Just for Kids

 

 

Salt is an essential component of our daily lives with more than 14,000 known uses. Many of these uses derive from the chemical properties of sodium and its essential role in human and animal nutrition. Salt, thus, can be used to illustrate — and teach — principles of chemistry, biology, geology, history and economics, among others.
 

salt and hypertension

Chloride in food salt found critical to reducing hypertension mortality

by The Salt Institute - October 1, 2013

Chloride in food salt found critical to reducing hypertension mortality
The latest scientific research confirms the critical role of everyday table salt in our diets.
For years now, we have seen mounting evidence demonstrating that reducing salt consumption in out diet leads to increased sickness and death. Ignoring such a strong body of evidence that contradicts the current recommendations for salt points to the political nature of the ongoing salt debate. Since the scientific evidence keeps coming in, always pointing to an increased health risks associated with reduced salt consumption, it becomes folly to continue pretending this association doesn’t exist.
The latest evidence confirming this relationship between reduced salt consumption and increased sickness and death, comes at us from an entirely different direction. Writing in the September 2013 edition of the journal Hypertension, authors McCallum, Jeemon, Hastie et al., studying an enormous group of 13,000 hypertensive patients show that the chloride portion of salt (sodium chloride) can also be an independent predictor of risk.
Referring to chloride, one of the authors, Dr. Sandosh Padmanabhan states , “….. our study has put the spotlight on this under-studied part of salt to reveal an association between low levels of chloride serum in the blood and a higher mortality rate……It is likely that chloride plays an important part in the physiology of the body and we need to investigate this further.”
The full study can be found in Hypertension.

reducing salt

Reducing salt in food ‘makes no sense’

by The Salt Institute - October 1, 2013

Reducing salt in food ‘makes no sense’
At the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2013 Congress, researchers from McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, found that only certain subgroups will actually experience benefits from restricting the sodium in their diet and concluded that the sweeping recommendations to reduce salt were pointless. A report on this work by Shelly Wood, “Population-wide Sodium Guidance ‘Makes No Sense’ in Most Countries” makes it clear that the majority of scientific evidence, does not support people reducing salt in their food. This paper follows several other similar papers over the last three years that indicate the least negative health impacts fall in the consumption range of 2,800 – 6,000 mg of sodium day, well above the current recommendations of 1,500 – 2,300 mg sodium per day.

salt iodization

Public health: ‘Salt iodisation should be strengthened’

by The Salt Institute - October 22, 2013

MULTAN:
The results of a health evaluation drive revealed on Saturday that iodine deficiency disorder had been mostly controlled in Sahiwal.
According to the results, Layyah had the worst indicators.
The survey was taken in 16 districts of south Punjab. The evaluation and review drive was headed by Health Services Director Muhammad Jameel Chaudhary.
Executive district health officers and focal persons of the districts attended the session.
Chaudhary said the Universal Salt Iodisation (USI) programme should be strengthened to reduce iodine deficiency disorders. He said the USI programme had shown success in combating iodine deficiency disorders.
“There is a need to strengthen the monitoring framework to improve the quality of salt iodisation and achievement of sustainable results,” he said.
He stressed the Health Department should also expand the scope of the USI programme.
Multan Health Services Director Muhammad Rafi said there was a lot to be done to improve health practices in the region.
He said it was encouraging that several districts in the USI programme had shown positive indicators.
Micronutrient Initiative (MI) Programme Manager Khawaja Masood Ahmad said in the National Nutrition Survey 2011 had showed that 79 per cent people in the province were consuming iodised salt, compared to only 17 per cent in 2001.
USI Programme Manager Munawar Hussain said Pakistan was among the few countries where iodine deficiency disorder was still a public health problem.
He said clinical research had shown that iodine deficiency was the major cause of mental impairment, brain damage and 13-15 per cent low IQ in children.
He said pregnant faced several problems women due to iodine deficiency.
He said making iodised salt available for households was an easy and cost-effective strategy to eliminate iodine deficiency disorder globally.
Ambreen Zahra and Waheed Akhtar from the World Food Programme and the USI field officers from Micronutrient Initiative also attended the meeting.
The participants of the meeting reiterated their commitment to continue district-level monitoring and implementation of strategies so that adequate salt iodisation level were ensured.
The federal government had set a target of 2015 for ending iodine deficiency disorders in Pakistan

food for thought

Food for thought: Cutting back on salt may cause you to eat more

(BPT) - Our bodies naturally crave salt, a necessary nutrient, and research shows that we

gravitate to the amount we need for our bodies to function properly. Salt deficiency has been

linked to a host of health concerns, including insulin resistance, increased risk of heart attacks

and reduced cognition. But what if eating less salt also increases your weight by making you eat

more?

"Over the past 30 years, an interesting phenomenon has occurred: the rates of obesity have

dramatically gone up but the amount of salt we consume has remained fairly stable," says Mort

Satin of the Salt Institute. "Food producers have been lowering the amount of salt they use, under

pressure from the government and consumer activists, so we are either eating a lot more food to

get the salt we need or have drastically lowered our activity levels, or both."

In the U.S., research shows that people have been consuming about the same amount of salt on a daily basis for 50 years. Andaround the world most people eat about the same amount of salt - about 3,500 mg/day, according to the World Health Organization.

It appears that we all, when free to choose, eat enough to keep us in a "safe range" between 2,300 mg/day and 4,600/mg a day,according to medical researcher Bjorn Folkow.

"It stands to reason that if the amount of salt in food is lowered, we will eat more to get to our safe range," Satin says. "More foodequals more calories and that means more weight gain, unless we increased our physical activity to burn off the extra calories."-

This isn't news to those who raise livestock. According to Dr. Rick Rasby, professor of animal science at the University of Nebraska,cattlemen intentionally control the amount of salt in cattle feed to either reduce the cost of feed or to fatten cows up before sale. Ifthey add more salt to the feed, the cows naturally eat less. If they reduce the amount of salt, then the cows will eat more.

This instinct is driven by the body's physiology designed to maintain an efficient cardiovascular system, according to researchers atthe Washington University School of Medicine. This vital life-sustaining system is found in fish, reptiles and all mammals. This systemis so robust that it contains multiple failsafe mechanisms. The body will actually retain salt if you try and cut back too much. Of courseany excess salt is simply washed away when you drink water through the natural process.

