Speaker 1: Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I help
Speaker 1: you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Boster, and today's episode is about salt. This sponsored
Speaker 1: episode is an early birthday present to Terra from Russell.
Speaker 1: Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride. When
Speaker 1: used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more
Speaker 1: formally called table salt. In the form of a natural
Speaker 1: crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or haylite.
Speaker 1: Salt is essential for life in general, being the source
Speaker 1: of the essential dietary minerals sodium and and Saltiness is
Speaker 1: one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of
Speaker 1: the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings and is known
Speaker 1: to uniformly improve the taste perception of food. Salting, brining,
Speaker 1: and pickling are ancient and important methods of food preservation.
Speaker 1: Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to
Speaker 1: around six thousand BC, when people living in the area
Speaker 1: of present day Romania boiled spring water to extract salts.
Speaker 1: A salt works in China dates to approximately the same period.
Speaker 1: Salt was prized by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Byzantinesides,
Speaker 1: Egyptians and Indians. Salt became an important article of trade
Speaker 1: and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along
Speaker 1: especially built salt roads, and across the Sahara on camel caravans.
Speaker 1: The scarcity and universal need for salt have led nations
Speaker 1: to go to war over it and use it to
Speaker 1: raise tax revenues, for instance, triggering the Al Paso Salt War,
Speaker 1: which took place in El Paso in the late eighteen sixties.
Speaker 1: Salt is used in religious ceremonies and has other cultural
Speaker 1: and traditional significance. Salt is processed from salt mines and
Speaker 1: by the evaporation of sea water, sea salt and mineral
Speaker 1: rich spring water in shallow pools. The greatest single use
Speaker 1: for salt is a feedstock for the production of chemicals.
Speaker 1: It is used to produce caustic soda and chlorine, and
Speaker 1: in the manufacture of products such as polyvinyl chloride, plastics
Speaker 1: and paper pulp. Of the annual global production of around
Speaker 1: three hundred million tons, only a small percentage is used
Speaker 1: for human consumption. Other uses include water conditioning processes, de
Speaker 1: icing highways, and agricultural use. Edible salt is sold in
Speaker 1: forms such as sea salt and table salt. Table salt
Speaker 1: usually contains an anti cakine agent and may be iodized
Speaker 1: to prevent iodine deficiency, as well as its use in
Speaker 1: cooking and at the table salt is present in many
Speaker 1: processed foods. All through history, the availability of salt has
Speaker 1: been pivotal to civilization. What is now sought to have
Speaker 1: been the first city in Europe is Snisata in Bulgaria,
Speaker 1: which was a salt mine, providing the area now known
Speaker 1: as the Balkans with salt since five thousand, four hundred BC.
Speaker 1: Salt was the best known food preservative, especially for meat,
Speaker 1: for many thousands of years. A very ancient salt works
Speaker 1: operation has been discovered at the Poyana Slatini archeological site
Speaker 1: next to a salt spring in Blunka, Nyaps County, Romania.
Speaker 1: Evidence syndicates that Neolithic people of the pre Kukuteni culture
Speaker 1: or boiling the salt laden spring water through the process
Speaker 1: of brigatants to extract salt as far back as six
Speaker 1: thousand fifty BC. The salt extracted from this operation may
Speaker 1: have directly correlated with the rapid growth of the society's
Speaker 1: population soon after production began. The harvest of salt from
Speaker 1: the surface of Chiechi Lake near Yunchung in Shanxi, China
Speaker 1: dates back to at least six thousand BC, making it
Speaker 1: one of the oldest verifiable salt works. With a spread
Speaker 1: of civilization, salt became one of the world's main trading commodities.
Speaker 1: It was a high value to the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks,
Speaker 1: the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittides, and other people of
Speaker 1: antiquity in the Middle East. Salt was used to seal
Speaker 1: an agreement ceremonially, and the ancient Hebrews made a covenant
Speaker 1: of salt with God and sprinkled salt on their offerings
Speaker 1: to show their trust in Him. Salt may have been
Speaker 1: used for barter and connection with the Obsidian trade and Anatolia.
Speaker 1: In the Neolithic era. Salt was included among funeral offerings
Speaker 1: found in ancient Egyptian tombs from the third millennium B
Speaker 1: s as were salted birds and saltfish. From about two thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred B SEA, the Egyptians began exporting salt fish
Speaker 1: to the Phoenicians and returned for Lebanon cedar glass and
Speaker 1: the dye Tyreean purple. The Phoenicians traded Egyptian salted fish
Speaker 1: and salt from North Africa throughout their Mediterranean trade empire.
