Sodium Content - Sea Salt vs. Mined Salt

The salt in the sea water is not at saturation. If i am mining and want to remove salt from the ground with water. I would try to obtain the salt content of the water as close to its saturation point as possible. More bang for my buck. Pumps use about the same amount energy no matter what the salt content of the water.

It's true, to a point. The power consumed by a pump system is proportional to the SG of the fluid.

I suppose it would have to do with the salt bed formation. Mined salt comes from dried up sea beds. As these bodies become isolated from the world ocean surface waters still flow into them carrying dissolved minerals from the land into them and concentrating those with the salt from the sea. This would result in more carbonate and sulfate salts. Additionally it would probably increase metal concentrations such as aluminum and magnesium which would erode from the surrounding rocks. Since there would be a period of time, geologically, where fresh water only would flow into the area, this would cause the salt composition to differ from normal sea water. Think of the caspian or aral seas. These have long been isolated from the worlds oceans and have a different make up of salt than the sea does. Eventually these may dry up completely, become covered over and their beds will become rock salt.

They are both NaCl -

same sodium,

same chlorine,

different marketing

This was My thinking. If You want less sodium add less salt no matter where it comes from.

oilcan13

There are different salt cations in them such as magnesium, potassium, calcium and other salts. Though both are derived from the sea, they were derived at different times, and the salinity and salt composition of the sea varies over the geologic periods we would be considering (the salinity and composition actually vary just by location currently).

Is most mined salt not the remnant of an old sea, so that would mean that the old sea's salt composition is different tahn the current one, or is there some process going on while the salt is compressed beneath the ground?

I think you have clarified the most interesting aspect of the question.

The composition of the sea may have been marginally different when the rock salt was laid down, but that is not the main cause of the difference. Nor is it that the composition is modified after compression.
The primary mechanism in the creation of rock salt is that the NaCl in the sea-water is closer to its limit of solubility than the other constituents; so as the water evaporates, the NaCl is deposited first. In the simplest cases, this forms a thick layer of relatively pure NaCl under a layer (or layers) of heavier salts.
Left as formed, the rock salt would be buried sufficiently deep that we would be unlikely to have discovered it (at least until recently). The next part of the process is driven by the fact that a structure where the upper layers are denser than those below is unstable. Consequently, over geological time-scales seismic disturbances will often (not always) leave the rock salt nearest the surface - and without any seismic activity, all the layers would mostly remain deeply buried under other sedimentation.

Score another one (GA) for Mik, who addressed the point correctly. Further-To that post, ever since high school days I thought it was Common Knowledge that "light-salt" was basic "table salt" (NaCl) diluted with potassium-salt (KCl)... which was beneficial to those who needed to restrict their sodium intake.

As mentioned already, sea salt contains a multitude of other elemental, ionic, and chemical-compound constituents, rendering the %NaCl content LOWER than (processed) table salt.

See the wiki article on salt chemistry, in addition to the one mentioned earlier.

There's a bunch of salts other than sodium and potassium. We use the salt of silver (silver chloride) as a "lab grade standard reference half-cell" when measuring cathodic potentials of structures in seawater. There're MANY uses for "salt", other than making the pot roast palatable...

Is this link of any interest for you?

http://www.losalt.com/

Check Out this link: http://www.americanbluegreen.com/

the Only true salt that is NOT a by-product, and is actually GOOD for you..

US

That looks like a major con!!!

No Kidding! "major con" !

"I believe that Original Himalayan Crystal Salt® helped to transform my dreams into reality. I wish that you, for even one moment, could experience the transformational, life-giving power of this unique salt."

? Aren't we all ALREADY alive...?! They further claim that "This crystal is full of life. When taken as food, it will have a vital energetic effect on the body."

Yup --- you might enjoy your food the same amount MORE as if you had added plain table salt ... but you'll certainly feel vitally energized --- to want your $10-a-pound back!

Re: "I believe that Original Himalayan Crystal Salt® helped to transform my dreams into reality." (quoted from their website)...

For HIM, it really DID turn his dreams-to-reality... selling salt for 22 bucks a kilo he's made enuf $ to buy his dreams!

You know Andy,

I said the same thing, until we actually used this salt.

My wife is extremely sensitive to normal table salt, and say for instance we eat quite a bit of Boiled Peanuts, with normal table salt added, she will swell up Big time, and and her rings are impossible to remove, as proof.

This last boil, I used strictly this pink, natural, Chrystal salt, and she ate a large portion of Boiled Peanuts, and absolutely NO swelling, plus, when I eat a lot of normal salt, my blood pressure goes way up.. Not so, with this natural salt, as i can eat all I want and the blood pressure stays normal..

Like mama said: proofs in the pudding

Donald

Have you an analysis? Is it low in Sodium?

You may find it is chemically speaking exactly the same as LoSalt that I put in a previous post with a link to the manufacturer....that's what we have had in the house for at least 10 years.....salt taste with less bad chemicals.....and not anywhere near as expensive as other equally good low sodium salts....from the Himalayas maybe?

