Natural & Purified Salts Different? Authors Say No, Though Study Shows Nothing.

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Salt Tasting at Niederfinow, Germany. Photo by Ralf Roletschek. (Creative Commons Unported License – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

The financiers of a new pseudo study claim that it shows no difference between natural salt and purified salt. The truth, though, is that the study’s results demonstrate absolutely nothing. Their conclusion bears no relationship to the results. It’s nonsense of the highest order, but the press is going along with it. Reporters simply repeat the claims and never bother looking at the study to see if they’re supported. The study is nothing but a self-serving diatribe put together by Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) and Which-with-a-question-mark. CASH is a UK nonprofit that exists for the purpose of convincing people that they should eat less salt, and to convince governments to force people to eat less salt. Which? purports to “ensuring you have the information to make the right choices”. If this study is a sample of the quality of their research, then I’ll avert my eyes to the rest of their claims.

The Study

Kent Scientific Services was tasked with analyzing 7 brands of salt:

• Himalayan Crystal Salt (Fine) by Best Care Products
• Cornish Sea Salt by Cornish Sea Salt Co.
• Pure White Sea Salt by Halen Mon
• Sea Salt Flakes (The Original) by Maldon
• Table Salt by SAXA: The only non-natural, purified salt sampled.
• Natural Rock Salt by TIDMAN’s
• Fleur de Sel by Zauber der Gewürze

Why these brands were chosen is unstated. The analysis was only for the amount of sodium chloride in each brand. No analysis of trace minerals was done. Here are the results presented by CASH: The margin of error was ±5%.This is a figure that is surely inclusive of any trace minerals found in natural salts. It is also inclusive of all the results shown, with the exception of one. The results are obviously nonsense when you see that two of them show that sodium chloride, pure salt, is more than 100% of the total, and one was over 3.5% higher! The measurement method used was obviously nowhere near adequate for a study of this sort. Yet, CASH is proclaiming that it proves there’s no benefit in natural salts! One of the results is dramatically different from the rest. Fleur de Sel’s sodium chloride content was so low, 91.48%, that they had to find an explanation. The authors said that it’s explained by its 6.5% water content, though no source or margin of error was given for that figure. If we accept that figure at face value, then it leaves 2.02% of Fleur de Sel’s content unknown. Trace minerals, perhaps? The fact that no analysis of trace elements was done is particularly telling. How can they possibly state that there is no difference, when they didn’t look for a difference? How can the state that there’s no difference when the margin of error can obviously obscure the trace mineral content? That’s the sum total of this so-called study. It contains no information about methods. It was not blinded, or if it was, they didn’t bother to inform us. The results are not written by those who performed the experiment, but by those who were looking for a particular result. The fact that there isn’t one bit of information in the study that supports their claims doesn’t, apparently, matter.

The Degradation of Science

Science is degraded by such nonsense, but sadly, it’s the state of a large percentage, perhaps most, of what’s paraded to the public and even of what’s published in journals that report on health and medical issues. CASH uses this pseudo science to launch a propaganda attack full of unsubstantiated claims that are entirely unrelated to even the pathetic excuse for a study they’ve presented. They list five so-called myths, including one they seem to have invented, that gourmet salt (their term) is healthier because it contains less sodium. That has never been the basis of health claims for natural salts. Those claims are based on the benefits of trace minerals, not the mildly lower amount of sodium. Their screed goes on to state that:

• “Gourmet salts” are not a good source of essential minerals. Based on what?
• “Gourmet salts” don’t taste better. Based on what?
• “Gourmet salts” are not more natural than purified salt. Huh?
• Salt is not needed in food for flavor. Based on whose palate?

The best advice that can be given when confronted with one of the current spate of articles claiming that there’s no difference between processed salt and natural salt is to ignore it. It’s based on a pseudo study showing zilch and reported on by its financiers, who have spun it to claim the salt equivalent of up is down and black is white.

Sources:

• ‘Posh’ salt health claims should be taken with a grain of salt!
• Sea salt health claims ‘flawed’
• How ‘posh’ salt is no better for you than table salt…but can still be 19 times more expensive
• ‘Gourmet’ salt is no better for your health than table variety, study finds

Tagged Consensus Action on Salt & Health, Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH), conventional medicine, modern medicine, natural health, natural salt, pseudo science salt, pseudo-science, purified salt, salt fraud, science fraud salt, study on natural salt, study on purified salt, study on salt. salt study