So if we don’t want refined, table salt, which one do we want? The type of salt that has the least amount of processing and one that has nothing added. It’s perfect the way nature made it. Once you’ve used these, there is no going back to table salt. Not even to use as your ‘cooking, preserving or pickling salt’.
Celtic Salt
Light grey Celtic sea salt is dried only by the summer wind and sun. It is not refined at all by any processing.
Seawater is filtered and boiled which removes any impurities. It’s then heated until the salt crystallizes. The ‘drawing’ of the salt is traditionally done by hand from the pans. This takes skill. Natural Celtic sea salt is light grey in color, which comes from the sea minerals and clay found in the salt flats. The clay ionizes the minerals in the salt, making it even more beneficial. This salt is moist and will retain this moisture even when stored in a cool place for a long period of time.
This coarse salt is best used in cooking. For use on the table, get it ‘fine’, or you can grind it with a ceramic salt grinder or a mortar and pestle. Avoid metal grinders and grind only as you need for best results.
Himalayan
Crystal salt has spent over 250 million years maturing under extreme tectonic pressure, far away from exposure to impurities. Himalayan Salt is waiting for the moment to have its inherent, stored energy – its bio-photon content – set free, by adding water.
All of the 84 elements can be found in crystal salt. Hence, crystal salt contains all the natural minerals and trace elements of which the human body is comprised. It is much more than sodium and chloride; crystal salt can actually be viewed as medicine. It contains the planets highest elemental content, with 84 of the 94 elements. (From the periodic table of elements we are familiar with 94 natural elements – stable as well as unstable.)
Himalayan salt is hand-mined mindfully and with respect. It’s contains enormous amounts of stored information – from 250,000,000 years ago.
Murray River Flakes
The salt does not contain any of the artificial additives or chemicals used in refined table salt. Murray River salt retains naturally occurring minerals and trace elements, such as magnesium and calcium, also lost in industrial processing. With decades of inland saline water mineral extraction experience, Murray River salt have developed unique techniques to sustainably extract salts from the inland brines. Murray River salt has been instrumental in contributing to efforts to combat the major environmental issue of salinity that exists in the Murray Darling Basin. Since operations began, tens of thousands of salt have been diverted from entering the Murray River, which is the major water source for food production in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.
Maldon
The concentrated brine is pumped up from an ancient inland sea in the UK where the water travels through several canals before making its way to crystallizer ponds. The brine is evaporated by the sun and crystallizes over the summer months. It is then hand harvested and transported to a nearby processing plant to be washed, dried and packaged. Nothing added. It’s just the salt.
Macrobiotic Salt Crystals
This salt is made by the natural action of the sun and wind on seawater from the Great Barrier Reef. They are free from processing and are unrefined, unwashed and free from any additives, or preservatives. They are 100% concentrated ocean seawater. They contain over 40 naturally occurring sea minerals and trace elements.
Rock Salt
Mostly obtained from mining ancient underground sea beds, the elements in rock salt are not integrated into the salt’s crystal grid, but cling to the outside surface and crevices of the crystalline structure. This is the fundamental difference between rock salt and crystal (Himalayan and Celtic) salt. Rock salt is a cheap alternative to table salt, and at least hasn’t been highly refined with loads of toxic chemicals added. It’s still in its natural state but bio-chemically and bio-physically it’s of little value.
I’ll get to the Iodine issue tomorrow. #SaltWeek
