is comparable to Himalayan crystal salt in its composition and health benefits. Being of a grayish hue, it is naturally harvested in Brittany, France near the Celtic Sea using a 2,000-year-old Celtic method that is crucial to preserving its life-giving nutrition profile.

It’s been reported that Celtic Sea Salt® is incredibly beneficial for your health and can help:

Alkalize the body
Balance blood sugars
Eliminate mucus buildup
Build immunity
Improve brain function
Increase energy
Provide electrolyte balance
Promote restful sleep
Prevent muscle cramps
Regulate heartbeat and blood pressure
Interestingly, this salt retains its moisture and is moist to touch, regardless of how you store it. Think of this as a gentle reminder of its ocean source and continual life-giving properties.

Other sea salt options include:

Fleur de Sel or  Flor de Sal: French or Portuguese for “flower of salt,” this sea salt gets its name from the patterns of crystals that resemble flowers. This is a salt that forms as a thin, fragile crust on seawater’s surface  as it evaporates. Traditionally, it was used as a salve and laxative, but today it’s most commonly used for cooking as a finishing salt.

Flake Sea Salt (or Flaky Sea Salt): This variety of sea salt can be formed naturally or produced by a variety of methods. Often sold under the brand Maldon sea salt flakes, flaky sea salts have thin, flattened crystals that provide more surface area with less mass resulting in a quick-dissolving and crunchy salt. It’s said that flake sea salt has a saltier taste but may also contain a lower amount of trace minerals than other sea salts.

Hawaiian Sea Salt: Hawaiian or Alaea sea salt is a traditional Hawaiian salt. Alae is a natural red volcanic clay that is added to enrich the salt with iron oxide, and it also gives this sea salt its distinctive red sea salt color but can also be found in white or black sea salt varieties. Real Hawaiian salt is pricey and hard to find outside of Hawaii.

Italian Sea Salt: This sea salt is derived from the Mediterranean Sea along the coast of Sicily.
You can also find other specialty sea salt varieties such as coarse sea salt, smoked sea salt and iodized sea salt.

Sea Salt vs. Table Salt

Table salt and sea salt are two of the most common types of salt found on grocery store shelves and spice pantries alike. So what are the differences between sea salt vs table salt?

Table salt is mainly mined from underground salt deposits. It’s heavily processed to eliminate healthy minerals and is manufactured by taking natural salt (such as crude oil flake leftovers) and heating it to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. During this extreme process, the chemical composition is completely altered, destroying many of its potential health-promoting properties.

Although the salt chemical formula for both table salt and sea salt alike is mostly sodium chloride, the sea salt composition also contains more trace minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium. Generic table salt, on the other hand, ends up being about 97.5 percent sodium chloride and a 2.5 percent balance containing an array of ingredients, including:

Anti-caking chemicals

Iodine to prevent goiters
MSG and/or white processed sugar to help stabilize the iodine
Aluminum derivatives, such as sodium silicoaluminate
Most food manufacturers add iodine to table salt, increasing the risk of consuming excess amounts. While higher intakes of iodine are generally well-tolerated by most people, it could cause thyroid dysfunction for certain people who may be more sensitive to its effects. (6) For these individuals, keeping iodized salt intake in moderation is absolutely essential, and opting for a minimally processed, non iodized sea salt in place of iodized salt may be a good option.

Sea Salt vs. Kosher Salt vs. Rock Salt

Although kosher salt is another of the most popular types of salt available, few people really understand what it is and what the differences are between kosher salt vs sea salt. Kosher salt stands out because of its large flake size and coarse texture, making it ideal for applying directly onto foods with your fingers. Because of its unique texture, kosher salt is often used for draining blood from meat prior to consumption to comply with Jewish laws, which is where it gets its name.

Rock salt, on the other hand, is a type of salt that is derived from oceans that dried up millions of years ago, leaving behind a concentrated amount of salt in the crust of the earth. This type of salt contains a wide array of important minerals and little to no moisture but is often classified as one of the purest forms of salt in existence. Himalayan pink salt is one of the most popular examples of a rock salt, but other varieties are also available which are harvested from different regions around the world. source