Who knew choosing a type of salt for cooking and seasoning your food could be so controversial?

Want to witness a hornet’s nest of conflicting opinions? Type “health benefits of sea salt” into your favorite search engine and see what happens.

You will see opinions from the American Heart Association, Mayo Clinic, and a litany of various health experts.

And why?

They all want to argue if sea salt is healthier for us than the regular table salt you and I grew up using.

Just between you and me, I’m confused about all the fuss.

As a baby boomer, I have become more aware of health issues. After all, I’m not getting any younger, and folks my age need to be concerned about things like blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and all the other illnesses that can kill us.

And of course, it’s been drilled into my head by countless sources that too much salt in your diet can lead to all sorts of health problems. We all know someone who is on a doctor ordered salt-restricted diet for one reason or another.

There are two reasons I became interested in sea salt in the first place.

1. I love to cook, and chefs around the globe love to prepare and finish their dishes with a variety of sea salts. I figured if the culinary experts expounded upon the taste and texture of sea salt, I should check it out. (You can see a gourmet sea salt guide HERE.)
2. Here’s where all the controversy begins—I had heard sea salt is healthier to use than regular table salt. Heck, I love salting my food so much I have a lifetime crush on the Morton Salt Girl. If sea salt meant I could salt away guilt free, I’m all in!

So I did a Google search to check out “health benefits of sea salt,” and that’s where the confusion began.

On one side of the argument experts say salt is salt. Salt evaporated from seawater, and salt mined from a salt deposit, both contain the same amount of sodium. Ah, well, so much for my carefree salting.

But, not so fast, the next article tells me sea salt is actually lower in sodium. Plus, unlike processed table salt, sea salt maintains 82 additional minerals that are vital to my health.

“Hooray!” I think, until the next expert states the mineral content is so insignificant it won’t make a lick of difference to my health. I’m told I would be better off eating more green veggies!

Like two drunks in a tizzy, the tit-for-tat argument goes on and on…

• Sea salt is evaporated from contaminated seawater–Yuk!
• Table salt is processed at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit and has fillers added to it–Yuk!
• Table salt has iodine added to prevent goiter!
• Some sea salt contains iodine naturally—plus 82 additional healthy minerals!
• Table salt is cheaper!
• You get what you pay for!

The pros and cons are argued in 5,080,000 Google search results!

You can read some resources at these links:

Mayo Clinic

American Heart Association

A Certified Nutritionist

Food Matters

My Bottom Line

I titled this post The Baby Boomers Unconventional Guide to Sea Salt for a reason.

As I stated earlier, I love to cook, and like most baby boomers, am concerned about eating healthy. Swapping out sea salt for table salt sounded like a no brainer. Instead, the volume of pro/con information has left my head spinning.

So I am going to take an unconventional approach to making my decision. Unconventional, in that unlike all those arguing online, I’m just going to go with a gut feeling.

Whenever, and wherever possible, I am going to opt for sea salt.

Here’s my thinking…

• Neither side of the argument claims sea salt is bad for you.
• The opponents of sea salt argue that when it comes to your health there is no difference between the more common table salt, and the more expensive sea salt, so why bother.
• Well, just in case consuming sea salt does have health benefits, (when no one claims the same for table salt) I’ve decided to bother.
• In my experience, I need to use more table salt than sea salt to season my food to taste. If using less salt is healthier, then sea salt makes sense.
• Oh, and did I mention, my wife and I think sea salt tastes better!

Two final unconventional reasons I choose sea salt; table salt will kill an aquarium full of salt-water fish, while of course, sea salt will not, hmmm. And, I can’t imagine life with more green veggies and fewer sea salt caramels!

Sea salt is available at many grocery stores, and most health food outlets. You can also find it online from a variety of sources.

If you are looking for a pure source of sea salt, I recommend Celtic Sea Salt from Selina Naturally. They also offer some terrific seasoned varieties for you cooks out there. Check them out HERE.

For smaller quantities, a friend to BoomersKnowHow.com also offers Celtic Sea Salt. You can check out Joey Korn’s online store HERE.

In case you are wondering, we do not benefit financially from either supplier.

If you have an opinion, we’d love to hear it. Drop us a line in the comments section below.

Until next time, happy sea salting!

RG

Editor

BoomersKnowHow.com

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