Not telling any lewd tales here, but there’s something I need to talk about because 1) Some Facebook friends of mine are crazy about it and 2) it has the sensitive word “Himalayan” in its name. The topic today is Himalayan Salt. Sounds exotic? Well, let’s hear a brief intro to this mighty mineral which often goes like this:
- It’s raw, natural, pure crystal, unbleached and unprocessed. One of the healthiest salts on earth.
This salt from the Himalayas is known as “white gold.” Together with pure spring water, Himalayan Crystal Salt offers all the natural elements exactly identical to the elements in your body — the very same elements originally found existing in the “primal sea.”
Containing all of the 84 elements found in your body, the benefits of natural Himalayan Crystal Salt include:
1.Regulating the water content throughout your body.
2.Promoting a healthy pH balance in your cells, particularly your brain cells.
3.Promoting blood sugar health and helping to reduce the signs of aging.
4.Assisting in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your body.
5.Absorption of food particles through your intestinal tract.
6.Supporting respiratory health.
7.Promoting sinus health.
8.Prevention of muscle cramps.
9.Promoting bone strength.
10.Regulating your sleep — it naturally promotes sleep.
11.Promoting vascular health.
12.In conjunction with water it is actually essential for the regulation of your blood pressure.
Use it as your cooking salt, bath soak or rub salt.
Reduce your usuage of Table Salt.
Try Himalayan Salt today!
Wow! No wonder this is one of the top 10 bestselling item in health food stores all over America. A salt that can “regulate” your blood pressure. Are Americans assuming that “regulation” means to alleviate hypertension which affects 36% of their population over age 45? We’ll talk about the brain cells part later.
And from the looks of things, this Himalayan salt is probably going to take Singapore by storm too. But after studying the euphoric “medical literature”, let’s get back down on earth and take a good look at the geographical and geological aspects of this wonderful salt. According to Wikipedia:
Himalayan salt is a marketing term for Halite (commonly known as rock salt) from Pakistan, which began being sold by various companies in Europe, North America, and Australia in the early 21st century. It is mined in the Khewra Salt Mines, the second largest salt mine in the world, located in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan, about 300 km from the Himalayas, about 160 kilometres from Islamabad, and 260 kilometres from Lahore, and in the foothills of the Salt Range.
The salt sometimes comes out in a reddish or pink color, with some crystals having an off-white to transparent color. It is commonly used for cooking similar to regular table salt, brine, and bath products.
Similar salts
Rock salts mined in several parts of the world, including Hawaii, Utah, Bolivia, the Murray-Darling basin of Australia, Peru, and Poland are marketed as Himalayan salt or pink salt. The color results from iron oxide.
For those who are still dreaming, we can draw 2 conclusions from the info in blue. 1)The salt marketed as “Himalayan Salt” does not originate from the Himalayas, but calling it “Himalayan Salt” probably makes it infinitely more marketable than calling it “Punjabi Salt”. 2)Coming from the second largest salt mine in the world, this salt can’t be that rare or expensive.
So can the real Himalayan salt please raise your hand? Some victims of the Himalayan salt myth have declared (seemingly in revenge) that there are no salt mines in the Himalayas. This is patently untrue. Tibetan yak butter tea, a several times daily beverage for most Tibetans, has always been flavoured with salt. Yes, butter tea with salt. It takes time (and a strong stomach) to get used to it. And if Tibetans were using salt so generously, they must have plenty of it. So much so that the then lucrative salt trade made Tibet a very rich and powerful country with an expansionist policy during pre-Buddhist times.
There is a hamlet on the bank of the Mekong River in Tibet called Yanjing which translates into “salt well”. Unlike the mines in Pakistan, brine is drawn from their sources and dried on pans. The result? Authentic Tibetan (Himalayan) salt. In its purest, most pristine form, the salt is, ironically, grey in colour with contaminants you won’t want to hear about. Sure, it must also have all of the essential trace elements your body needs, but it also looks, smells and tastes like dirt.
It’s been so many years after James Hilton wrote The Lost Horizon. The hippie movement came and went. Nepal’s living goddesses and Buddhas once attracted thousands. Mystical gurus commanded audiences of highly-educated people, then vanished without a trace. Still, the appeal of Himalayan/Tibetan culture remains as strong as ever. And the most amazing thing about this appeal is that people who would faint or throw up at high altitude, people who dread walking through minefields of dog poo, people who can’t stomach even a mouthful of Tibetan tea (flavoured with pure Himalayan salt) are still drawn to the mystical appeal of Tibet.
The entire Himalayan region used to have low life expectancy, high infant mortality, eternal dry, sunburnt skin. If I told you that yak butter was smeared on the face to prevent dry skin, would you pay a handsome price for an Oil of Yaklay to replace your moisturisers? Get real. A resident of the high Himalayas in his late 20s can look as old as I do. Why and how did things “Himalayan” become associated with health and even anti-aging?
To be fair, there are treasures in this land. Some are spiritual. Some are highly visible and very tangible indeed – like saffron, cordyceps and turquoise. But there is no medicine, no herb, much less a salt that can do the wonders purported by the sellers. Nevertheless, a short stay in the Himalayas (something I sorely miss and feeling more than a little depressed as a result) is always therapeutic – even if it means learning about giadiasis the hard way.
Let’s get back to science. Chemical analysis has revealed that “Himalayan Salt” is no different from table salt in terms of their abilities to cause hypertension. It’s 98% sodium chloride after all. Sellers harp on the 2% trace elements which our bodies need – which is very nice if we don’t have to consume the 98% NaCl to get to that 2% (mostly gypsum and silica). But can’t we get more than 2% of the trace elements we need from other food sources without the need to ingest more NaCl? In order to get an adequate supply of trace elements from a salt, we probably have to eat many spoonfuls of it every day. The outcome of that may in fact give a boost to your brain cells. Hopefully, it’s not too late.
The conclusion? “Himalayan” Salt is probably not harmful (unless someone dyed it pink with some ink from China) but it’s not really worth its salt. There’s plenty of it on the planet. Low sodium salt is far healthier than any natural-occurring salt. Get your trace elements from the huge variety of fresh foods and vegetables out there. Don’t place all your faith in the “natural” and exotic “Himalayan” stuff.