The irony is that for most of us there is no need to reduce the amount of salt we consume, Satin says. Years of scientific evidence,including recent research by Canadian scientists published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), shows thateating the levels of salt recommended by the American Heart Association or the U.S. government would actually cause harm.

Current recommendations from the American Heart Association are as low as 1,500 mg/day, an amount so low that Europeanresearchers, also writing in JAMA, found it would increase the risk of heart attacks and early death.-

"The unintended consequence of the ongoing salt reduction experiment may be an increase in obesity," Satin says. "More research isneeded, but meanwhile, individuals may want to focus on a balanced diet and regular exercise and remember that lowering the salt infood may make you want to eat more."

salt as an ingredient

Salt is an important ingredient in your good health. In fact, no electrolyte is more essential to human survival than salt.

The sodium you get from salt is what allows nerves to send and receive electrical impulses. It is what makes your muscles stay strong. It’s what makes your brain work. It’s actually what makes every cell in your body function.
The body of evidence in favor of salt is strong, too.
Studies from the Journal of the American Medical Association show that people with the highest sodium intake have the longest lives.
The American Journal of Hypertension agrees. They say there is no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduced the risk of heart attacks or strokes. In fact, reducing salt to levels recommended by the U.S. government can cause harm and decrease life expectancy.
Even Scientific American has called for an end to the war on salt, saying that the drive to limit our salt intake has little basis in science.
Just something to think about. And not something to be taken with a grain of salt.

Evaporated Salt

Evaporated Salt

Salt purity is defined as the percentage of sodium chloride in the final crystal; a higher number means fewer impurities. The impurities are other minerals, not necessarily detrimental to the salt’s intended use, but not contributing to the benefit of salt. Solar salt and rock salt both can attain 99% salt purity, but often have far less. Sometimes, far, far less. The purest grades of salt are “evaporated salt.”
Most of us use a table salt which is evaporated salt. It is manufactured using a system of “pans” which boil away the water from salt brine. The brine, which can itself be purified, is crystallized under controlled conditions, often in plants that resemble food processing plants where much of the evaporated salt is destined. The process has two steps: obtaining the brine, usually from a solution mine, and then thermally reducing it to crystallized salt.
 

world salt

Production & Industry

The U.S. and China dominate in world salt production, combining for 40% of the world’s quarter billion tons of salt produced each year.

Salt producers use three basic technologies to create salt for its myriad uses. Now-buried dried-up oceans of geologic ages past have left many areas, under both land and sea, with concentrated salt sedimentary layers which can exceed fifty feet in thickness. Two technologies exploit these underground deposits: conventional shaft mining where miners go underground to remove solid rock salt and solution mining where water is pumped underground dissolving the solid salt and then pumping out the salty brine which is de-watered to crystallize the salt. The third method extracts salt from oceans and saline lakes, growing salt crystals much as a farmer grows crops of vegetables or grain. Respectively, the products of these technologies are known as rock salt, evaporated salt (or vacuum pan salt) and solar (or sea) salt.
Among the three technologies, most producers around the world are engaged in solar salt production, the least expensive technology available, when favored by a dry and windy climate. But vast quantities of rock salt are extracted in large commercial mines and chemical companies utilize an enormous amount of salt in the form of brine that never is crystallized into dry salt.
Logistical considerations heavily influence production facility site selection decisions and these, in turn, heavily influence the size of production units and the structure of the salt industry. “Countries,” after all, do not produce salt, salt producers do.

Rock Salt

Rock salt is mined from underground deposits by drilling and blasting. Deposits are reached through a circular shaft, typically about 20 feet in diameter and as deep as 2,000 feet, depending on the depth and location of the salt deposit.
Shafts are lined with concrete, at least through the overburden and into the top of the salt deposit, and often all the way to the shaft bottom.

Mining methods depend on whether the salt is configured as a relatively horizontal sedimentary deposit or a more vertical salt dome. The differences in mining methods depend on the thickness and structure of the salt deposit. Bedded or layered deposits are mined using the room and pillar mining method, as horizontal rooms or entries of about 10-25 feet high and 50 feet wide. Openings or cross-cuts are created perpendicular to the length of the rooms to connect the rooms at planned intervals. Salt pillars are left in place to provide structural support for the overlying roof and other layers. Most room-and-pillar mines recover about 45-65% of the salt available, with the remainder left behind as pillar supports with margins both above and below the mined area. Each day, based on production needs, several rooms are blasted, each blast bringing down 350-900 tons.

In salt domes, after a level of room-and-pillar extraction is completed, the usual practice is to “bench” the mine by drilling and blasting the floor extending the excavation downward and removing vast quantities with each blast.
Typically salt is mined using large, diesel-powered equipment designed for undercutting, drilling, blasting, loading and transporting the blasted salt.
More recently, continuous mining machines have been more common; formerly they produced too many unusable fines.
Diesel-powered trucks take the salt freed by blasting to a system of crushers and conveyor belts and, ultimately, to the hoist or “skip.” Sometimes the salt is stockpiled in the mine awaiting hoisting; other operations maintain surface storage stockpiles. Each skip can lift 18-20 tons of salt and they move quickly – a large mine may be able to hoist up to 900 tons an hour.

Solar Salt

Commercial solar salt is produced by natural evaporation of seawater or brine in large, diked, earthen concentration ponds called condensers. Seawater averages about 3.5% NaCl (salty lakes like the Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake can be much higher) when it enters the condensors.
Climate is very important in solar salt production. The sun and wind provide the energy to evaporate the water and raise the salt concentration to the point of crystallization, 25.8% NaCl (25.4o Bé).
As the water concentrates, calcium carbonate is the first chemical to crystallize. By moving the increasingly-saline brine through a series of ponds, sometimes over a period that can be as long as two years, the calcium carbonate is thus removed from the final salt product. When the concentration has increased to the most favorable crystallizing level, 26o Bé, the brine is introduced into the crystallizing ponds.
As salt crystallization proceeds, the concentration continues to increase. At 29 or 30o Bé between 72% and 79% of the total salt has been crystallized. Proper brine control during concentration and crystallization results in salt of purity of >99.7% NaCl.
The crystallizing pond is then drained of the remaining highly concentrated magnesium brine (called “bitterns” because of its taste) which are either discharged or further processed for other minerals.
Mobile harvester equipment then strips the newly-deposited layer of salt crystals and they are washed (in clean brine to prevent loss), crushed and sometimes dried in kilns or fluidized-beds driers.

salt properties

The properties of salt help us understand its beneficial uses.

