Is there any difference between regular table salt and sea salt?

I noticed that the the ingredients for sea salt is, well, ''sea salt".

And table salt is sodium chloride. Is one healthier than the other?

And what about sugar?

Is one type of sugar better/healthier than the other?

 

sodium chloride IS salt. It is the chemical composition of what we refer to as salt. I imagine that table salt is the pure form or it, or at most it has iodine added (iodondized salt). Sea salt more than likely is salt that is extracted from saltwater and I'm guessing contains some impurities. However I'm no expert.

 

I prefer and use sea salt rather than iodized salt.

I also use Raw Sugar as opposed to refined sugar.

 

"sea salt" as well as "kosher salt" are, for lack of a better term, more salty than regular table salt.

 

Yeah, pure cane sugar is the best. I like sea salt, and use it often (mostly for baked potatoes), but use regular iodized salt a good amount of the time to prevent iodine deficiency. Definately not something you want to get...

Sea salt is less pure, but the "impurities" (iron, zinc) are good for you. It also doesn't have any chemicals from processing. It does taste different, better IMO.

I've heard the raw sugar is healthier than "refined poison", but couldn't tell you why. I just like the way it tastes, especially the pure cane Dr Pepper.

 

ok sea salt is salt taken directly from the ocean, and not been refined. it will still have all the minerals that are combined with the salt.

table salt is just the sodium chloride.

raw sugar is similar. everything is still in the sugar. refined sugar is bleached and all so called "impurities" are removed.

 

As I have heard before, all salt is sea salt. It all came from a sea either modern or ancient. The basic ingredient is Sodium Chloride.

Most US Salt is mined from salt mines where salt was laid down over the millions of years. Some is mined from open dry salt lakes.

What is labelled "Sea Salt" is just regular sea salt that has been evaporated from a modern "sea". Supposedly the different mineral content makes for different tastes, colors and textures. Some salt is evaporated in depressions in the dirt bed of a salt lake. I suppose some of the flavor comes from how much dirt gets mixed in.

There are supposedly Salt "Epicures" Who can tell you from what brackish pond and what date a salt was made from. Most of us are perfectly happy with regular table salt.

I prefer Mortons Kosher salt since it has a nice flakey structure to it. You have to use more by volume than you would the usual Mortons table salt. Can't tell if there is a taste difference. I have read there is. Supposedly Diamond salt is even nicer than Morton Kosher.

Regular Iodized table salt will make a cloudy salt solution if that is important to you, pickles care. Rock Salt is very coarse salt which is often not as pure and may have some dirt in it. Maybe this is the poor man's "Sea Salt"? Pickling salt is pure coarse salt without iodine. You usually want a non iodized salt if you are going to cure or brine some meat.


As far as sugar, the cane sugars(C&H) are supposed to bake better than the sugars from beets. To most human tongues they taste the same. But they don't cook the same.

Then of course there is raw sugar, brown sugar, Turbinado etc. The basic differences, at least to me are the amount of mollasses left in during refining. Mollasses is what gives "Raw" sugar the brown color and maybe some flavor depending on how much is in it.

Just my opinion,

Jim Henderson

 

I looked into the difference a while back, but for the life of me cannot find the sites I looked at.

Table salt is processed using high heat to evaporate the water, which changes the chemical structure of the sodium chloride. Sea salt is derived from sea water using a natural evaporative process. Someone also mentioned the point about the other minerals that are contained in sea salt that are removed from processed salt.

Do a Google search and I am sure you will find the answers you are looking for.

 

> "Sea Salt" is just regular sea salt that has been evaporated from a modern "sea".

I wonder if "seas salt" contains trace elements of everything we have added to the sea in the last 150 years, nuke material, mercury, dioxin, etc?

 

Looks to me like it would. I also think that almost any any salt would have trace elements of all kinds of nasty stuff we don't want to think of when we shake it on our baked potatoes. I know that alot of salt we use today comes from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Ever seen the river that feeds that sewer pond? I think I'll not use any more salt till I forget this. I'm shure that will be in about six hours.

 

Imagine what's in the air, but that's a different thread.

 

I prefer 'Light Salt', which has potassium added to it to lessen the sodium content.

It tends to taste much less salty - but over the years I got used to it, kind of like drinking skim milk I suppose...

One of the natural sweeteners is honey - I have no idea what is different about it exactly. I never thought about it much, since I tend not to go in for sweets.

 

I'm sure I saw a PBS show about sea salt not to long ago. Can't remember the details but you could probably find info at PBS.org. As for sugar these guys have covered everything I could think of but I would add that in general the less processed the better for any foods. However I do use regular sugar and salt for most cooking to keep the measurements consistant.