What's the difference between sea salt and table salt?

Which one is better for you? Sea salt or table salt?

Table salt is probably the most common salt found in our pantries and stores. Table salt is mined from underground salt deposits. It is chemically processed to eliminate minerals and contains additives to prevent clumping. Table salt is very fine. You usually put it in a salt shaker and use during cooking or eating.

Sea salt can also be found at grocery stores. Sea salt is produced through the evaporation of seawater. There is very little processing and it contains other minerals like iron, sulfur and magnesium. Table salt is course. If you put it into a salt shaker, it may clump. It can be used during cooking or eating as well.

Salt is a necessary part of our nutrition, but here in America, it is overused to the extreme. A healthy daily consumption should be 1500-2000mg, while most fast foods, restaurant foods and processed foods like frozen meals, contain this amount for one serving. As a society, we are generally eating way too much salt.

Personally, when I started losing weight, I reduced my salt intake. It was just the healthy thing to do. I realized that salt, like many other things in my daily nutrition, was a habit. A habit that I could break. I started to go without it at the dinner table. I started to taste my foods first instead of shaking on the salt without tasting. Salt can be damaging to your health if you have an overabundance of it. Ways it can affect your body:

• High blood pressure
• Bloating
• Metabolism and hormones

All of these affect your weight loss to some degree. It wasn't worth it to me. Do I use salt today? Yes, in moderation. I prefer sea salt because I believe it is less processed. It is different than table salt in flavor and in consistency, but again, I don't use it that often so it's not that big of a deal to me. I would highly recommend if you are a salt person to do two things:

• Reduce your daily salt intake and learn to taste your food without salt
• Change to sea salt for a period of time and see if it makes a difference for you

The bottom line is - and this is how you should view other foods as well - pick the one that is least processed and the most natural.