Our search for healthy products is helping us to discover more and more substances with potential benefits. Usually, such products cost more than their regular alternatives, however, their positive impact on the health is not always proved.
Today, one of particularly popular healthy products is Himalayan salt. You can come across a variety of healthy recipes including this mysterious and quite expensive product, although it is not the only one possible usage of this salt. Himalayan salt is also used for production of special lamps made of crystals which also presumably have a positive effect on one’s health. One more way of using Himalayan salt is as a salt for bath.
Since Himalayan salt is really pricey compared to ordinary salt used in food, it is certainly sensible to analyze the topic in order to understand whether it is worth its price or not.
What is Himalayan salt?
First of all, you should know what Himalayan salt is.
This salt is really not the same as the regular iodinated salt which the majority of people are using for cooking. This salt comes from Pakistan not far from Himalayas. It is featured by a characteristic pink colour which is the result of the content of iron oxides as well as some other substances in this salt.
Some people are not aware of the fact why this salt is so advertised today as a healthy product, so they believe this is because Himalayan salt has some unique taste or smell which makes dishes taste better. This is not the truth since there are no differences between the taste and smell of this pink salt and regular salt. Yet, there are people who find this salt less salty and thus, thy add more of this salt to the dishes.
As it has already been mentioned, this salt is used not only in food but also in crystal lamps used for ionizing air as well as in many cosmetic products.
Is switching to Himalayan salt from regular one is a good idea?
The major argument for the health benefits of Himalayan salt is the fact it has less sodium whereas the amount of micronutrients in this product is a way larger than the one in the regular salt.
The experiments conducted by Australian scientists revealed that there are significant differences between the amount of various chemical substances contained in Himalayan salt and regular white salt indeed.
First of all, the amount of sodium in the pink salt is by 8% smaller than it is in the white salt. Still this is not the greatest difference between these two types of salts. Actually, Himalayan salt has 97% more magnesium, 95% more potassium and 84% more calcium than regular salt.
This looks impressive especially if you take into consideration the fact Himalayan salt also has iron and manganese which are not present in white salt at all.
Does it mean that choosing this salt over white salt is a great idea?
Despite all of these numbers the truth is the subject of our analysis is salt which should be taken in extremely small amounts. It is not a secret that doctors are recommending to reduce the intake of this substance as much as possible whereas the maximum amount of salt which can be taken by a healthy adult without any consequences daily is only 5 grams. Even though the amount of useful nutrients in Himalayan salt is a way greater than it is in regular white salt, the real numbers are very small. Thus, there re only 2.6 g of calcium, 2.6 g of magnesium and 2.4 g of potassium in an entire kilogram of this salt. Furthermore, those micronutrients which are not present in white salt are present in Himalayan salt even in smaller amounts. There are only 0.63 g of iron and 0.002 g of manganese in a kilogram of that salt.
This means that if you want to rely on salt when it comes to meeting the standard required amounts of these substances in your diet, you will need to consume at least 30 grams of salt a day which is, as far as you know, six times more than the recommended maximum amount of such a product.
By the way, there are also other substances present in Himalayan salt which are not necessarily good for your health. They are sulphur, aluminium, silicon and barium. White salt is completely free from these substances. Yet, their presence in Himalayan salt does not necessarily make it toxic since their amount is very small whereas the amount of daily salt consumption is also very moderate.
Should you choose Himalayan salt for your diet?
If you do not find the price of this product too high for no apparent reason, certainly, you can choose Himalayan salt over regular salt. Still, there is certainly no point inn it taking into consideration the facts about this product.
It does not matter whether you are going to add it to each and every dish you are cooking, it will still not be enough to get any health benefits out of this product. If you really want to invest in healthy food, you can always spend your money on fresh vegetables.