Myth heard at Project SHARE blood pressure screening: “At home, I use sea salt, which has less sodium than table salt, so it’s not as bad for me.”

Though sea salt and table salt come from different places, they both have 40% sodium. The main difference between these salts is where they come from. Some salt comes from mines and some from sea water.

Sea salt is taken out of sea water. After the water is taken away, the salt is either not processed or processed very little, so it has a larger, grainy texture as well as small amounts of leftover minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Magnesium and calcium are minerals that help bones and cells. These two minerals also help the body process other important vitamins. Potassium is an essential mineral for our body’s cells and it has been found to regulate people’s blood pressure.

Table salt is mined in salt deposits in the ground, and then processed. Processing usually involves bleaching and refining the salt as well as including additives that prevent clumping. Due to the processing, all of the minerals that may have been in the table salt originally are taken out.

Using too much salt in your cooking can be bad for you, but the highest amounts of sodium come from processed, prepackaged, or restaurant foods. Adults are not supposed to have more than one teaspoon of salt (2,400mg of sodium) a day, and most of that usually comes from eating processed foods like chips or pre-packaged meals. However, it is important to remember that whether or not you are eating processed foods in addition to home cooking, it doesn’t matter what kind of salt you use at home because it all has the same amount of sodium. Therefore, when using salt in your cooking try to use as little as possible and prefer use sea salt over table salt as sea salt contains more minerals. Also consider using other spices, such as herbs, pepper or garlic, to reduce salt use and flavor your food.