What Is Unnatural?

[Baddad]

Recently I visited my Daughter in Albury NSW. We did a small sight seeing tour. At a Beechworth shop I found this "Natural Salt" on the shelf.
What then is artificial salt or unnatural salt? Does artificial salt exist?
Also I doubt if anyone would refine sodium and chlorine and combine the two in commercial sized quantities. That would make quite a bang.:lol:

Salt comes from either the sea, mining or salt lakes. Whether its refined or in its original state its still salt KCl and NaCl. :)

Its rather misleading

Cheers

[jjjnettie]

I'm surprised they didn't chuck in the word organic as well.

[bojan]

Just wait... it will happen, surely ;) There are more and more followers of macrobiotic diet recently..

[LewisM]

$19.80 for salt... people have rocks in their heads.

I still laugh when I see "Organic eggs". I sure hope so, though I do know there are fake/artificial eggs made in China, sold as real eggs (I fail to see the reason why anyone bothered!)

A few companies recently got into trouble for labelling their water as "Organic". LOL

[brian nordstrom]

Ha ha , JJJ , organic , :lol: but :) I think you will find that ordinary table salt from the supermarket has Iodine in it , like most drinking water has fluorine in it , this is probably just rock salt ,, less is more $$$ in this case , I would pass , I think $20 is a rip off .
Brian

[jjjnettie]

I always used to buy the iodised salt.
And actually, looking back, I'm not sure it did me any good what so ever, considering they had to remove my thyroid entirely a while ago. Now I'm wondering if it's actually the cause of my iodine allergy? Might have to do some research into that.

[rogerco]

I have seen "Organic Salt" and for that matter "Organic Water", I have also seen sodium reduce salt (they replace it with Potassium Chloride I think), Light Salt. Anything the to make a buck I guess.

[bigjoe]

Funny thing Roger.

Is, if they say it is Organic, then by chemical definition

it would have to contain Carbon, at least. KCL. NaCL.

Where's the Carbon!!

They should be had for false advertising!!:)
BIGJOE.

[AndrewJ]

Its better than truth in advertising.
I bought some salted peanuts recently and it had the std allergy warning on it that it may contain "traces of nuts"

Andrew

[bigjoe]

Love that one. Haw!:thumbsup:

[Barrykgerdes]

Does anyone remember making NaCl (common salt) in school science.
Sodium hydroxide (diliute) and Hydrochloric acid (dilute). Mix them till the litmus paper was purple then boil off the water till the salt xtals precipitated.

Gee that was 65 years ago I suspect that those chemicals are far to dangerous to let students near these days.

Barry

[Steffen]

Whatever you do, make sure your salt is 100% fat-free!

Cheers
Steffen.

[AstralTraveller]

As a chemist and a pedant (sorry) I have to point out that the chemicals you describe are made of potassium or sodium, carbon and some element whose symbol is L - possibly you mean lithium or lanthanum :shrug:. Common salts are KCl and NaCl. Also, while it is necessary that a compound contain carbon to be considered organic, not everything that contains carbon is considered organic eg carbon dioxide, carbonates, cyanide and ferricyanates. (Just nod you head in agreement and I promise to disappear.)

[Steffen]

Also, why should anything man-made be considered unnatural? By the same token a birds nest or fox burrow would be unnatural.

Cheers
Steffen.

[bigjoe]

Yes! Gotta stop capitalising those l's.:D

[RobF]

Pathology hat on - iodine deficiency is actually becoming a problem again in Australia due to the propensity for people to stock up on exotic sea salts for cooking and table use - particularly of concern in pregnant women. The good old iodine fortified table salt is all you need to keep your thryoid hormones at a healthy level alas.

[AdrianF]

Go to the supermarket and find vegetables and then organic vegetables.
What's the difference?

Adrian

[Ric]

The price. :eyepop:

You'll pay more for something that hasn't been gassed or soaked in who knows what concoction of chemicals. :shrug:

[bojan]

Labelling. And price, of course..

[gregbradley]

Interesting about the iodine deficiency.

Organise farmers jump through hopps to get their certification. It means no chemical pesticides, natural fertilisers, no chemical insect sprays.

Usually you can taste the difference between true organic and non organic.

It costs more because its harder to do, the organic solutions are more expensive and probably more losses. A friend turned his orchard into organice and it was quite an ordeal. But that's what it takes to get pesticides out of the food chain.

I don't think organic salt meets that criteria - its not grown for one thing.

Greg.

[big_dav_2001]

I work as a Butcher for a major retail Supermarket chain, and I've just been told to start selling Organic meat lines... To be displayed right next to the non-organic meat lines... $34.99 non organic Eye Fillet right next to the $48.99 Organic ones... Guess which one in throwing out most mornings...

For meat, to be labeled as organic, the farms have to have been pesticide free for a certain number of years in order to be certified, I don't understand how we are expected to pay more for farmers NOT to use something...

Also, the organic lines I've got are pre-packaged, in 'modified atmosphere packaging' where the air is vacuumed out and a preservative gas is pumped in to fill the package, kinda defeats the purpose to me...

Davin

[AstralTraveller]

Maybe, maybe not. The fear is that pesticides can interfere with our biochemistry. If the preserving gas is actually just something inert that the bugs can't breath (eg nitrogen or argon) then it should not be able to cause any chemical reactions and so will not do any harm.

As for the 'natural salt' I've been told this salt contains more types of salt than processed salt and so tastes saltier. I took this to mean that it contains more elements than the Na, K, Cl and a bit of I in table salt. Checking the Pink Lake web page confirms this. I don't know whether the elements listed are technically nutrients but we certainly do need them. There will also be trace amounts of a whole zoo of other elements, some of which we may be pleased are only present in trace amounts. The beta carotene is from algae that live in the salt crust. Saying it's 'rich in beta carotene' though might be a bit .. well ... rich. And as for the ' complex, well rounded flavour', I'll stick to fermented grape products, thanks.

"50km from the Mount Zero Olive grove, in Western Victoria is a large pink salt lake. The lake is fed by natural salt aquifers and each summer dries to reveal a bed of salmon pink salt. Mount Zero and the lake's traditional owners, the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, have been working together to hand harvest a small amount of salt from the lake each year.

An analysis of the salt tells us that it is a concentrated store of natural mineral nutrients, rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, iron, manganese, zinc and copper as well as being rich in beta carotene. This complexity of minerals, provides a complex, well rounded flavour - dissimilar to many sharp refined salts."

[brian nordstrom]

:shrug:I found an apple at the back of my fridge vegetable bin the other day and it was still crisp and firm after over 1 month ! yes what sort of chemical/preseratives concoctions do they put on these things ?
Scary .

I cut it up and gave it to the birds , they ate it up happily , but not me .
Brian.

[bojan]

Whatever it is, it's not harmful for apple....

[Steffen]

Are you angling for an RSPCA fine? ;)

Cheers
Steffen.

[AstralTraveller]

As far as I know they wax the surface so it doesn't dry out, but that's it.

[brian nordstrom]

:rofl: Guys , so its organic , wax David , ? yuck ! .
Gotta be good for us ? .
I just hope I don't end up with 'Frankenbirds' up here :lol: .
Brian.

[Peter.M]

Organic to me means carbon and hydrogen, so I love when food packaging has organic on it. You could say the polystyrene the food came in was organic and still be a correct statement.

[Steffen]

Apparently, it contains ß-carotene, which is a hydrocarbon, so there… ;)

Cheers
Steffen.