Distinguish 13 types of salt that have an impact on health that housewives need to know
Salt is considered one of the indispensable cooking ingredients all over the world. Without salt, the dishes will become bland and unappealing. However, not all salts have the same structure and application. You can choose the type of salt depending on your needs or preferences.
1. What is salt?
Salt is a chemical compound that exists in the form of crystals with a combination of ions, including Na(+) and Cl(-). These are all important substances for the body, keeping the main function in helping the brain and nerves transmit electrical impulses, thereby helping to maintain human life. Currently, salts are found almost everywhere, harvested mainly from salt mines and formed by the evaporation of seawater.
Salt is an essential compound for human health
In general, salt is used by humans for many different purposes. The most popular is still as a processing spice in food, making the flavor of the dishes more bold.
In addition, this mineral is also used to preserve foods and prevent bad bacteria from growing. However, if you use salt in large amounts, it will cause some harmful health problems, typically increasing blood pressure.
In the Western diet, most of the sodium comes from processed foods. So, if your diet consists mainly of unprocessed, still whole foods, you don’t need to worry much about adding salt to your food.
2. Distinguish 13 types of salt you should know
2.1 Sea salt
When seawater evaporates, the salt crystals recrystallize and form sea salt. In addition to sodium and chlorine, sea salt also contains many other trace elements. The more impurities in sea salt, the higher the nutritional value of the salt and the darker the color.
However, in the current marine environment pollution, sea salt has many potential health risks due to the high concentration of microplastic particles (microplastics), heavy metals such as lead and zinc.
Salt is mined from the sea
Normally, sea salt will have a more salty, richer taste than other types of table salt. Concentration of impurities and trace elements are decisive to the salinity of sea salt.
2.2 Iodized salt
This is the commonly used salt recommended by the Ministry of Health. In addition to the main minerals, this salt is also added a very important ingredient, iodine. Iodine has the ability to directly affect thyroid activity, brain development… Therefore, it is an indispensable ingredient in every meal of your family.
2.3 Fine salt
Refined salt is a type of salt that is refined from raw salt, impurities are removed to ensure purity in salt from 97% to 99% with the main ingredient being NaCl. This salt is highly white, smooth, and has a higher salinity than other salts.
Refined salt is very small and fine in size
Refined salt is very small in size, so it is easy to mix iodine. In addition, some manufacturers also mix an anti-caking agent (Anti baking agent) into this salt.
2.4 Kosher Salt
Jews often use this salt to season pork. Kosher Salt comes from the sea or from the ground, has very good solubility. Moreover, this salt has a relatively salty taste, not as salty as other salts, so it is very suitable for seasoning.
2.5 Gray Salt (Sel Gris)
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2.6 Grain salt (Gros Sel)
This is the most commonly used salt. This salt has a white color, large particles, so it is soluble in water for a long time. Grain salt has high salinity and often contains many impurities. Therefore, this salt is often used to wash vegetables, meat and fish.
Thin salt has a polyhedral shape, very thin
The salinity as well as the content of microelements in flake salt is much lower than that of other salts. People use this salt to mix salads, when eating the pieces, they want to be crispy, slightly salty on the tip of the tongue, very stimulating.
2.8 Flower Salt (Fleur de Sel)
It can be said that flower salt is the most expensive salt among the popular salts today because the mining process is very laborious and the output is low. Flower salt is crystalline salt located in the top layer of the salt lake, with a very mild salty taste. This salt originates from France, suitable for seasoning all kinds of food.
Flower salt is the top layer of salt in the salt lake
2.9 Hawaiian Sea Salt
Hawaiian sea salt is a red or black organic salt with relatively small, coarse grains. The red salts will contain the natural iron oxide Alaea, which is derived from volcanic clay. There are black salts due to the presence of activated carbon in it. The taste of this salt is very specific, containing many trace elements necessary for health.
Smoked salt has a very distinctive smoky smell
2.11 Seasoned salt, mixed salt
This type of salt, in addition to the main ingredient is salt, is also marinated, mixed with some other spices, including mushrooms, lemons and herbs. It is up to the ingredients that are mixed to determine the taste of the salt as well as to know which dishes it goes well with. For example, salt mixed with truffle mushrooms is suitable for Italian rice dishes.
2.12 Himalayan rock salt
One of the most famous types of salt today is Himalayan rock salt. This is a type of salt that is manually mined, rich in minerals, and is widely used in medical treatment. This is a very special type of salt thanks to its structure like stone slabs, often used as a cutting board or tray for food.
It has good heat retention, so it can be used to bake food or store ice cream. In addition, this type of rock salt can also be used to season, marinate food, decorate…
2.13 Celtic Salt
Celtic salt is of French origin, formed by the evaporation of sea water. Unlike sea salt, Celtic salt also contains a large amount of water in it, so it is always wet and has a characteristic gray color. The concentration of sodium and minerals in this salt is lower than in many other salts.
3. Difference in taste
Different salts have different flavors, and chefs and foodies alike will easily recognize this. In addition to the composition, the size and color of the salt will greatly affect its taste. Usually, large salt particles will have a more salty taste, the ability to dissolve more slowly, so the time to stay salty on the tip of the tongue will be longer.
4. Prominent mineral compositions of certain salts
In salt, there are important components such as sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, and potassium chloride. Depending on the type of salt or different preparation method, the content of minerals will be different.
Mineral content in some common salts today
According to the composition table, it can be seen that Celtic salt contains the least sodium, in contrast, the amount of Magnesium and Calcium has the highest ratio compared to other salts. Himalayan salt contains only a small amount of potassium.
In addition, the above indicators also have a certain meaning, for example in Celtic salt there is 0.3% Magnesium, this means that you need to consume a minimum of 100g of salt to reach the RDI (daily intake). .
However, according to the advice of doctors, you should not rely entirely on this index, but ignore other salts with less minerals when choosing to buy. In fact, this amount of mineral provides only a negligible amount compared to the amount of minerals you absorb from food.
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5. What kind of salt is best for health?
Many types of salt are commonly used today
When choosing salt for daily seasoning or for other purposes, you should pay attention to the additive ingredients, the anti-precipitation agents that the manufacturer adds. This is especially important when you want to buy salt-based products such as mouthwash.
When choosing salt, you should avoid salts that contain too many additives, or anti-precipitation agents (these are often added by the manufacturer during processing).
It is important to remember that the main purpose of using salt is to add flavor to dishes, it is not a “divine” remedy that can help improve health.
Through the above article of Dr.Muoi, I hope you have distinguished the common salts and their specific uses.
Currently, salt is not only widely used in food, but also can be made into products to serve a variety of life needs. In particular, sea salt with the characteristics of containing many good minerals, has a high antiseptic effect, has been applied by many companies to make salt water mouthwash.
Dr.Muối. mouthwash is made from natural sea salt with available minerals such as: Ca, Mg, K… good for teeth with the purity of water from very deep groundwater that has been treated by filtration process. strict water. You can refer to it for more details here.