LoSalt or similar is available from other sources I believe nowadays, though we use just LoSalt. The others are probably almost identical.....

Here are the words from the LoSalt web site, which would equally apply to any low sodium salt:-

Everyone likes the taste of it, but most of us are eating too much salt (sodium chloride) - which can raise your blood pressure, tripling our risk of developing heart disease.

The Blood Pressure Association (the UK's blood pressure charity) says that reducing salt intake to 3g a day could prevent around 20,000 stroke and heart attack deaths in the UK each year.

LoSalt you'll be pleased to hear, has 66% less sodium than regular table, sea and rock salt, but all of the flavour. What's more, it's high in natural potassium which your body also needs.

That's why LoSalt is…Balanced for Life Balanced for Flavour

I hope this helps your wife further....

Andy, what a nice guy you are.. I wish everyone on this site was as nice of a person, as you are.

Thanks for that link to LoSalt, I wonder why they don't sell it in the USA?

I am going to take your suggestion, and get this salt analyzed along with normal table salt, and sea salt, by a chemist, and at the molecular level as well.

At least this will allow me to know if the way we are feeling from eating this salt is real, or just because of a great sales pitch..

Keep up the good work on here, we all enjoy your input.

Donald

I am sure that I have seen low sodium salt on sale in the USA....

one moment, I must Google it!!

Here are a couple of ideas for you to follow up on:-

http://www.soloseasaltusa.com/

http://www.alsosalt.com/

everyone knows KCl is red, so pink salt is NaCl + KCl. NOW LISTEN CAREFULLY, KCl is dangerous to administer. a shot of KCl is the killer on the "death by leathal injection " road.

'Everyone' may know, but he would be wrong. KCl is a colourless white crystal. The potassium part is essential in the diet, but is plentifully available in fruit and vegetables. Problems with assimilation of potash can sometimes be ameliorated by taking small amounts of KCl, but in excess it can also have undesirable side effects, including neurological ones.

Yes it is used in lethal injections - but I can think of relatively few things that could be injected in large quantities into the arteries that would not be fatal.

BTW, the pink colour in salt is usually caused by traces of iron oxide

"the Only true salt that is NOT a by-product, and is actually GOOD for you."

You sound too much like a salesman to me, and that website is fluff and no facts.

I think we should define "salt" before any credibility can be given to your "Only true salt"

BTW, I'm happy your wife can tolerate goobers now. If I caught the drift of the sales pitch, you could, conceivably, take a bath, then boil the peanuts in the same solution, or vice versa.

pink halite crystals from the evaporation ponds. The pink color is due to the organism Halo bacterium that lives in the concentrated brine. Is this your wonder salt?

I saw your site on the pink Halite.

Do people eat this salt? Or is it just novelty?

Donald

Donald; The pink halite is too pretty to eat. These are often very beautiful specimens. ALSO, it contains one to three parts per million (1-3 ppm) of naturally occurring, inorganic arsenic. This is higher than the FDA/EPA/CDC allowed level for arsenic in salt used for human consumption. So, don't eat the salt. Jim Fairchild, Publicist, SLG&MS Well, there goes that theory

Not all mined salt is from old sea beds. Some can form from water leaching mineral beds, evaporating in a low area, then being subsequently buried.

Of course some salt lakes form with somewhat different balance of minerals to sea salt.

The actual mineral composition of mined salt depends on the particular bed from which it is mined.

All "salt" is not the same, although the differences are probably not significant.

It depends entirely upon the other materials present. There is a brand of table salt in the UK called "LoSalt" (usual disclaimer), that is ¹/₃ NaCL and ²/₃KCl, with a smidge of MgCO₃ added to it as a flow improver.

Seawater contains around 3.5% of "salt", depending upon its location on the planet. Its content and concentration are heavily influenced by factors such as drainage, weather systems and sub-surface currents. In any case, large amounts of energy are required to separate it from water, usually by evaporation, and the usual agent that drives it is the sun. If real-estate is pricey, and the market impatient, it may make more economic sense to mine it instead; Cheshire in the UK has many towns whose names end in the suffix '-wich', which indicates that deposits of solid 'salt' nearby have influenced their development. Imperial Chemical Industries once had a forceful presence in the area, dedicated to the exploitation and development of these reserves; the momentum has reduced of late. New Zealand is one of many places where open pond evaporation takes place.

Horses for courses.

I was taught that table and sea salt have the same sodium content. Kosher salt is slightly lower.

If a person's blood sodium is elevated then first insure adequate consumption of liquids on a daily basis. Next reduce dietary sodium by adding less salt to food or selecting foods that are less processed or preserved.

Bottom Line and my reason for adding to this thread: Substituting potassium for sodium may have unhealthy consequences. Again, my training said addition of potassium should be done only following a physician's recommendation. Like alot of food and beverages, just because you can buy it doesn't make it 100% safe for everyone.