The formula for salt, sodium chloride, is 60.663% elemental chlorine (Cl) and 39.337% sodium (Na). Chlorine’s atomic weight is 35.4527; for sodium, 22.989768.

Chemical Properties of Pure Sodium Chloride

Property	Value
Molecular weight	NaCl 58.4428
Atomic weight – Na	22.989768 (39.337%)
Atomic weight – Cl	35.4527 (60.663%)
Specific gravity	2.1 – 2.6
Eutectic composition	23.31% NaCl
Freezing point of eutectic mixture	21.12° C (-6.016°F)
pH of aqueous solution	neutral

Solubility of Salt at Various Temperatures

Temperature °F	Temperature °C	% Salt
-6	-21.11	23.31*
0	-17.78	23.83
10	-12.22	24.7
20	-6.67	25.53
30	-1.1	26.16
32	0	26.29
32.2	0.1	26.31**
40	4.44	26.33
50	10	26.36
60	15.56	26.395
70	21.11	26.45
80	26.67	26.52
100	37.78	26.68
125	51.67	26.92
150	65.56	27.21
175	79.44	27.62
200	93.33	27.91
212	100	28.12
220	104.44	28.29
227.5	108.7	28.46***

 

About Salt

What you need to know about salt

Salt is one of the most precious natural compounds known to man. Being the “salt of the earth” or being “worth one’s salt” has long been a compliment. The very word salt comes from the Latin for salary when people were literally paid in salt. Throughout history people have used salt to make bread and more importantly as a vital food preservative to keep bacteria from growing on cured meats and cheeses.
What the ancients may not have realized is just how essential salt (sodium chloride) is for life. It is required for blood, sweat, digestive juices and efficient nerve transmission. In fact a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that populations with the lowest salt intakes also have among the shortest life spans

Salt occurs naturally all over the world as the mineral halite, as well as in seawater and salt lakes. Some salt is on the surface, the dried-up residue of ancient seas like the famed Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Ancient sea beds can also be found underground where salt can be mined. And we can make salt from seawater or other salt water sources through evaporation.

Since the early part of the 20th century salt producers have been adding iodine to table salt. This private effort alone has protected countless pregnant mothers and children from iodine deficiency diseases, the world’s leading cause of mental retardation.
The largest use of salt today is for highway winter time safety. Road salt saves thousands of lives and millions in accident costs, injuries and lost economic activity every year. According to researchers at Marquette University the incidences of accidents, injuries and crashes are decrease by well over 80 percent thanks to road salt. A study conducted by IHS Global Insight found that snowstorms can cost states as much as $700 million per day until roads are cleared.

Like humans, animals naturally seek out salt, an essential nutrient. Most people are familiar with salt licks, but most don’t realize that ranchers add salt to feed, not only because they need it to live, but also because they can control how much livestock will eat based on the level of sodium in the food. If they decrease the amount of salt, cattle will eat more. If they increase the amount of sodium, cattle will eat less. This is because there is a natural appetite for taking in just the right amount of salt.
Salt is also used to condition water to keep the chlorine levels at just the right amount for saltwater pools and to remove calcium and magnesium deposits from household water. These deposits cause hard water which puts a strain on appliances and pipes, decreasing efficiency and increasing repair and replacement costs. Salt will continue to be one of our most essential natural resources.

top ten brands in india

Top Ten Brands of Salt in India

On January 5, 2011, in Salt, by Sushant

Iodized salt producers India is one of the chief producers of the salt in the whole world. The amount of resources available in India for the production of salt is comparatively lesser than what the United States of America or the China or the Australians have. Still India ranks better position when it comes to salt production with the available resources. Even purity wise the salt that is produced in India is of very high standards and cannot be competed by those American as well as European brands. There are numerous top quality salt producers in India. When it comes to table salt production for the purpose of domestic consumption the top brands are just a handful. The major player who holds a hefty share of the market as a whole, say about twenty percent of the total table salt market in India is the tata salt. Tata salt. This is the favorite of the majority and called as the desh ka namak, means country’s favorite salt. The name did not come just like that but obtained through the surveys conducted to find out the salt utilities in various parts of the Indian subcontinent. Almost 3.76 crores of houses are using this particular variety of salt on a daily basis in India. You can then imagine the amount of business the tata salt would be able to turn around in a year. That is really huge turnaround and still the costs associated with the tata salts are just quite nominal all now. Despite the heavy competition that prevails in the market for the tata salt, they never compromised in their quality for minimized costs. Top brands The tata salt is said to be the cheapest available table salt of its exceptional quality when compared to any other salt in the whole world, inclusive of china in that. Tata salts has achieved so many certifications and felicitations, laurels and awards from the government of India as well as the international organizations in appreciation of their best services rendered. They are catering salt with sweet care for the people as they are up to the mark with the iodine and iron standards in any packet of the tata salt that is checked out for scrutiny. Those common people who use the tata salt trust that there cannot be any kind of side effects that would arise with its usage. The quality is exceptional so that it could be offered to the children as well as the elders suffering from several complaints of cardiovascular diseases as well as blood pressure. Apart from the tata salt there are other top brands in india as well. Captain cook i-shakthi aashirvadh Annapurna Surya salt Sambhar salt Nirma shudh and many more are there. The list is lengthy as there are many regional players also who dominate in their territories with hefty share of the market. Inspite of so many iodized salt vendors, the i-shakthi is one among those reliable salts when you want to serve the children and patients with goitre problems. Similarly, captain cook is also one of the standard brands in the trade from a considerable number of years now. The latest but still a leading competitor in the trade is the nirma shudh salt producers.

