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If you've been inside a grocery store in the past couple of years, you've probably noticed the trend in food manufacturers adding "Made with sea salt" to their product packaging. The claim shows up on a wide variety of foods - from organic whole grain pretzels, to mixed nuts, to "American deli cheese product." Clearly the food industry has decided salt from the sea is a major selling point. But why? Is it better for us than plain old table salt? "Sea salt gets a health halo, and people are using a lot more of it," said Alissa Rumsey, a registered dietitian at NY-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "The most significant difference is the texture." Sea salts are coarser and grainier than table salt because the former undergo less processing than the latter, Rumsey said. Sea salts are made from evaporated sea water. Table salt, on the other hand, usually comes from underground salt mines and is processed into finer crystals. (Fun fact: If you're a sea salt fanatic and are confident your local seawaters aren’t polluted, you can make your own.) The less-processed aspect of sea salt may be appealing, but both types of salt have the same basic nutritional value, Rumsey said. “With some foods, less processing does equal healthier,” like whole grains versus refined grains, she said. “But I wouldn’t say sea salt is healthier than table salt. “A teaspoon of table salt is finer, so it has more sodium by volume. But technically by weight they contain the same percentage of sodium — about 40 percent." | 