Speaker 1: Erototus described salt trading routes across Libya back in the
Speaker 1: fifth century b c. In the early years of the
Speaker 1: Roman Empire, roads were built for the transportation of salt
Speaker 1: from the salt imported at Ostia to the capital in Africa,
Speaker 1: salt was used as currencies south of the Sahara. Slibes
Speaker 1: of rock salt were used as coins. In Abyssinia. The
Speaker 1: Twareg have traditionally maintained routes across the Sahara, especially for
Speaker 1: the transportation of salt by Azale salt caravans. The caravans
Speaker 1: still crossed the desert from the southern Niger to Bilma,
Speaker 1: although much of the trade now takes place by truck.
Speaker 1: Each camel takes two blades of fodder and two of
Speaker 1: trade goods northwards and returns laden with salt, pillars and dates.
Speaker 1: In Gabon, before the arrival of Europeans, the coast people
Speaker 1: carried on a remunerative trade with those of the interior
Speaker 1: by the medium of sea salt. This was gradually displaced
Speaker 1: by the salt that Europeans broad in sacks, so the
Speaker 1: coast natives lost their previous profits. As of the late
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, sea salt was still the currency best appreciated
Speaker 1: in the interior. Saltzburg Alstadt a line lie within seventeen
Speaker 1: kilometers of each other on the River Saltzak in central Austria,
Speaker 1: in an area with extensive salt deposits. Saltzak means salt river,
Speaker 1: while Saltzburg means salt castle, both taking their names from
Speaker 1: the German word zaltz. Salt Alstadt was the site of
Speaker 1: the world's first salt mine. The town gave its name
Speaker 1: to the Halstadt culture that began mining for salt in
Speaker 1: the area in about eight hundred b C. Around four
Speaker 1: hundred b C, the townsfolk, who had previously used pickaxes
Speaker 1: and shovels, began open pan salt making. During the first
Speaker 1: millennium b C, Celtic communities grew rich, trading salt and
Speaker 1: salted meat to ancient Greece and ancient Rome in exchange
Speaker 1: for wine and other luxuries. The word salary comes from
Speaker 1: the Latin word for salt. The reason for this is unknown.
Speaker 1: A persistent modern claim that the Roman legions were sometimes
Speaker 1: paid and salt as baseless. The word salad literally means
Speaker 1: salted and comes from the ancient Roman practice of salting
Speaker 1: leaf vegetables. Wars have been fought over salt Venice, when
Speaker 1: the Salt War thirteen o four with Padua over supplying
Speaker 1: the product in certain areas, and the War of Ferrara
Speaker 1: fourteen eighty two to fourteen eighty four for the same reason.
Speaker 1: It played a role in the American Revolution and the
Speaker 1: San Elizario Salt War. Cities on overland trade routes grew
Speaker 1: rich by levying duties, and towns like Liverpool flourished on
Speaker 1: the export of salt extracted from the salt mines of Reischer.
Speaker 1: Governments have at different times imposed salt taxes on their peoples.
Speaker 1: The voyages of Christopher Columbus are said to have been
Speaker 1: financed from salt production in southern Spain. The oppressive salt
Speaker 1: tax in France was one of the causes of the
Speaker 1: French Revolution. After being repealed, this tax was reimposed by
Speaker 1: Napoleon when he became the emperor to pay for his
Speaker 1: foreign wars, and was not abolished until nineteen forty six.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty, Mahatma Gandhi led a crowd of one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand protesters on the Dundee March or Salt Setiagraha,
Speaker 1: during which they made their own salt from the sea
Speaker 1: as a demonstration of their opposition to the colonial saltax.
Speaker 1: This act of civil disobedience inspired numerous individuals and transformed
Speaker 1: the Indian independence movement into a national struggle. Salt is
Speaker 1: essential to the health of humans and other animals, and
Speaker 1: it is one of the five basic taste sensations. It
Speaker 1: is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food,
Speaker 1: including otherwise unpalatable food. Salt is used in many cuisines,
Speaker 1: and it is often found in salt shakers on diners
Speaker 1: eating tables for their personal use on food. Salt is
Speaker 1: also an ingredient in many manufactured foodstuffs. Table salt is
Speaker 1: a refined salt containing about ninety seven to ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent sodium chloride. Usually anti cakine agents such as sodium
Speaker 1: aluminous oloicate or magnesium carbonate are added to make it
Speaker 1: free flowing. Iodize. Salt containing potassium iodide is widely available.
Speaker 1: Some people put a dessicant, such as a few grains
Speaker 1: of uncooked rice or a salting cracker in their salt
Speaker 1: shakers to absorb extra moisture and help break up salt
Speaker 1: clums that may otherwise. A lack of fluoride in the
Speaker 1: diet is the cause of a greatly increased incidence of
Speaker 1: dental carries. Fluoride salts can be added to table salt
Speaker 1: with the goal of reducing tooth decay, especially in countries
Speaker 1: that have not benefited from fluoridated toothpastes and fluoridated water.