types of salt

Types of Salt

On January 5, 2011, in Types of Salt, by Sushant

Salt is a primary ingredient in the cooked food stuff most of the times. It is mandatory to know on how much difference it could make, when you use the wrong salt. So what is a wrong salt? Yes, there are varieties of salts that are manufactured through different methods. Even though there are basically two forms of salts that are obtained in nature, the final salts that you shop in the market from different vendors are of various kinds. It largely depends on the way of its extraction and making to be delivered into the market for the consumers. Sea salt The sea salt and the kosher salts are entirely of different categories of salts. One cannot be replaced by the other in the same dish for same quantities as it would make a lot of difference in the tastes. So just before you pinch and sprinkle, think a second on what type of salt that you are holding. The kosher salt is something which has granules of very small sizes. This dimension of the kosher allows it to be dissolved in the food very effectively and more readily as well. When you do cook with the kosher salt your food stuff flavor will start to disperse more readily during the cooking process, compared to using a rock salt. The curing process of meat utilizes the kosher type of salts in essential. This is because of the very reason that the granules of the kosher are of a particular dimension and shape which is prettily suitable to allow the curing process to further. You could easily collect a pinch of kosher salt to precise quantities as they are basically more rough and coarse in nature. Rock salt On the contrary when you want to add on a pungent aroma to your food stuff then you should try the crystalline sea salt variety. All those sea food preparation as well as handling with those curry vegetables or preparing fresh salads, employ this type of salt. Crystals of this crystalline sea salts are not quite uniform due to ways they are being fabricated to cater to the consumers. This irregularity in the dimensions of the granules is a limitation with this kind of salt, when it comes to dissolving effectively and readily with the food stuff. One more type of salt is the rock salt. This is obtained as earth salt from under the ground. There are huge traces of salt beds found in the lake city of Utah and also in many other parts of the globe as well. Rock salts are not that rare as these are nothing but the sediments of the sea water consistently upon the earths crust for millions of years now. The rock salts commercially are good applications for the ice cream making as well as in the ice houses. Pickle salt One more type of salt which is just hundred percent Na Cl, is the pickle salt. This could brine a chicken as a whole. Such extreme saltiness is because of the fact that they are not iodized are mixed with any other chemicals which are done for the process of caking in the preparation of the table salts.

organic salt

Organic Salt

On January 3, 2011, in Types of Salt, by Sushant

It is not just the humans alone who rely on the extensive usage of the salt. Even the animals do. Preserving the mummies in the Egypt is executed successfully for so many years by means of effective salt additions. So one can imagine the amount of time since which the human race is using the salt. Production Organic salt is termed so because it is collected naturally by the process of evaporation from the sea salt. Such a sort of organic salt production arena should be free from infecting the other water resources in the locality. It is for this reasons you could see the salt marshes in the remote places devoid of much human traffic. It is all hand treated and there is no purification process carried out in the production of the organic salt. They do not even include any form of additives as you do in the case of the table salt production. Still the purity obtained is of high standards. It is because of the process of evaporation that leaves pure sediments of sodium chloride alone as residue to absorb most other impure components into the atmosphere. Since it is happening very naturally without the aid of any machinery or tools, it could be termed as an organic process of producing salt and hence the name organic salt. Since the salt is not undergoing any purification process there are a lot of stringent measures of chemical analysis and testing associated with the process of organic salt production. This is just to ensure that there is nothing harms to distribute this prime commodity to the public use. Quality assurance The chemical analysis is of significant standards and is completely mandatory to be fulfilled by the production plants of the organic salt. Apart from that even the steps carried out in extracting the salt to until final packing of the salt in sacks standard norms are prescribed by the local government authorities. Failing of the strict regulations will tend to get their license for salt production to be cancelled by the concerned authorities. The amount of space required for the organic salt manufacturing is quite vast. To acquire such amount of lands for your salt marshes the investment capitals are very high. Apart from that maintenance of the facility where the organic salt is produced should be maintained well under the strict standards of norms specified by the governmental authorities. There is a separate committee called the organic certifiers to make these producers to conform to the rules and regulations. Frequent inspections are carried out and the locality is easy to be monitored closely from even a longer distance as the place is so huge. Uses Organic salt production is not an easy to handle task. It is for this reason under many circumstances; the public sector companies do undertake such a sort of assignments rather than leaving it to the private parties. Organic salt finds wonderful application in the human system. It is these organic sea salts which allows the generation of the hydroelectric energy which is a prime driving factor in the cells. Moreover the communication from the nerve cells is made possible with the presence of adequate organic salts. Likewise so many uses are there for the organic salts in a human system.

salt in cooking food

Salt in Cooking Food

On January 3, 2011, in Uses of Salt, by Sushant

Quantity matters It is almost inevitable for cooking food to contain salt. You could just have control over the quantity of the salt intake rather than trying to avoid it completely. The permissible quantities of salts in cooking food will have to be learnt keenly in essential. If you consider the soups and sauces, the permissible amount of salt content that they should contain is just about a single teaspoon for every quart. Similarly there are measures that are discreet for different items which are important for the cooks to be aware of. While talking about the quantity it differs from individual to individual. Patients of blood pressure and the diabetes complaints should abstain from sugar and salt respectively. Even minute traces of excessive contents of salt could raise the blood pressure levels in such patients. While you have a lot of supplements for the sugar in the form of additives, you cannot find much for replacing the salt. Salt matters On the contrary salt less food is something which is less worth eating for a lot of foody out there. Salt add on the real flavor and taste to the food stuff. Certain drinks such as the butter milk and many other gravies and curries items, when you prepare with the precise quantities of salt, the taste would be exemplary. It is hard to be controlling these precise levels of salt when you are cooking different quantities of food stuff. Still an experienced chef will always have to have tips in store. These will be greatly helpful for him, when he finally realizes the salt to be in erroneous quantities in the food stuff. Some of the immediate remedial measures are to add of tomato or potato to the food stuff and cook a bit more. This is in case when the salt in cooking food is found to have gone in excess quantities. Counter ways On the contrary, when the salt is lesser, the resolve is simpler. Just add a bit more salt to the food and cook a bit or just stir it. Still in certain food stuff you cannot do add on salt when it is cooked already. You could adjust by adding a bit more additional salt to the supplements that you eat along with that food. Lesser salt in the dumpling could be supplemented easily by adding on a bit of salt in the curry or the gravy you cook for it. So that when you eat them together you cannot find any oddity. In case of soups, you could remove the excessive salt content by adding on mashed up potatoes or even a full one. After a while just take them out and serve it. You will find it far better than earlier. Some housewives try sugar to be added on to remove the excessive salt. It is strongly not recommended as it would spoil the taste as such. Chemically when you add on alkaline ingredients to the cooked food you are assured of getting rid of the excessive salt content. This is the ideology behind adding yoghurt or fresh lemon juice to minimize the saltiness.

