While I’m known for giving my friends absolute Hell, I have some pretty damn good buddies. My wife and I are extremely blessed with some super cool mountain bike folks who have helped me along my journey to becoming a better mountain biker and ultimately getting to the starting line of the TourDivide 2013.
One friend is Sunny who her name represents her personality. Her and her husband Owen have been a rock of support and encouragement for me. While I wouldn’t classify them as health nuts, they definitely take care of their bodies through good foods.
Because I’m interested in eating clean and living better through good foods, Sunny volunteers a lot of different suggestions for food. One thing she brought up the other day was Celtic Sea Salt. I’d given it a pass however since I’m trying to balance out my electrolytes in this Alabama heat, my interests were piqued. Especially since every time I went to a conventional grocery store and looked to buy salt, I would always see this message:
Sonny said regular table salt really didn’t have any nutritional qualities and after a bit of research, I can see where she’s coming from. I did a bit of research of the pros and cons of Celtic Sea Salt and concluded that this stuff is rather good for the athlete or Alabamian out in this mega-heat we’re having right now.
I read over several websites and man, this stuff sounds like magic! One website claims deeper sleep, builds immune system, heals wounds, stops muscle cramps and helps regular blood pressure! It’s the FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH! OMG I’M BUYING IT BY THE BUCKETS!
As usual, I’m rather skeptical about stuff so I went through the pros and cons of the salt and here’s what I came up with:
Refers to naturally moist salt harvested from the Atlantic seawater off the coast of Brittany, France. This type of salt are harvested using the Celtic method of wooden rakes allowing no metal to touch the salt.
It is naturally air and sun-dried in clay ponds and gathered with wooden tools to preserve its living enzymes. Because it is unrefined, it contains all of the 84 beneficial live elements found in sea water, with no chemical and preservatives nor any other additives
The water from this specific region of France contains a higher percentage of mineral-dense natural brine, or seawater, than other bodies of water. Nearly 80 essential and trace minerals have been identified in the salt crystals. These nutrients provide the body with many of the raw materials that help support healthy body functions, such as immune system strengthening, absorption of nutrients from food, cleansing and detoxification, and healthy digestion.
Unrefined salt also stimulates the production of enzymes and digestive juices which are necessary for the body to utilize nutrients from the foods we eat. This can be especially beneficial for people whose diet consists mainly of cooked foods, since cooking foods destroys enzyme content. Unrefined sea salt can help the body digest these foods properly.
Another bonus: unrefined sea salt is great for the adrenal glands. Salt cravings are common among those with adrenal fatigue, but the body is telling you it wants the natural trace minerals in unrefined sea salt – not a huge dose of refined sodium!
Well that’s lovely – why not buy boatloads of it RIGHT NOW!? Right?
Okay what about the cons?
The key difference between table salt and sea salt is that table salt contains iodine, which is essential for human health. Sea salt does not. It is not recommended as a complete substitute for table salt. Sea salt is also more expensive than regular table salt.
Two types of natural, unrefined salt which are both very respected are Himalayan Crystal Salt, an all-natural source from the Himalayas and Celtic Sea Salt, which comes from pollution-free seawater farms. Even with Sea Salt the labels need to be read carefully. The fact is that many table salts labeled “sea salt” are washed or boiled, which removes the important minerals and trace elements.
Sea salt is said to be less salty in flavor…
Sea salt comes from the sea, table salt is mined from places that used to be oceans and dried up millions of years ago.
Sea salt does contain traces of additional minerals (0.01% of things like magnesium) but they do not lessen the impact of the sodium consumption.
Even if the minerals in a given sea salt are important nutrients for the body, why take them with all the added salt? Why not from other naturally occurring sources in food?
So it took some really hard work to find a lot of negative about Celtic Sea Salt. Even if the salt overlords are aggressively trying to market it – us humans need it and, if I understand correctly, the stuff that carries water to the muscles thus less cramping. I gave it a whirl tonight to cook with it and thought it was delicious and honestly it wasn’t that much more expensive than regular salt.
If it stops me from cramping? Sold. I’ll use it from now until I stop biking because I cramp up something awful.
So have at it, am I wrong? Is this all a “myth put on by the food industry trying to sell us on a new thing.” Or does Celtic Sea Salt really live up to all these claims. Feel free to leave some comments and I’ll make sure to read and respond!
oh yeah, one other thing…
I have not tested it on slugs yet but I aim to the first one I see munching on leaves in my garden