"How Much Do You Know About Nutrition" Series | Are Colored High-end Salts More Natural and Healthier? They Are Beneficial, But They Are Limited

Salt is not only white. In our daily life, we can see pink, light yellow, or light gray salt imported from all over the world. Are these salts, which are said to contain a variety of trace elements and are more natural and healthy, really safe? Are they more nutritious? For these questions, we need to analyze them from the following aspects.

As a food ingredient, does salt meet safety standards?

From a microbiological perspective, as long as the salt content is high enough, such as more than 20%, there is no need to worry about microbial proliferation. However, it is still necessary to check whether the salt contains excessive toxic elements.

Does high-grade salt have higher nutritional value?

The content of sodium chloride in ordinary table salt exceeds 99.5%. "Impurities" other than sodium chloride can give salt special colors, such as light pink, light green, light gray, light yellow, light brown, etc.

For example, a high-grade salt that has been very popular in recent years is called rose salt, also known as Himalayan salt. Its advantages are that it has high content of magnesium, calcium and silicon, and high iron content. In fact, it is the presence of iron compounds that makes it appear beautiful pink. However, people do not need to rely solely on eating rose salt to achieve the effect of supplementing magnesium and calcium, because without it, as long as other foods are properly matched, magnesium and calcium can be easily supplemented.

In addition, salt contains some nutrients other than sodium chloride, which are beneficial and harmless as long as they meet safety standards, such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, and manganese. However, it should be noted that since the amount of salt a person eats in a day is very limited, relying on salt to supplement these nutrients is actually not very effective.

Here are some reminders for buying salt products:

1. Be clear about the purpose of buying salt and avoid being deceived and buying blindly.

2. If you buy salt to help control blood pressure and prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, pay attention to the sodium chloride content in the salt. Although the sodium content in low-sodium salt is 25%-30% lower than that in pure refined salt, buying ordinary low-sodium salt is enough to produce health effects without extra consumption.

3. The total amount of trace elements that high-grade salt can provide is limited and cannot replace the nutrients of other foods.

4. Some natural salts contain trace amounts of silicon, boron, strontium, lithium and other elements, which have not been confirmed as essential elements for the human body. Therefore, there is no medical conclusion on whether it is beneficial to supplement these elements from salt.

5. It is not suitable to eat too much salt. According to the dietary guidelines, the amount of edible salt should be controlled within 5 grams. Sodium chloride is the main component of salt. Excessive sodium intake is not conducive to the prevention of high blood pressure, gastric cancer and osteoporosis.

(The author of this article is Professor Fan Zhihong, a registered nutritionist in China and the School of Food Science and Engineering at China Agricultural University)