Are You Eating Too Much Salt?
Dr. Mark Hyman breaks down the truth about salt intake
Whether we’re eating at home or a restaurant, many of us add salt to whatever we’re dining on — often to make something a bit bland more flavorful (or maybe even just out of habit). So all of this had us wondering: Are we all eating too much salt? More than that: Are any types of salt better for us than others? And how can we ingest salt responsibly? We turned to our favorite health expert Dr. Mark Hyman, author of the new cookbook Food: What the Heck Should I Cook?, to find out.
Katie Couric: Let’s start with the basics. We all know what salt is — but can you break it down for us further? What are the different types of salt?
Mark Hyman: When we think of salt, we are most commonly thinking about the salt we use on our food, which is primarily comprised of sodium chloride (NaCl). In reality, there are many types of salts. Today, we’re just going to talk about the salt we eat.
Salt is an extremely important part of history. It’s prominent in the Bible. It’s the root of the word “salary” and the origin of the saying that something is “not worth its weight in salt.” Once, it was a rare, highly prized substance. Today it’s…
