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Thursday 7 July 2011

Interesting item on salt and other myths.

"Witness the low-fat campaign that has raged on for decades despite research that now shows the low-fat campaign was actually based on little scientific evidence. When it comes to the fat debate, the crucial issue is determining which fats are healthy and which fats are not: Real, whole-food sources of fats, like butter and eggs, are healthy while industrially produced sources of fats, like partially hydrogenated oils or trans-fats, are not. Real fats and industrial fats cannot be lumped into the same category, and when they are, as is often the case in scientific research, the results are muddled. This was the case with studies on coconut oil, which used partially hydrogenated versions to determine that coconut oil was unhealthy, tarnishing its reputation as one of the worst fats. Meanwhile, recent research using unprocessed coconut oil shows that it is actually a healthy fat with a host of health benefits."

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/229215-Why-Salt-Doesn-t-Deserve-its-Bad-Rap

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A good article apart from this bit:

"Unrefined sea salt contains about 82 percent sodium chloride and the rest is comprised of essential minerals including magnesium and calcium; and trace elements, like iodine, potassium, and selenium. Not coincidentally, they help with maintaining fluid balance and replenishing electrolytes. "

This is a bit of mythology bandied about by promoters of more expensive varieties of salt and comes from the confusion between volume and weight measurement.

A teaspoon of coarse sea salt contains about 82% of the sodium chloride of a teaspoon of refined salt.

There's nothing special here, it's just that a teaspoon of sea salt is only about 82% of the total weight of a teaspoon of refined.

In other words, you can get a lot more refined salt on a teaspoon than you can the larger and fluffier crystals of sea salt. If there's more salt, there's more sodium chloride!

When compared by weight, the sodium chloride content is about the same.

When you think about it, if a teaspoon of sea salt contained 18% "Trace" elements, it would probably be highly toxic!

I know some prefer sea salt, whilst others are indifferent. Whether, or not, one is better than the other is a matter of opinion.

By the way, if anyone wishes to test this, all you need is a set of scales with 1gm increments and you can prove it. Just weigh a teaspoon of each.

Of course, results will vary from brand to brand according to the coarseness.

Whilst the rest of the article looks to be accurate, there are those who would rubbish the whole thing using the salt "howler" as an example.

Ray