The price of a 400-gram bag of edible refined salt is about 3 yuan, but recently on the Internet, all kinds of "net red" imported salt have broken people's perception of salt, Himalayan pink salt, Persian blue salt, American Hawaiian black salt, French salt Gray salt, salt flower... In addition to being beautifully packaged and of all kinds, with the country of origin as the "selling point", the price of these salts is even more astonishingly expensive.

For example, a 425-gram bottle of American Hawaiian black salt is priced at 169 yuan, which is more than 50 times more expensive than ordinary bagged salt.

　　Phenomenon

　　Origin salt for sale

　　It is often forty times more expensive than ordinary salt

　　Cyprus wafer sea salt comes from the sea salt evaporated from the concentrated seawater in Cyprus, and is often used as the last salt before serving food; Persian blue salt is the rarest rock salt in the world, only produced in ancient salt mines such as Iran and Pakistan; French grey salt The Celtic Sea from France has a high water content, is moist and crisp, rich in minerals, and is an ideal salt for cooking fatty meat... Exotic and unique flavor and style, such as "the natural Hawaiian volcanic red salt was excavated after hundreds of years of squeezing inside the crust. The red salt is mixed with red volcanic mud, rich in minerals, crisp in texture and delicious in taste. Mild and suitable for cooking all kinds of grilled meat." "Black volcanic salt is mixed with seawater collected from the oceans of the Pacific Ocean, dehydrated and evaporated, and contains activated carbon substances, low water content and high salinity, and caramelized sugar. The aftertaste is suitable for cooking heavy-taste ingredients." Therefore, a 425-gram bottle of American Hawaiian black salt is priced at 169 yuan after promotion, which is more than 50 times more expensive than ordinary bagged edible salt.

　　Himalayan rose salt claims to have been formed as early as 250 million years ago. It is "purely natural and pollution-free, rich in a variety of minerals and trace elements, and contains no additives" (ordinary refined table salt requires the use of an anti-caking agent to prevent the salt from absorbing water and caking). lumps, while pink Himalayan salt is kosher salt and does not require the use of an anticaking agent).

A bottle of 200 grams of ground Himalayan rock salt is priced at 58 yuan.

40 times more expensive than ordinary table salt.

　　The most famous salt flower is recognized as produced in France, and the online price is about 0.5 yuan to 1.5 yuan per gram, which is about 70 times to 200 times that of ordinary salt!

　　Some netizens commented that these colorful salts sprinkled on food are pleasing to the eye; some netizens said that buying such expensive "net celebrity salt" is purely a waste of money and IQ tax.

　　expert

　　"Special Minerals"

　　Unable to detect one by one

　　Whether it is Himalayan rose salt, American Hawaiian black salt, Persian blue salt, etc., the main "selling points" are nature, origin, and special minerals.

Are these "expensive" salts more nutritious?

Is it safer to eat?

　　Zhong Kai, director of the Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, said in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that the merchant claimed that "Himalaya pink salt contains more than 98% sodium chloride, and the rest includes iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, silicon, copper, etc. More than 80 kinds of minerals needed by the human body, it is the king of salt.”

In translation, it means that the purity of table salt is 98%, and the remaining 2% is more than 80 kinds of impurities.

　　It is said that its content of calcium, magnesium, potassium and other elements is more than ordinary salt, so the nutrition is more balanced.

However, if there are many elements other than sodium, isn't it just a lot of impurities?

By the same logic, isn't the coarse salt made from seawater more nutritious than refined salt?

In fact, the trace elements in salt are negligible (except for the added fortifier), after all, the daily intake of salt is too low.

　　Claims that Himalayan rose salt is more natural or purer than regular table salt are difficult to substantiate, says Jeff McGrath, a clinical dietitian at NYU Hospital Westchester Medical Center.

In fact Himalayan rose salt may contain virtually undetectable elements that would be harmful if isolated and consumed in large doses, such as arsenic and uranium." In the current food world, the word 'natural' means Not much".

　　remind

　　salt is just a condiment

　　Replenishing minerals by eating salt is not reliable

　　According to the data, there are three main types of edible salt in my country: sea salt, lake salt and mineral salt.

Sea salt: made by introducing seawater into salt pans and sun-dried; lake salt: made by drying the brine in salt lakes in salt pans where there are salt lakes; mineral salt (rock salt): mined from salt deposits, with rock salt buried deep 100 meters to 3000 meters underground.

　　Depending on the source of salt, there is no big difference in nutritional content and value.

According to the "Nutrition Composition Table", these three are mainly marked: containing sodium; containing sodium and iodine; containing sodium, iodine, and potassium.

　　In 2012, after the former Ministry of Health revised the "Standards for the Use of Nutritional Fortifiers in Foods", the addition of nutritional fortifiers other than iodine to table salt is no longer allowed.

As for minerals such as calcium and iron, it is not reliable to consume salt by eating them.

Salt is just a condiment, not a health product. You don't need to pay attention to too many ingredients. Just look at sodium and iodine.

　　Text/Reporter Lin Lishuang Coordinator/Yu Meiying