low salt diet

Salt Substitutes and Low Salt Diet

On January 3, 2011, in Types of Salt, by Sushant

Low salt diets are essential for those blood pressure patients. Moreover even for those who do not have any problem of such a kind, consuming low salt diets will keep the heart diseases at bay. Some of the food diet which is containing about 500 mg to 300 mg of sodium for every serving is generally good enough to contain you sodium consumption. It is possible to make the food quite delicious enough without any comprise and consolation for your taste buds. Some of the low salt diets are too discussed in detail down under. Low salt diet

The first in the list of low salt diets is the Caldo Tlalpeño. It is very easy to make. You will not take even more than forty five minutes or so to cook it altogether. It is just a chicken soup variety basically. You could have witnessed this peculiar name in the menu card of some of those Mexican restaurants. They do contain the spicy chipotle chiles as well in this soup to add on to the spicy flavor and at the same time hinder the need for more salt to arouse the flavour. The general combination of this food stuff is quesadillas which are made out of cheese.
It contains just 260 milligrams of salt in total per serving. This is the huge advantage. You will relish the spicy yet yummy chicken soup while do not have to bother about raising your sodium consumption levels.
Stew chicken
Similarly you have many more options of diets. Okra and chickpea dish which is actually a stew chicken variety of preparation added with more moroccon flavours in abundance. Chow mein of peanut ginger, the pineapple teryaki chicken, rosemary croutons in spinach soup and many more can add on to get the list very lengthier. You do not have to bother about the preparation of all these. You could get them in seconds in the internet search in almost any profound search engine. Talking in detail about the preparation of each and every menu in the list will just be out of the scope of this article.
Excellent alternative
Also salt is one other exemplary option for those who are badly in need of a low salt diet due to the health conditions. When you get used to the also salt, you certainly do not have to bother about the low salt diet as you will be under no salt diet already. You could have all those yummy chips and spicy peanuts and variety of snacks and food stuff which earlier avoided due to the presence of salt content in them
All you have to do is just replace also salt in the place of adding on salt to the same food stuff while preparing it. You get the tastes identical to that of adding salt in the food stuff. This is quite wonderful for the blood pressure patients. The costs associated are pretty higher than the costs of the salt. Still when you want to care about your health seriously then also salt is the best option. Money spent otherwise in the form of medicines to counter the effects of excessive sodium should be borne in mind, while you ball about costs.

uses of salt at home

Uses of Salt at Home

On January 4, 2011, in Uses of Salt, by Sushant

It is not just a century or two since when the humans are using the common salt, Na Cl. It is for several thousands of years now the salt is used in a variety of ways by the mankind. The industrial applications of the salt are quite recent though. Still the domestic usage of salt in the houses for the purposes of preservation is from quite a good while now. Home uses But certainly it is not just the preservation ability alone for which the salt could be used in the household. There are many other uses as well. Salt is added to fresh water lime and soda to get a wonderful freshness of energy instantly. It is one of the greatest home therapies after tiresome labor. In case if you want to get rid of grease fire from a particular area in your house then never seeks the resort of water immediately. It is not a good idea of removal at all. You should try to spray some common salt on top of it and allow it get smothered in quite some time. Now it is ready for you to remove it easily. If you want to clean your neat sink, brass vessels, cake ovens, gas stove and many other similar houses hold utensils you might rely on some high quality soap cakes for this purposes. Instead try salt a little amount. If you sprinkle a bit of table salt on top of them and brush it away after some time you will get very clean finishes. Strange uses Imagine if you or your kid have dropped the egg on the floor of your kitchen. It is pretty tedious task to clean the floor. Moreover the smell would last there. The pungent smell of the egg would surround the place for a long time even after the removal of the scattered broken egg. Instead you should try a different idea. As soon as you had dropped it by mistake, just spray some salt on top of it. All the coagulants will get collected together. The contents would collate automatically and you can easily gather them in one shot after half an hour or so. Gardening If you want to protect your trees in the garden from the ill effects of the poisonous insects and other germs, it is pretty easy to do so without spending too much money for fertilizers and pesticides. Moreover they might result in side effects to affect the fertility of the soil and stunted growth in the trees as well. One gallon of water should be mixed with a kilogram of salt or even a little more. Add on a little bit of washing soap also to the solution. Allow the contents to get mixed completely. If you stir the solution well then it would be easier and faster as well. Sprinkle the water on top of the greeneries in your garden. All those stems and the branches should well be sprayed with the solution. Your garden is completely safe from the attack of any kind of germs. You can get good yields for your cultivation for this season.

