The description is enticing: ‘Harvested in the foothills of the Himalayan mountain range… contains over 80 trace minerals to match our bodies’ needs.’
It sounds like a new health-boosting berry or even a relaxing tea. In fact, the wording actually comes from an online store selling salt. Pink Himalayan rock salt, to be precise.
Often costing three times more than regular table salt, this type sits at the luxury end of the salt market – which has expanded dramatically in recent years, with everything from flavoured rock salts to smoked sea salt and black lava salt.
Each comes with claims about their unique flavour or health benefits. But can salt ever be good for you?
Himalayan pink salt is marketed as mineral-rich and more ‘natural’ than conventional table salt. But regardless of colour, crystal size or price, the main ingredient in all these salts is sodium chloride.
We all need some salt: sodium, along with chloride, helps keep fluids balanced in the body and allows our muscles and nerves to work properly.
But too much sodium causes the body to retain water, increasing blood volume and raising blood pressure.
High blood pressure is one of the most common – and most dangerous – health conditions in the UK, largely because many have it without realising. This is why hypertension (i.e. high blood pressure) is frequently described as a ‘silent killer’.
Pink Himalayan rock salt sits at the luxury end of the salt market – which has expanded dramatically in recent years
Official health guidelines set out a daily limit of 6g of added salt but most of us eat closer to 8-9g daily
Small amounts of sodium are found naturally in vegetables, fruits, beans, milk, yoghurt, eggs, fish and meat – but it’s added salt that is the concern.
Official health guidelines set out a daily limit of 6g of added salt (roughly a teaspoon).
In reality, most of us eat closer to 8-9g daily. This is largely from everyday foods such as bread, cereals and ready meals rather than what we add at the table.
But what about the claims about the beneficial minerals in pink Himalayan salts?
While it does contain minerals such as magnesium, potassium and iron, these are in such small amounts they are actually quite meaningless. A 2020 study published in the journal Foods, which analysed the mineral composition of pink Himalayan salt sold in Australia, suggested you’d need to eat more than 30g of it a day (a huge amount, roughly six teaspoons – five times the limit here) to make any meaningful contribution to nutrient intake.
And despite the claims to be more ‘natural’, all salt is processed to some degree, whether it’s mined, evaporated, washed, dried, ground or flaked.
On the plus side, at least table salt often has iodine added to it – an essential mineral crucial for helping your body produce thyroid hormones.
The UK population as a whole is mildly iodine deficient, ranking seventh among the ten most iodine-deficient countries in the world, according to a 2011 study in The Journal of Nutrition.
When it comes to taste there is something to be said about using flaked salt, as the larger surface size gives you a saltier hit
Milk has traditionally been a primary source of iodine, largely because of iodine added to cattle feed and iodine-based disinfectants used in dairy farming. Yet our consumption of milk has dramatically fallen – and a survey by the Quadram Institute found there is now more than 20 per cent less iodine in milk now than in 1996.
Swapping iodised table salt for fashionable non-iodised salts can unintentionally increase the risk of deficiency – unless you eat plenty of iodine-rich foods, such as dairy, seafood and eggs.
Even a small amount of iodised salt goes a long way. Half to 1tsp of salt is usually enough to provide your daily iodine needs.
However, when it comes to taste there is something to be said about using flaked salt, as the larger surface size gives you a saltier hit, according to a 2015 study in Food Research International – which could be a strategy for using less salt at the table.
But if you crave the flavour of salt and want to cut back, then opt for low-sodium salt. This is made by mixing sodium chloride with another salt: potassium chloride.
The added benefit of potassium is that it’s known to help lower blood pressure, as it encourages the body to excrete excess sodium, reducing fluid in the blood, and helps blood vessels relax and widen, easing pressure on their walls.
When people with high blood pressure or who had suffered a stroke replaced regular salt with a low-sodium, potassium- enriched salt, they had a 14 per cent lower risk of stroke and 12 per cent lower risk of death from any cause after nearly five years, compared with those using standard salt, the New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2021.
But swapping to a low sodium salt that’s higher in potassium isn’t suitable for everyone.
People with kidney disease, or those taking medications that raise potassium levels, such as diuretics and ACE inhibitors (often given for hypertension) should check with their GP first.
If you’re trying to cut down on salt, be conscious that it’s not simply about what you add to a dish yourself.
Around three quarters of the salt we eat in the UK comes from everyday foods such as cheese, sauces and processed meats – and often isn’t easily identifiable, such as by tasting salty.
Cooking more from scratch where you can – using herbs, spices, garlic, citrus, vinegars and fermented foods for flavour can all help reduce how much salt you use without making food bland. And the good news is that it doesn’t take long (around two weeks) for taste buds to adapt to new flavours.
