Today's Tip: Salt Smarts...Going Beyond Table Salt

I am a salt lover!  I always have been...my mom even bought me that "No Salt" stuff when I was growing up because I used so much salt.  As I have gotten older and hopefully wiser, I have backed off from using so much salt and incorporated other spices to help flavor the foods I cook.  However, I still think nothing beats salt, and over the years the salt aisle has come a long way from just Morton table salt - you know, the container with a picture of the girl and the umbrella.

Now there's kosher salt, sea salt, crystalline sea salt, unrefined sea salt, kosher sea salt, rock salt and probably others I am not listing.  So what should you use??  I have blogged on this subject before, but today I read some tips from an fitness expert that I follow that were great and thought they might help you too...

From Isabel De Los Rios

"So here's the deal with salt. STAY AWAY from plain old table salt.

This stuff is the main reason salt has such a bad reputation. Our bodies actually need salt, but most research (especially what's been published in America) has revolved around regular table salt - and the results have shown that this stuff is just plain 'ol not good for you.

Yet, in many parts of the world, it is well-accepted that salt itself is not the problem ... it's the kind of salt that's causing problems.

The bad effects of refined table salt are pretty scary, actually. It often contains harmful anti-caking agents, some of which have been linked to heavy metal toxicity and kidney problems. A common preservative in these refined salts, sodium acetate, may cause elevated blood pressure and kidney disturbances.

So what should you eat instead?

The truth is that unrefined sea salt is actually good for you. It helps to balance your blood sugar, helps keep your bones strong, regulates your metabolism, boosts your immune system and more. Natural, unrefined sea salt provides a number of nutrients and minerals, in a way that the body recognizes and knows how to use. Over 80 trace minerals found in the naturally filtered salt water used to create unrefined sea salt give it its vital grayish color, and its slight moistness keeps the salt and minerals in a form that the body can use."

There are a number of brands of unrefined sea salt - just look in the grocery store aisle where you find regular table salt, or if the store has a special section for "health foods" you might also find it there.  Forgive me for this little plug, but I typically purchase the Cargill-owned Diamond Crystal brand :).