table salt

Table Salt

On January 4, 2011, in Types of Salt, by Sushant

Salt kept in the dining tables in decorative pans to sprinkle on to your food in case of necessity are nothing but the table salt. The name goes to this kind of salt by the very purpose of utilization. The table salt could either be obtained from the sea as well as from underneath the earth. Natural minerals The table salt obtained from rock salt underneath the earth is a common type in majority. All those remaining sea salts are not processed completely just like the table salts. They do contain minute traces of those impurities of so many sea minerals. Experts suggest that these are negligible traces of mineral content which cannot be lethal to the consumers of this salt. Still the presence of these impurities in these salts serves the purpose of added on flavor, color and texture to the color of the gravy and curry prepared out of it. Table salt lacks these natural ingredients due to its complex manufacturing methods. It is completely free from all the impurities. Moreover table salt undergoes a special process during its preparations. It is the process of iodization. Majority of the table salts supplied these days to the consumers are just the iodized salts alone. There might be variations in the percentage of iodine content present per part in the table salt. The structure and the grains sixes of the table salts are quite uniform. The uniformity in the crystals sixes enable the salt to gets dissolved in the food stuff more readily than the sea salt. Iodization Apart from the iodization process there is one more supplement added on to the table salt. This is a chemical additive which gives the table salt the property to not to get clung together when kept in a container. The crystal rock salts comparatively even with little absorption of moisture from the atmosphere will tend to get cluttered inspite of being preserved in closed containers. The nutritional value of the table salt could just be equivalent to that of the sea salt. There is no lack of nutritional value just because of the absence of those sea minerals. The chemical composition of both the kinds of salts is almost the same under given standard conditions. Table salt can be superior to the sea salt when it comes to the texture of the salt particles as well the flexibility for processing. Diseases There is certainly marked difference in the taste of the table salt while compared to that of the sea salt. All your body requires in a day is just about a couple of hundred mg of the table salt and nothing else more when it comes to the Na Cl needs of the human system. So, mind that you are not consuming in excess quantities of table salt. Also make sure it is not being in excess quantities to the elders in the family to avoid developing unnecessary diseases. Most of the diets use the table salts to very big quantities when compared to the recommended levels mentioned above. So in that case, the chances of developing blood pressure related diseases are very higher when people consume such types of food.

intake of salt

Recommended Intake of Salt

On January 3, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Sushant

Too much of anything is good for nothing. So is the case of the salt as well. Despite being a great natural preservative as well as flavoring agent of the food we eat, salt should be consumed in recommended measures. Exceeding salt content in the body is a serious threat to the individual. When the salt level in the body will go lesser otherwise, than the requirements then that is also potentially hazardous for humans. Chemistry Striking a balance between the ups and downs to maintain right levels of salt content in the body is quite essential for almost any age group. Especially after forty years of age, the amount of sodium content in the body should be kept at regular check. Sodium as a matter of fact is nothing but part of the salt. Sodium and chlorine constitute together to form the common salt. Water is nothing but hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The sodium ions could interact with the molecules of water very readily. As a natural biochemical process whenever there are excess amounts of water sensed in the organs of the human body, the sodium salts present in the system will absorb the water content from there. Summer In the summer days when you are living in hot and humid conditions, it is recommended that you need to compensate for the amount of salts lost from the body in the form of heavy sweat. Exposure to the scorching sun for long hours would make you faint all of a sudden just because of this reason. Your body loses all its sodium content and lowers the blood pressure to cause hypotension and make you feel giddy and faint. Immediately when you are given fresh lime water with salt you well as if you’re completely rejuvenated. This is because of the presence of the vitamin C in the lime water and the adequate amount of salt needed for the human body to cope up with the situation readily. Recommended measures As per the standard recommendation of the health experts, it is advisable to consume from 1000mg to 3500 mg of sodium in a day. You could vary the intake according to the climatic conditions and the nature of the work you are involved in. these factors determine the amount of salt excreted from your body in the form of sweating. You will have to compensate for the loss. The average consumption of the Americans in general, as per statistics, is found to be around 2500 mg in a day to about seven thousand mg at the most. That is a lot. Cutting down is vital imminently. Salt and sugar are the most significant components of food stuff. There are so many supplements which are found these days for these tastes. It is to avoid the usage of the salt as well as sugar raw ways. They are not good for health when they are consumed in excessive quantities. So seek the advice of your physician who knows your body better ways, before you try to consume alternatives and supplements of the salt and sugar. You should not develop adverse effects even otherwise.

benefits of salt

Beneficial Effects of Salt on Health

On January 1, 2011, in Salt, by Sushant

Foremost benefit of the salt is that it is a preservative preventing the growth of bacteria and the molds in the food stuff. Curing of meat requires good amounts of salt for the process to be effective. Sodium chloride is an essential component among the various kinds of salts requirements of the human body. Preservation When it comes to curing and preservation of food stuff, coarse pickle salts and raw sea salts are quite effective. The chemistry behind the process is that the salt has the capability to absorb the moisture content from the bodies of these microbes and hindering their growth and multiplication. Do you know the fact that, salt can intense the sweetness of sugar? Yes it is the reason for people add a pinch of salt in the fresh lime juices to minimize the usage of sugar. Especially for those people with diabetes complaints where you are not supposed to consume a lot of sugar, you could give them a slight sweet taste with the addition of mild salt and sugar to the juices. Even with the mild addition the sugar patients would find it to be quite adequate to drink instead of sugarless juices. Water regulation It is a well known fact and a basic truth that all our bodies are composed almost three fourth full of water, approximately. Obviously water is part and parcel of the lymphatic system, the blood as well as each and every cell of the human system. The traces of water content might differ in different places and it has to control at all the time they do not exceed or minimize from the optimal levels. This very purpose of controlling the water content in the human body at various junctures, almost round the clock from sitting inside our bodies, are the alkaline contents in the body. These base chemicals include the sodium, potassium and phosphorous in its hydrate forms. When they combine with chloride they does the function of regulating body water content inside and outside the cell tissues? So the importance of sodium chloride in the body for great health is quite evident from the above fact illustrated. Cramps Lack of adequate sodium content in the body leads to critical conditions in the individual affected. The body will easily tend to develop cramps and muscle catches. When the sodium content in the body reduces by far, you can see people developing lassitude. Mentally confused stage occurs due to the insufficient traces of sodium. So it is therefore pretty evident that consumption of sodium to optimal levels is certainly a fundamental necessity for the human body to stay in good health conditions. Energy booster All those people who work in the hot and humid conditions of the Middle East countries in some tough jobs have a strange practice in summer months. Laborers in the road paving tasks and aluminum smelting industries are given salty orange juices. It is consumed in excessive quantities, say once in every half an hour or so. They are made very dilute to contain mild traces of orange and sodium to replenish energy instantly into the body. These hard working laborers compensate for the lost salts out of their body in the form of sweat by consuming these juices.

