Confused on use of Sea Salt

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Confused on use of Sea Salt

Postby Dave Jaseck » Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:21 pm

Hi Jeff...first let me say I really enjoy your lessons/talks/lectures. You have a great sense of humor, my kind of guy. Now to the question. I am confused (not unusual in my case), that while on one hand in the work of Dr. Batmanghelidj and as stated in, what is now considered by some to be a classic book "Your Bodies Many Cries For Water", he and many others suggests 1/4 teaspoon of high quality sea salt to every 32 oz of water and ideally consuming 1/2 your body weight in oz of water each day. There are a lot of testimonials regarding the miracles of this prescription. I am a huge fan of Dr. McDougall going back a decade or so and believe he has the answer to most of our countries health challenges. However, he and you also are exponents of a low salt/sodium diet for better health. So what's the deal?
I have much respect for both sides of the argument. Appreciate you comments on this...Thank you...Dave
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Re: Confused on use of Sea Salt

Postby JeffN » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:06 am

Hi Dave,

Dave Jaseck wrote:Hi Jeff...first let me say I really enjoy your lessons/talks/lectures. You have a great sense of humor, my kind of guy. Now to the question. I am confused (not unusual in my case), that while on one hand in the work of Dr. Batmanghelidj and as stated in, what is now considered by some to be a classic book "Your Bodies Many Cries For Water", he and many others suggests 1/4 teaspoon of high quality sea salt to every 32 oz of water and ideally consuming 1/2 your body weight in oz of water each day. There are a lot of testimonials regarding the miracles of this prescription. I am a huge fan of Dr. McDougall going back a decade or so and believe he has the answer to most of our countries health challenges. However, he and you also are exponents of a low salt/sodium diet for better health. So what's the deal?
I have much respect for both sides of the argument. Appreciate you comments on this...Thank you...Dave


I would also respect the other side of the argument, if there was one, but when you separate the marketing and advertising from the science, there isn't one.

Testimonials are great, but they should be supported by science because the internet is full of people offering testimonials on everything, including pure quackery. Star McDougallers are great, but it is the science behind their stories that is the most important as it helps us understand why it works. Their stories support the science and do not displace it.

Do you have any references of supporting science for any of the claims made about sea salt?

Without them, his argument, is a great promotion to consume his product, but not one to promote health.

First, while it is not the topic of this discussion, the formula for how much water one should drink is not accurate. So, his recommendations are based on a faulty premise.

Second, sodium chloride is sodium chloride and it does not matter if it comes from salt mines on land, or from the sea.

Third, while it is true that sea salt, has slightly less sodium per gram and has a few minerals, these are all completely irrelevant when you step back and put the claims in to perspective.

The Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, recommends healthy people limit their sodium intake to no more than 1200-1500 mgs per day. The set an upper limit of 2300 mgs, meaning that if you go over that on a regular basis, it is harmful. They also recognize that a healthy human only needs around 240-300 mgs a day, which is easily obtainable from the amount that occurs naturally in foods.

A tsp of table salt is 2200 mgs of sodium. A tsp of Sea Salt is around 2000 mgs. Less, but as you can see, still a lot of sodium

Now according to the company Celtic Salt, a very popular promoter of sea salt, and based on the percentages they post on their website of the analysis of their product, a tsp of Celtic Sea Salt also contains

12 mgs of calcium
7 mgs of potassium
27 mgs of magnesium

The recommended amounts we need are

1000 mgs of calcium
4700 mgs of potassium
400 mgs of magnesium

So, in order for us to get in any significant amount of (less say 25% of the recommended amount)

Calcium, we would need to also take in 41,000 mgs of sodium
Potassium, we would need to also take in 335,000 mgs of sodium
Magnesium, we would need to also take in 7,407 mgs of sodium

So, in other words, the amount of sodium in the sea salt we would take in to get any significant amount of those minerals, would be extremely dangerous if not toxic.

And, small amounts of sea salt, would offer no benefit form the minerals.

My recommendations, as are Dr McDs are inline with the IOM and recommending the limit on total sodium.

If you choose to use sea salt as the source of your sodium, that is up to you, but it is not any healthier, safer, and/or more toxic than table salt.

In Health
Jeff Novick MS, RD
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Re: Confused on use of Sea Salt

Postby JeffN » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:29 am

Turns out that while Gourmet Salts may have slightly less sodium than table salt and a few more minerals, they also have more heavy metals.

In Health
Jeff


Analysis of Gourmet Salts for the Presence of Heavy Metals
http://www.spexcertiprep.com/knowledge- ... tSalts.pdf


Abstract:
Salt has been a common commodity and household staple for thousands of years. Over the past decade salt has transformed from common product into a gourmet item with various origins, processing methods, representing all the colors and flavors of the gourmet spice market. Gourmet salt sales exceed $250 million dollars a year. Some exotic varieties are luxury products retailing for more than $20 an ounce compared to regular table salt at $0.02 an ounce.

This study examined a variety of gourmet salts for the elemental composition and for the presence of heavy metals. The salt samples represented many different colors, production methods, textures and price points

Conclusions
This study shows that the highest concentration of elements were found in the darker or deeply colored salts. The Kala Namak Black mineral salt (#11) had the highest concentration of Arsenic, Mercury, Vanadium, Potassium, Zinc and Iron. The reagent grade NaCl and generic table salt contained the least amounts of the elements examined.
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Re: Confused on use of Sea Salt

Postby JeffN » Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:12 am

Microplastic Pollution in Table Salts from China

Dongqi Yang†, Huahong Shi*†, Lan Li‡, Jiana Li†, Khalida Jabeen† and Prabhu Kolandhasamy†
*Phone: 86 21 62455593. E-mail: [email protected].

†State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China‡Research Center for Analysis and Measurement, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China

Environmental Science & Technology

Publication Date (Web): October 20, 2015

DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b03163

Microplastics have been found in seas all over the world. We hypothesize that sea salts might contain microplastics, because they are directly supplied by seawater. To test our hypothesis, we collected 15 brands of sea salts, lake salts, and rock/well salts from supermarkets throughout China. The microplastics content was 550–681 particles/kg in sea salts, 43–364 particles/kg in lake salts, and 7–204 particles/kg in rock/well salts. In sea salts, fragments and fibers were the prevalent types of particles compared with pellets and sheets. Microplastics measuring less than 200 μm represented the majority of the particles, accounting for 55% of the total microplastics, and the most common microplastics were polyethylene terephthalate, followed by polyethylene and cellophane in sea salts. The abundance of microplastics in sea salts was significantly higher than that in lake salts and rock/well salts. This result indicates that sea products, such as sea salts, are contaminated by microplastics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on microplastic pollution in abiotic sea products.
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