Speaker 1: The practice is more common in some European countries where
Speaker 1: water fluoridation is not carried out. In France, thirty five
Speaker 1: percent of the table salt salt contains added sodium fluoride.
Speaker 1: Unrefined sea salt contains small amounts of magnesium in calcium
Speaker 1: halides and sulfates, traces of algal products, salt resistant bacteria,
Speaker 1: and sediment particles. The calcium and magnesium salts confer a
Speaker 1: faintly bitter overtone, and they make unrefined sea salt hygroscopic
Speaker 1: i e. It gradually absorbs moisture from air if stored
Speaker 1: and covered. Algyal products contribute a mild fishy or sea
Speaker 1: air odor, the latter from organobromine compounds sediments, the proportion
Speaker 1: of which varies with the source, give the salt a
Speaker 1: dull gray appearance. Since taste and aroma compounds are often
Speaker 1: detectable by humans and minute concentrations, sea salt may have
Speaker 1: a more complex flavor than pure sodium chloride when sprinkled
Speaker 1: on top of food. When salt is added during cooking, however,
Speaker 1: these flavors would likely be overwhelmed by those of the
Speaker 1: food ingredients. The refined salt industries cite scientific studies saying
Speaker 1: that raw sea and rock salts do not contain enough
Speaker 1: iodine salts to prevent iodine efficiency diseases. Salts have diverse
Speaker 1: mineralities depending on their source, giving each a unique flavor.
Speaker 1: Flair to cell a natural sea salt from the surface
Speaker 1: of evaporating brine and salt pans as a distinctive flavor
Speaker 1: varying with said source. In traditional Korean cuisine, so called
Speaker 1: bamboo salt is prepared by roasting salt in a bamboo
Speaker 1: container plugged with mud at both ends product absorbs minerals
Speaker 1: from the bamboo and the mud, and has been claimed
Speaker 1: to increase the anticlastogenic and antimutogenic properties of dunjung a
Speaker 1: fermented bean paste. Kosher for kitchen salt has a larger
Speaker 1: grain size than table salt and is used in cooking.
Speaker 1: It can be used for brining and bread or pretzel making,
Speaker 1: and as a scrubbing agent when combined with oil. Salt
Speaker 1: is present in most foods, but in naturally occurring food
Speaker 1: stuffs such as meats, vegetables, and fruit. It is present
Speaker 1: in very small quantities. It is often added to processed
Speaker 1: food such as canned foods and especially salted foods, pickled
Speaker 1: foods and snack foods, or other convenience foods where functions
Speaker 1: as both a preservative and a flavoring. Dairy salt is
Speaker 1: used in the preparation of butter and cheese products. As
Speaker 1: a flavoring, salt enhances the taste of other foods by
Speaker 1: suppressing the bitterness of those foods, making them more palatable
Speaker 1: and relatively sweeter. Before the advent of electrically powered refrigeration,
Speaker 1: salting was one of the main methods of food preservation,
Speaker 1: thus herring contains sixty seven milligram sodium per one hundred gram,
Speaker 1: while kipper its preserved form contains nine hundred and ninety milligrams. Similarly,
Speaker 1: pork typically contains sixty three milligrams, while bacon contains one thousand,
Speaker 1: four hundred and eighty milligrams, and potatoes contain seven milligrams,
Speaker 1: but potato crisps eight hundred milligrams per one hundred gram.
Speaker 1: Salt is used extensively in cooking, as a flavoring and
Speaker 1: in cooking techniques such as with salt crusts and brining.
Speaker 1: The main source of salt in the Western diet, apart
Speaker 1: from direct use, are bread and cereals, meat and dairy products.
Speaker 1: In many East Asian cultures, salt is not traditionally used
Speaker 1: as a condiment. In its place, Condiments such as soy sauce,
Speaker 1: fish sauce, and oyster sauce tend to have a high
Speaker 1: sodium content and fill a similar roll to table salt.
Speaker 1: In Western cultures, they are most often used for cooking
Speaker 1: rather than as table condiments. Only a small percentage of
Speaker 1: the salt manufacture in the world is used in food.
Speaker 1: The remainder is used in agriculture, water treatment, chemical production,
Speaker 1: de icing, and other industrial use cases. In the practice
Speaker 1: of watering plants with salt as a fertilizer, applying a
Speaker 1: moderate concentration helps avoid potential toxicity. Typically one to three
Speaker 1: grams per liter is considered safe and effective from most plants.