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historical facts about salt

Historical Facts about Salt

On January 2, 2011, in Salt, by Sushant

Why salt Why do we add salt in cooking food? If we had never practiced to do so from the beginning then there will be no worries at all by now. You do not have to worry about the precise quantity that has to add on to the cooking stuff very cautiously. You get cursing on erring, from all the family members who eat it. Moreover it is not advisable for the elders in the family. So many issues could be curtailed by just saying simply a mere NO to salt. Why was it in practice from the very old days? If you infer a bit more keenly, it is not just any single race or community that was used to the salt utilities in their foodstuff. Almost all those civilizations evolved in different parts of the globe have all unanimously emphasized on eating salt coated food stuff. Such an emphasis was not made to any other ingredients of the food, when you see from the overall global perspective. So there is a catch and by now it is clearly evident that the salt must be a fundamental necessity for the food stuff for significant reasons. Sources Yes, it is very much necessary as a natural preservative. The very role of this preservative is to arrest the growth of that malicious microbial content in the food stuff. When you add on salt to your food stuff, the rate at which the multiplication of the bacteria and molds occur in the food is inhibited by far. It is for this reason the primitive man with the sheer brilliance added on salt to whatever flesh he obtained to eat. Salt is obtained in nature in two ways. One is through the sea water. Other is from the rock salt. Basically there are layers of rock formation under the earth. There is different classification of such rocks as well. Under the sedimentary kind of rocks, come the rock salts. It is not something of measurable quantities like how you imagine. It is available in the form of salt beds. These salt beds range from a particular region to a far distance under the ground. When you see such abundant rock salt beds underneath the earth, you will start mining the salt for profits. Other modes of obtaining salt are from the sea water by the simple process of evaporation. Preservative This is method adopted by the ancestors as well since the Bronze Age. In the history, production of salt was found to be of great significance as well as a tedious process during the bronze ages. The lack of awareness of extracting salt from under the earth from rock salts was a limiting factor in the history of salt production. In the history, the discovery of the salt and its usage as a preservative allowed the primitive man to store his food stuff for longer hours to be eaten later. When he has to travel long distances for hunting food, the reserve food is prevented without getting spoiled by means of applying salt on to it. This is how the usage of salt started cultivating.

 

salt in various regions

Salt in Various Regions

On January 3, 2011, in Salt, by Sushant

Europe The salt production in the Portugal is about a quarter million tones in a year. If you compare with that of the Atlantic as well as the Mediterranean coastal regions of the French dominion, it would just be equivalent to that of the Portugal as well. Spain exceeds the Portugal and the French by a little more; say 50,000 tons more or so approximately. Italy has a greater amount of sources of salt. The amount of production of salt exceeds all its peers by far. But all these salt extraction obtained from these regions mainly goes to the industrial applications alone. Irrespective of the different forms of extraction carried out in different parts of these regions, the amount of purity they could obtain in their final salt is not unto the mark. They are called as the inferior quality salt which is not suitable for food consumption even after iodization of these salts. So it largely depends upon the salts obtained in various regions which determine their purity standards. Asia The usage of sophisticated machinery in the processes carried out for the purpose of purification of the salts extracted in the European regions cannot be undermined. It is not the lack of availability of machinery which is a limitation for obtaining purest quality salts from these regions. The nature of the raw salt available in this region cannot be processed to perfection as much as you could do so with the salts that you obtain from the Asian subcontinent. Salts produced in the India, Pakistan, silence, china are all of very high quality. These regions treasure quality salt naturally and that is to their advantage. All those western countries have to rely on such basic ingredients from the eastern provinces. When you move still further down south in the Australian continent the salt ores are pretty better. Pacific and the Atlantic The purity levels obtained in the salts produced in the pacific arena as a whole is of very good quality. Yes, it is not just limited to the Australian continent alone. It spreads all over the pacific oceans. Whole of the salt obtained in the Latin Americas and the Mexican regions yield you highest percentage of purity. Similarly all those Atlantic part in the northern hemisphere, whether it be the Europe or the Greenland or the Alaska, all you find everywhere is just unique quality of salt that could yield you purity percentages between 99.5 and 99.8 at the most. Ocean surrounds almost three fourth of the earth. Sea water which is a prime source of salt is in abundance to obtain salt from all the parts of the world. Still various regions constitute different combination of salts in their respective areas. The reason behind this variation is a very detailed study of ocean geography and the various phases of the evolution from the scratch. To put it all in a nutshell, the salt obtained from a specific region totally depends upon the absorption capacities of the regions salt. The most loyal the impurities are to their sources, the least pure they are.

 

Salt Production Worldwide

On January 4, 2011, in Salt, by Sushant

Huge consumption The world wide salt production is currently 200 million tons and exceeding the mark rapidly. If you astonish on this fact and think that do we consume so much salt annually for the worldwide industries to manufacture huge quantities of salt, then you are wrong. It is not for our food consumption alone, we use the salts. Ways of extraction Almost sixty percentage of salt production in the whole world goes to the industrial usage. Only the remaining forty percent is used for miscellaneous purposes that major constitutes the application in the form of food additives. When you talk about the worldwide salt production, it is mandatory to know the different ways that the salt is obtained all over the globe. Prima facie, evaporation of sea water to obtain salts is the method carried out in majority parts of the Asian subcontinents. Especially in the India and china, the salt production done in this ways and they obtain almost 99.5 percentage of purity still. The salts produced this ways are being washed again chemically to remove the impurities and then it is shipped. Different parts of the globe There are still other forms of obtaining salts as well. Even in India and china you could find some of these different forms of extracting salt. One is through mining process. This is salt extraction from the salt beds underneath the earth. Such a sort of salts is then allowed to be prepared in the laboratories to be modified to the form of fine granules as we see the table salt. Salts obtained in this way are in majority from the United States of America as well as other European continents. Their purity levels are a big challenge though. They are not compete tent to the great purity levels obtained as you get from the salts of India and china. 99.5 to 99.7 is the range of purity that could be obtained from these salts of the west. Most of them find applications only in the industries. It could be evident for you by now that almost all of those fine graded salts of the west are just the western brand names carrying eastern salt inside. Any how, there is one more variety of salt obtained from the brine. This is called as solution mining process. This is almost one third of the total salt production methods in the world. All those salts extracted from the Australia and Mexico is essentially of this kind of manufacturing. The level of purity that is obtained is of the highest grade when you compare with the other forms of salt extraction. The purity range varies somewhere in between to the second decimals of 99.9. It depends from place to place from the set standards of production process carried out. Industrial applications Sometimes it is also about the raw salt content which is obtained from a particular place. There are certain traces of impurities at micro levels which are just integral part of the salt itself and it could not be removed even after so many sophisticated processes and techniques employed. World wide salt production for industrial applications includes the organic synthesis, petroleum production, byproducts fractional distillation and many more processes.

