The REAL Truth About Sea Salts That Nobody Talks About (They Can Be Filled With WHAT?!)

A few years ago I decided to make the switch over to cooking with sea salt instead of regular table salt. Salt is an important source of vitamins, it helps prevent osteoporosis, it helps cleanse the body, it aids in normalizing your heartbeat, it alkalizes your body, reduces blood sugar content, provides cosmetic benefits, and can even soothe muscle aches. Sea salt seemed like the healthier option, as table salt is often mined and processed with chemicals. Recently, however, I’ve learned about dangers regarding sea salt: microplastics.

According to multiple researchers, a wide range of plastic pollution is contaminating salt as our ocean’s continue to be filled with plastic debris. This affects not only our sea salt, but regular table salt as well. The majority of the contaminants originate from bits of plastic off of larger objects, such as water bottles or cosmetic products that use plastic microbeads as exfoliants.

“Microplastics are a particular threat to organisms due to their small size and their capacity to absorb persistent organic pollutants” says Shanghai’s East China Normal University. According to Scientific American, if a person consumed Chinese sea salt at the maximal salt dose recommended by the World Health Organization, that person would still ingest about 1 000 plastic microparticles annually. The fact that they discuss Chinese sea salt makes no difference to Americans because plastics have contained most if not all waters where salt is gathered from. “When researchers analyzed fifteen brands of common table salt bought at supermarkets… they found among the grains of seasoning micro-sized particles of the common water bottle plastic polyethylene terephthalate, as well as polyethylene, cellophane, and a wide variety of other plastics” reports Scientific American. Other points of entry for plastic contamination include during salt processing, drying, and packaging.

Given what we know about heavy metals and other chemicals in plastic pollution, we obviously want to minimize our microparticle consumption. Microplastics soak up cancer-causing and endocrine-disrupting pollutants in the water that end up in your body.

What do we do?

Shellfish contains more plastics than salt does, so salt isn’t our first worry yet. Salt is still essential for life and easier on the environment compared to most things we eat, so cutting out salt completely isn’t the right thing to do just yet. Instead, forget about plastic exfoliating cleansers, because the less plastic the ocean gets, the better. But also, cutting down on overall salt consumption would be beneficial. If you normally use a lot of salt, try to cut the amount in half. That’s what I’ve done. I try to be aware of how much salt I add to my cooking (sometimes none at all and let everyone salt their own dish), and also what I purchase and consume. Plastic bottles are a huge waste of plastic and creates unequivocal garbage. I bought me and my family each our own reusable water bottle that we clean and refill every day. Every bit of consciousness helps.