All About Salt

According to Merriam Webster: Salt is a white crystalline substance that consists of sodium and chlorine and is used in seasoning foods. It's a mineral. In fact, it's the only mineral that is consumed by humans as a part of their diets.

There is evidence that salt has been harvested since the neolithic period (3900 - 1700 BC). By some accounts even earlier than that - as early as 6000 BC in China.

This terrific photograph is used through Creative Commons. It's a piece of crystalized rock salt from a lake in Chile and it's from the Flickr photostream of Michael Tyler

I have five kinds of salt in my pantry. Gray salt, Kosher salt, Sea salt, Hickory Smoked salt and plain old table salt.

That's a really paltry collection and I should be ashamed of myself. My list pales by comparison to many other cooks who have more than a dozen varieties of salt at any given time.

Ice, grapefruit juice and vodka in a glass with a salted rim...simple as that.

Photo courtesy of timlewisnm

Too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure. Too much salt can cause edema or retention of fluid which may adversely affect your kidney function.

But salt, per se, isn't the only "bad guy". There are excessive amounts of salt in many processed foods. Meats, fish, canned vegetables - lots of other prepared foods have high amounts of sodium. It's a preservative, after all.

You'll probably be shocked at the amount of sodium in prepared foods. Did you know that a serving of low fat cottage cheese has more than a quarter of the daily recommended sodium allowance? The best advice? Read all nutrition labels!

So the more fresh foods that you consume, the better.

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