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salt industry in india

SALT INDUSTRY IN INDIA

India is the third largest Salt producing Country in the World after  China and USA  with Global annual production being about 230 million tones.  The growth and achievement of Salt Industry over the last 60 years has been spectacular.  When India attained Independence in 1947, salt was being imported from the United Kingdom & Adens to meet its domestic requirement.  But today it has not only achieved self-sufficiency in production of salt to meet its domestic requirement but also in a position of exporting surplus salt to foreign countries.  The production of salt during 1947 was 1.9 million tones which has increased ten fold to record 22.18 million tones during 2011-12.

SOURCES OF SALT:

The main sources of salt in India are

·        Sea brine ·        Lake brine ·        Sub-soil brine and ·        Rock salt deposits

MAJOR SALT PRODUCING CENTERS:

Sea water is an inexhaustible source of salt.  Salt production along the coast is limited by weather and soil conditions.  The major salt producing centres are

Marine Salt works along the coast of Gujarat (Jamnagar, Mithapur,Jhakhar, Chira, Bhavnagar, Rajula, Dahej, Gandhidham, Kandla, Maliya, Lavanpur), Tamil Nadu (Tuticorin, Vedaranyam, Covelong), Andhra Pradesh (Chinnaganjam, Iskapalli, Krishnapatnam, Kakinada & Naupada), Maharashtra(Bhandup, Bhayandar, Palghar), Orissa (Ganjam, Sumadi) and West Bengal (Contai)

Inland Salt Works  in Rajasthan using lake brine and sub-soil brine viz. Sambhar Lake, Nawa, Rajas, Kuchhaman, Sujangarh and Phalodi

Salt works in Rann of Kutch  using sub-soil brine viz: Kharaghoda, Dhrangadhra; Santalpur

Rock Salt Deposits at Mandi in the State of Himachal Pradesh

The major salt producing centres are given in Map-1

PROFILE  & STATUS OF SALT INDUSTRY

There are about 11799 salt manufacturers engaged in production of Common salt in an extent of about 6.09 lakh acres in the Country. It is estimated that 87.6 per cent of the total number of salt manufacturers are small salt producers (having an individual extent of less than 10 acres for salt manufacture), 5.8% is large scale producers (having an individual extent of more than 100 acres) and 6.6 % is medium scale producers (having an individual extent between 10 and 100 acres)

Average Annual Production of Salt in India is 215.80 lakh tones whereas ever high production of 240 lakh tones was recorded during 2009-10 followed by 221 lakh tonnes during 2012-13 (Upto 2/13). Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are surplus Salt producing States accounting for about  96 per cent of the Country’s production.  Gujarat contributes 76.7 per cent  to the total production, followed by Tamil Nadu (11.16 %) and Rajasthan (9.86%).  The rest 2.28% production comes from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Karnataka, West Bengal, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Diu & Daman.  On an average 62% of the total production is from  Large salt producers followed by small scale producers (28%) and rest by medium scale producers

The average annual supplies of salt for human consumption is about 59 lakh tonnes and that for industrial consumption is about 107 lakh tones; 60% of the salt for human consumption moves by rail and 40 % by road.  88% of the salt for industrial consumption moves by road, 10 % by rail and 2% by coastal shipment to various industries; when the total indigenous supplies is taken, 72 per cent moves by road, 27% moves by rail and 1% by sea

India exports surplus production of salt to  the tune of about 35 lakh tonnes on an average; During the year 2011-12, a record export of 38 lakh tonnes was achieved primarily due to surge of demand from China. Other major countries importing salt from India are Japan, Bangladesh,  Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Malaysia, U.A.E., Vietnam, Quatar etc.

Government of India has adopted the strategy of Universal Salt Iodisation and Consumption for elimination of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) in the country under the National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme(NIDDCP).  Iodine is supplemented in the diet through Iodised Salt for combating IDD.  The Programme was started in 1962 initially confining to Goitre endemic areas but after 1984 it was implemented throughout the country.  Thus as on date a significant progress has been made on Universal Salt Iodisation.  The country produces about 62 lakh tones of Iodised salt and about 59.7akh tones of iodised salt is supplied for human consumption against the requirement of about 60.5 lakh tones for entire population.  The country has created more than adequate salt iodisation capacity of over 175 lakh tones.

Salt Industry is labour intensive in the country.  About 1.11 lakh labourers are employed daily in the Salt Industry on an average.  Salt Commissioner’s Organisation has put in place a number of Labour Welfare Schemes ameliorating the working and living conditions of salt labourers.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA’S ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF SALT INDUSTRY:

Salt is a Central subject in the Constitution of India and appears as item No.58 of the Union List of the 7 th Schedule, which reads:

a)   Manufacture, Supply and Distribution of Salt by Union Agencies; and b)   Regulation and control of manufacture, supply and distribution of salt by other agencies.

Central Government is responsible for controlling all aspects of the Salt Industry.  Salt Commissioner’s Organisation, an attached Office under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion), Government of India, is entrusted with the above task.

Government of India has delicensed Salt Industry by deleting provisions relating to Salt in the Central Excise & Salt Act, 1944 vide Finance Bill of 1996-97.  In line with Government of India’s Policy of Liberalisation and simplification of Procedures, the Salt Cess Rules, 1964, have been amended vide Notification No.GSR 639(E) dated 04.09.2001.  Salt Commissioner’s Organisation plays a facilitating role in overall growth and development of Salt Industry in the country.

The thrust of the Salt Commissioner’s Organisation currently is on the following:

·        Technological Development and Quality Improvement ·        Salt Iodisation Programe for combating Iodine Deficiency Disorders ·        Infrastructure Development promoting Salt Industry ·        Labour Welfare Schemes for Salt Workers particularly housing under NAMAK MAZDOOR AWAS YOJNA ·        Export of Salt