For centuries, people all over the world have been under the false impression that table salt is just white. Table salt, regular table salt, kosher salt, whatever the color, the salty salt is pretty white, and how things used to be, that's all. Then came about a sea salt with the ability to produce color when exposed to light. It's called natural or rainbow sea salt.

If you don't know much about the different salts, let me start by saying that each salt has its own benefits, properties, and usage. Let's take kosher salt first. Kosher salt is the salt of choice for Jewish food, but it also has other uses like curing of infections, weight loss, lowering blood pressure, improving digestion, preventing or reducing the onset of Alzheimer's disease, healing wounds, as well as other medical issues related to the skeletal system. Plus, it's very important not to use too much of it because it can lower your blood pressure.

Sea salt isn't quite the same, although they do look similar to each other. Sea salt and seawater are very different, even though they may look almost the same under the microscope. Sea salt consists of fine particles of magnesium and sodium. Most of it has been deposited on the seafloor millions of years ago, so there are large amounts of these sodium ions in the seawater. A large amount of sodium ions is what gives this type of salt its color.

Now, let's go back to Himalayan salt. This salt can vary greatly in its mineral content, but most of it is magnesium chloride. When minerals such as magnesium chloride are exposed to light, they absorb color and become translucent. When this transparent table salt is mined from seawater, it is referred to as Himalayan salt deposits.

So, is sea salt made by evaporating seawater, or by regular salt? Well, some of it might be, but it would be a very small amount compared to the bulk. You will also notice that there are a lot of impurities in this product. Most impurities come from metal traces, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, and sodium.

There are still a lot of things about seawater that isn't understood, however, there are certain salts that have been shown to have certain health benefits. For example, one particular type of Himalayan salt called alkaline sea salt has been shown to cure certain bacterial infections. Another type of salty substance called soda ash has been shown to kill certain types of fungi and bacteria. And, interestingly enough, the third type of salty substance known as gypsum also has some health benefits.

The gypsum part of the name refers to the fact that it forms a gel when baking. This gel is actually just a substance created to make the substance softer when it is exposed to heat. This is why the material comes in the form of a powder. You will notice that most sea salt deposits are found in warm weather, as this is when the gypsum is most commonly formed.

When you get right down to it, there really isn't much more to understand about the sea salt "myths". Yes, it does form somewhat of a clump when you place it in a glass of water, but the main thing is that there is not much there that you cannot eat! The only thing that you should really watch out for is the presence of a metal trace called sodium chloride. However, this is also a natural occurrence, so don't let it get you down. Overall, the story of kosher salt is one of history and folklore, told through the centuries to educate people about health and the natural world.