Sea Salt: Possibly The World's Dumbest Product

I don't know which is more astounding. The screwball health claims made about common products or that people actually buy them. Here's one of them. While recently dining in a pretentious New York restaurant (not hard to find) a waiter offered me sea salt with such enthusiasm that you'd think it was water from Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth.

So, what's the deal with the stuff? Is it just a chance to show how worldly you are? Do people really believe that it is in any way superior to plain old stinky salt? Let's see what some "experts" have to say.

1. Dr. Edward Group - A man with many degrees. And very little knowledge. 

The Global Healing Center. January 24th, 2017.

This guy is a real piece of work. He is the founder Global Healing Center™ and he is not especially fond of table salt:

"It may come as a shock, but most table salt is not only unhealthy, but can sometimes be toxic."

Just like anything else at a high enough dose.

And his knowledge of chemistry seems to be nil:

"The natural forms of important iodine is lost [nice grammar, by the way] when we manufacture salt. Without this natural iodine, the thyroid is severely harmed, leading to growth and metabolism issues. Because of this, the chemical-based salt industry began to add synthetic forms of iodine to their products."

If this guy really thinks that there is any difference between iodine and iodine then perhaps he ought to change his website a bit to more accurately portray his credentials. How about this?

2. Joe "Crazy Joe" Mercola

"If you want your body to function properly, you need holistic salt complete with all-natural elements."

What the hell does this even mean? Holistic salt? This is shameless even for "Crazy Joe,"

"What remains after typical salt is "chemically cleaned" is sodium chloride – an unnatural chemical form of salt. This form of salt is in almost every preserved product that you eat. Therefore, when you add more salt to your already salted food, your body receives more salt than it can dispose of. "

"Crazy Joe" wants you to believe that impure sodium chloride is better for you than pure sodium chloride. And in the second sentence, he tells us that If you add too much salt to your food then it will have too much salt. My parakeet knows this.

3. Mike Adams - "The Health Ranger"

"Most of the western world thinks of salt as sodium chloride -- a highly refined, processed white substance that's devoid of nutrients."

That's because most of the western world is sane.

"Salt is so devoid of nutrients, in fact, that in the early 20th century, doctors noticed that people who ate white table salt started to suffer chronic degenerative diseases such as goiter. This was caused by the lack of iodine in the salt."

Which is why most of the salt we buy has iodine added to it. Duh.

"Iodine deficiency, by the way, is the No. 1 most preventable cause of mental retardation. Eating processed salt that lacks iodine, in other words, can cause your offspring to be retarded."

This may make you wonder about his mother's diet.

4. Dr. Andrew "Pez Head" Weil (2)

"If you are eating a healthy, balanced, varied diet, you’re probably getting enough iodine and don’t need to use iodized salt."

Is there anything wrong with using iodized salt? No. So, by all means, use it and the problem you never had in the first place will be solved.

"To enhance flavor you can alternatively opt for gourmet salts, which are often non-iodized and contain other beneficial trace minerals. Or try sea salt, which contains only small amounts of iodine."  

Well, that's brilliant. If you are worried about an iodine deficiency, by all means, use salt that doesn't really have any. 

WHAT ABOUT THE IMPURITIES?

And, since sea salt is, by definition, less pure than 100% sodium chloride did you ever wonder what other impurities might be in there? 

Steve the tuna suffers from anchovie-induced post-prandial gastrointestinal distress.

NOTES:

(1) Group sure has a lot of credentials after his name, right? But what do they mean? Not so much, really.

• DC- Doctor of Chiropractic 
• NP- Nurse Practitioner
• DACBN- Diplomate of the American Clinical Board of Nutrition*
• DCBDN- Diplomate of the Chiropractic Board of Clinical Nutrition 
• DABFM- Diplomate American Board of Family Medicine

* A diplomate is someone who has a diploma. Whoopie!

(2) If you want to know why Weil's head is part of a Pez dispenser then you better read "It's World Homeopathy Week! All 8 Days Of It"