Ordinary salt and extraordinary salt

"The salty taste is so common that it is easy to be ignored, but when you think about it, only this taste is indispensable."

Jiang Xun

White salt is bland, and it is very easy to disappear in a dazzling array of kitchen condiments. But do you know that in the era of agricultural society, salt is a strategic resource that determines a country's life and death and prosperity?

Why is it so important?

First of all, salt is a necessity for the human body. Failure to take it will lead to various serious problems in the body.

? Secondly, as an important food preservative in agricultural society, it plays a decisive role in the long-term preservation and transportation of food.

The third is an important channel for the state to collect taxes from all citizens.

Salt, also known as edible salt, is one of the most important substances for human survival and the most commonly used seasoning in cooking. The main chemical component of salt, sodium chloride (chemical formula NaCl), is 99% (a mixture). Potassium chloride is added to the salt produced in some areas to reduce the content of sodium chloride and the incidence of hypertension. At the same time, iodine is added to salt in most parts of the world to prevent iodine deficiency. Iodized salt is called iodized salt (source Baidu Encyclopedia).

Salt can be divided into crude salt and refined salt. Raw salt belongs to natural sun-dried granular salt, which is mainly used for curing food. Refined salt is a powdered salt that can be used for cooking after fine processing with raw salt as raw material.

Sea salt, well salt, lake salt and rock salt are divided from the origin. Sea salt, as its name implies, is the sun-dried salt in seawater, which contains many impurities, and the offshore seawater is polluted, as well as the radiation hazard of nuclear power plants. Relatively speaking, the salt baked from inland deep wells has much less impurities and a purer texture. Lake salt draws water from salt lakes to make salt, while rock salt is made from salt mines.

? In other words, China's current annual crude salt production is close to 70 million tons, of which well salt production is about 40 million tons. Most of the edible salt produced in China is iodized edible salt, and 90% of iodized edible salt is well salt. Why is salt mainly used in wells and mines? Because the reserves are so abundant, any salt mine can be consumed for hundreds of years. So everyone should try to eat with confidence.

Now it's time to be practical. How should we choose among the wide variety of salt products in the supermarket?

Let's go back to the essence of salt. The essence of salt is to supplement sodium chloride and iodine. As for many other minerals, it is recommended to take them in other foods. It is still unknown whether these minerals can be absorbed by the human body when added to salt.

Based on this, I can exclude a large number of high-priced concept salts, such as bamboo salt, black salt, rose salt, selenium-added iron and zinc and other mineral salts.

But in terms of cooking techniques and flavor, many special salts still have their functions, such as sea salt grilled fish, rock salt ice cream and black salt steak. However, these have nothing to do with nutrition.

There is also low sodium salt, which still has a great effect on middle-aged and elderly people and patients with hypertension.

Let's talk about an additive in salt, potassium ferrocyanide, which sounds terrible. In fact, because the cyanide ion in the molecule is firmly combined with iron, the toxicity of potassium ferrocyanide is extremely low and the dose is very small. Everyone still has to believe in science.

Finally, the correct use of edible salt is to reduce intake, reduce intake, reduce intake!

The World Health Organization recommends that the daily salt intake of healthy adults should not exceed 6 grams.

Although edible salt is a necessity for human body, excessive intake can also lead to various hazards.

For the health of you and your family, please stay away from high-salt food.