I recently learned that the English language has a saying: "the salt of the earth" which means something like "the best the world has to offer".

A Thai massage is the salt of the earth because it simply makes me float into the heavens. Brad Pitt is the salt of the earth, being considered God’s gift to women.

Nelson Mandela is definitely the salt of the earth. I’ve never seen a person more sincere, pure, strong and courageous.

But is salt also the salt of the earth?

Recently salt has lost it’s allure and is pictured as a bit of a poison, a health damager, especially to people suffering from cardiac diseases and elevated blood pressure. But is this fair to all of us? Is the use of salt just plain wrong or is the story a little more complex?

Writing an article about salt for Salt Magazine I learned a bit more and came to the conclusion that salt, in moderation and consumed in the right form, doesn’t have to be wrong at all.

Sea salt in fact is made out of 84 different minerals we actually need and that contribute to our health. When plants grow on sea salt fertilized grounds and we eat these plants we get all the benefits from the minerals but no nasty side effects.

Sea salt itself is not really bad either. The combination of the 84 minerals makes our blood pressure elevate only when consumed in excess. Normal table salt, which is made from only one of these 84 minerals, raises blood pressure much faster and doesn’t have the positive effects of all the minerals combined.

Many take away meals, prefab dinners, sauces, canned and refined foods contain large amounts of table salt.

So choose wisely when you consume salt but please do enjoy in moderation!

Good options are: green leaf vegetables, sea salt, wild fish, miso, soy sauce and seaweeds.

Kyra de Vreeze educates about food and lifestyle and has a number of articles published this fall. For the full article on salt check out Salt Magazine.

For more information: www.kyradevreeze.nl