Sea Salt: All Hype?

Wendy's restaurants across the country were to unveil a new type of French Fries Thursday with a particularly trendy ingredient -- sea salt.

And it's not just Wendy's featuring the more natural version of an age-old ingredient - everyone seems to be getting into the act!

"Early Show" resident chef Bobby Flay suggests there's little or no taste difference between sea salt and table salt - and says he uses Kosher salt when he cooks.

Flay offered taste tests in a New York City market and to the "Early Show" anchors and, in many cases, he was proven right - folks couldn't tell the difference.

He also explained the ins-and-outs of sea salt as opposed to table salt, noting that, unlike what sea salt producers would have you believe, the stuff isn't any healthier than table salt, but costs more.

The main difference, Flay says, may be -- marketing:

[emrwagner]

I have to object to Bobby Flay's contention that there is no difference between table salt and sea salt..... I think a closer look should be taken...... I don't believe everything I read.....but I am going to quote from a book I put a great deal of faith in: Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. "Most discussions of salt ignore the issue of salt processing. Few people realize that our salt - like our sugar, flour and vegetable oils - is highly refined; it is the product of a chemical and high temperature industrial process that removes all the valuable magnesium salts as well as trace minerals naturally occurring in the sea. To keep salt dry, salt refiners adulterate this "pure" product with several harmful additives, including aluminum compounds. To replace the natural iodine salts that are removed during processing, potassium iodide is added in amounts that can be toxic. To stabilize the volatile iodide compound, processors add dextrose which turns the iodized salt a purplish color. A bleaching agent is then necessary to restore whiteness to the salt." "Sun dried sea salt contains traces of marine life that provide organic forms of iodine. Some researchers claim that this form of iodine remains in the bodily fluids for many weeks, whereas the iodine released from iodide salts passes through very quickly." However, "Even most so-called sea salt is produced by industrial methods. The best and most health-promoting salt is extracted by the action of the sun on seawater in clay-lined vats. Its light grey color indicates a high moisture and trace mineral content. This natural salt contains only about 82 percent sodium chloride; it contains about 14 percent macro-minerals, particularly magnesium, and nearly 80 trace minerals. The best and purest commercially available source of unrefined sea salt is the natural salt marshes of Brittany, where it is "farmed" according to ancient methods. Red sea salt from Hawaii is also an excellent product, but it is not readily available in the continental US. Unrefined salt mined from ancient seabeds contains many trace minerals and is theoretically acceptable as long as it comes from areas where nuclear testing has not occurred nor where nuclear wastes are stored. However, it will lack organic iodine from the minute bits of plant life that are preserved in moist Celtic sea salt." Sea Salt is not a generic term. As this quote points out, there are differences in commercially available sea salt.....not all sea salt is created equal...... But "good" sea salt is definately heathier for you than table salt. I purchase Celtic sea salt in bulk from my local natural foods co-op. It is expensive, but I don't use a lot of it. $20.00 worth will last me 6 months or more.

[cktirumalai]

Marketing, trends, hype: they are always about us. Sometimes it is varieties of salt, sometimes literary genres (say, vampires or witches). Customer decide which trends they wish to encourage or discourage, and determine which ones live and which die quickly.
Candadai Tirumalai

[mrlaowai]

Interviewer (me): they think that all salt tastes the same... "NO WAY, who said that?"--Japanese civilian... "those people have poor tongue, that's so poor."

so much more to be said... ask an Indian if all salt tastes the same... my guess would be that Gandhi(ji) would say that some salt is a little more fine than others.

how about a Berber who packs his camels with salt in preparation to cross the Sahara.

what a sad day when all salt tastes the same. maybe it is not the salts' fault, but something to do with one self.

[becksteen]

Sea salt has a nice crunch which can be appealing on certain foods. That's its main appeal IMO.