Facts About Different Types of Salt and Sodium Content: Which is Really Better for You?

Sodium chloride or salt is a compound that is created naturally in seawater or left behind in dried up oceans and can be harvested without chemicals, just natural evaporation.

There are many types of salts processed for different purposes. Sometimes additives are included to make the crystals flow easier and most table salt has iodine added to provide people with enough iodine for their diets is they are not receiving enough.

Salt is ground into different sizes as well from very fine, such as for table salt, iodized salt, pickling salt, and popcorn salt, to larger crystals, such as for rock salt and kosher salt. Natural sea salt can come in smaller or larger grains with varying levels of saltiness.

Genuine natural salt as defined by FDA guidelines is salt that has undergone minimal processing and have no colors or artificial additives added.

Let's look at the 3 types of salt most often used in the average home kitchen. They are table salt, sea salt, and kosher salt.

Table Salt

Table salt is generally mined in caves, which are nothing more than dried bodies of sea water. It is mined, ground up into various-sized grains, processed with chemicals, and substances, such as potassium iodide and anti-caking agent, are added before packaging and shipping it off to stores. Due to the smaller grains of most table salts, each teaspoon serving contains a lot more sodium than the larger crystals present in other type of salts.

Sea Salt

Sea salt is processed by taking sea water, storing them in small ponds, and allowing it to evaporate naturally. After the water evaporates (averaging 1-5 years), the remaining salt is harvested, washed, screened, and packaged. You can see why sea salt generally costs a lot more than regular salt due to all the extra steps and processes.

Kosher Salt

Contrary to popular belief, kosher salt has nothing to do with Jewish guidelines but due to the fact that it is the best salt used to draw blood and other fluids from meat to cure and preserve it longer. Kosher salt has larger crystals that usually have no added additives. The larger crystals allow them to cover more surface area and dissolve slower than smaller grains which mean that they have more time to absorb the fluids from the meat. Of course, this process is used to make meat kosher for Jewish guidelines but the actual term "kosher" in kosher salt is short for koshering which is another term for curing meat.

Cooks generally prefer larger salt crystals, such as kosher salt, when cooking because they are easier to measure by hand, salt large amounts of food, such as stews or soups, adhere to foods better, and the larger volume means that fewer crystals are used with the same weight as finer crystal salt resulting in less sodium. Kosher salt is not used in many baking recipes because there is usually not enough liquid in the recipes to dissolve all of the kosher salt.

The volume of kosher salt varies from company to company and the containers usually tell us how much salt to use compared to table salt with conversion guidelines. Generally the conversion is kosher salt equals 2 times the amount of table salt required in a recipe. The weights are the same, so that is another way to measure the amount of kosher salt required.

Health

Higher levels of sodium content affect blood pressure (hypertension) which can lead to heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and kidney failure. The USDA recommends that individuals should consume less than 2,300 mg (approximately 1 teaspoon of salt) of sodium each day. They also recommend that people with hypertension, people of color, and middle-aged or older adults limit their intake to a maximum of 1,500 mg of sodium per day.

Comparing Sodium Levels

When comparing sodium levels of salt, a comparable volume in regards to weight and sodium content needs to be looked at. Teaspoon size is suitable for comparison with the following examples. A teaspoon of table salt, such as Morton Salt, weighs 6 grams with 2,360 mg of sodium per teaspoon. A teaspoon of sea salt, such as Whole Foods, weighs 4.8 grams with 1,680 mg of sodium per teaspoon. As we saw before, a teaspoon of table salt is generally equal in volume to 2 teaspoons of kosher salt.

For the most part, sea salt generally costs 2-3 times more than regular iodized table salt and kosher salt is generally priced between that of iodized table and sea salt -- some brands of kosher salt are about the same price as iodized table salt. The best bargain for the larger grain salts is kosher salt. Sea salt is usually no better for your health than kosher salt, so there is no need to pay exuberant amounts for no extra benefits.

For real-life examples, below is a short comparison of different type of salts available at different stores and sites.

Netgrocer

Morton Iodized salt
Weight: 26 ounces
Price: $0.89
Ingredients: Salt, Calcium Silicate, Dextrose and Potassium Iodide
1 teaspoon = 2360 milligrams sodium

Morton sea salt fine
Weight: 26 ounces
Price: $2.95
Ingredients: Salt, Yellow Prussiate of Soda (Anticaking Agent)
1 teaspoon = 2240 milligrams sodium

Morton Iodized Sea Salt
Weight: 26 ounces
Price: $2.55 Price
Ingredients: Sea Salt, Calcium Silicate, Dextrose, Potassium Iodide.
1 teaspoon = 2360 millgrams sodium

Hain Pure Foods Sea Salt
Weight: 26 ounces
Price: $1.65
Ingredients: Salt, Calcium Silicate (Anticaking Agent)
1 teaspoon = 2360 milligrams sodium

Shop Rite

Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
Weight: 48 ounces
Price: $1.96
1 teaspoon = 1120 milligrams Sodium

As you can see above, I have listed the brand and type of salt, weight of the container, price, ingredients, followed by the amount of sodium per teaspoon of each type of salt including iodized salt, sea salt, iodized sea salt, natural sea salt, and kosher salt. A few things are evident right off the bat -- comparatively, iodized salt and kosher salt are approximately the same price (taking into account that the kosher salt container weighs almost twice as much as the iodized salt) and, most importantly, kosher salt has the least amount of sodium of all the salts listed, approximately half as much sodium as all of the other salts. The regular sea salt is fine grains but I am sure that even larger grains of sea salt will not contain as low as amount of sodium as the kosher salt -- it might come close but the price will still be lower with kosher salt, making it a better choice.

Conclusion

which salt is really better for you? Any of the larger grain salts, especially kosher, will contain the least amount of sodium due to the fact that their volume is a lot larger than smaller grain salts, resulting in less salt and, in turn, less sodium per serving. Technically, no salt really contains less sodium than another; it's all about the size of the salt grains. Kosher salt is the best bet even if you find a sea salt with large grains and an equal amount of sodium per serving because kosher salt generally costs a lot less than sea salt. Some people prefer the unique flavors of sea salt but, if that is not a consideration, kosher salt is without a doubt the salt to buy.

Sources: ask.yahoo.com, Wikipedia, Netgrocer, Shop Rite