Speaker 1: Sodium chloride is one of the most widely used inorganic
Speaker 1: raw materials. It is a feed stock in the production
Speaker 1: of caustic soda and chlorine. These are used in the
Speaker 1: manufacture of p VC paper, pulp, and many other inorganic
Speaker 1: inorganic compounds. Salt is used as a flox in the
Speaker 1: production of aluminium. For this purpose, a layer of melted
Speaker 1: salt floats on top of the molten metal and removes
Speaker 1: iron and other metal contaminants. It is used in the
Speaker 1: manufacture of soaps and glycerine, where it is used to
Speaker 1: sappentify fats as in a mulsifier. Salt is used in
Speaker 1: the manufacture of synthetic rubber, and another use is in
Speaker 1: the firing of pottery. When salt added to the furnace
Speaker 1: vaporizes before condensing onto the surface of the ceramic material,
Speaker 1: forming a strong glaze. When drilling through loose materials such
Speaker 1: as sand or gravel. Salt may be added to the
Speaker 1: drilling fluid to provide a stable wall to prevent the
Speaker 1: whole collapsing. There are many their processes in which salt
Speaker 1: is involved. These included its use as of mordant in
Speaker 1: textile dyeing to regenerate resins in water softening, for the
Speaker 1: tanning of hides, the preservation of meat and fish, and
Speaker 1: the canning of meat and vegetables. Food grade salt accounts
Speaker 1: for only a small part of salt production in industrialized
Speaker 1: countries seven percent in Europe, although the worldwide food uses
Speaker 1: account for seventeen point five percent of total production. In
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, total world production of salt was three hundred
Speaker 1: million tons, the top six producers being China sixty eight million,
Speaker 1: the United States forty two million, India twenty nine million,
Speaker 1: Germany thirteen million, Canada thirty one million, and Australia twelve million.
Speaker 1: The manufacture of salt is one of the oldest chemical industries.
Speaker 1: A major source of salt is sea water, which has
Speaker 1: a salinity of approximately three point five percent. This means
Speaker 1: that there are about thirty five grams of dissolved salts,
Speaker 1: predominantly sodium and chloride ions per kilogram of water. The
Speaker 1: world's oceans are a virtually inexhaustible source of salt, and
Speaker 1: this abundance of supply means that reserves have not been calculated.
Speaker 1: The evaporation of sea water is the production method of choice,
Speaker 1: and marine countries with high evaporation and low precipitation rates
Speaker 1: salt evaporation ponds are filled from the ocean and salt
Speaker 1: crystals can be harvested as the water dries up. Sometimes
Speaker 1: these ponds have vivid colors, as some species of algae
Speaker 1: and other microorganisms thrive in conditions of high salinity. Away
Speaker 1: from the sea, salt is extracted from the vast sedimentary
Speaker 1: deposits which have been laid down over the millennia from
Speaker 1: the evaporation of seas and lakes. These sources are other
Speaker 1: mine directly producing rock salt, or are extracted by pumping
Speaker 1: water into the deposit. In either case, the salt may
Speaker 1: be purified by mechanical evaporation of prine. Traditionally, purification was
Speaker 1: achieved in shallow open pans that were heated to accelerate evaporation.
Speaker 1: Vacuum based methods are also employed. The rass salt is
Speaker 1: refined by treatment with chemicals that precipitate most impurities, largely
Speaker 1: magnesium and calcium salts. Multiple stages of evaporation are then applied.
Speaker 1: Some salt is produced using the Albager process, which involves
Speaker 1: vacuum pan evaporation combined with the seeding of the solution
Speaker 1: with cubic crystals and produces a grainy type flake. The Ayorio,
Speaker 1: An indigenous group from the Paraguayan Chaco, obtain their salt
Speaker 1: from the ash produced by burning the timber of the
Speaker 1: Indian salt tree and other trees. The largest mine operated
Speaker 1: by underground workings in the world is the Siftomine, located
Speaker 1: mostly five hundred and fifty meters below Lake Huron in Godrich, Ontario, Canada.
Speaker 1: About seven million tons of salt are extracted from it annually.
Speaker 1: The Kura Salt Mine and Pakistan as nineteen stories, eleven
Speaker 1: of which are underground, and four hundred kilometers of passages.
Speaker 1: The salt is dug out by the room and pillar method,
Speaker 1: where about half the materials left in place to support
Speaker 1: the upper levels. Extraction of the Himalayan salt is expected
Speaker 1: to last three hundred and fifty years at the present
Speaker 1: rate of extraction of around three hundred and eighty five
Speaker 1: thousand tons per annum. The mine is also a major
Speaker 1: tourist attraction, receiving around a quarter of a million visitors
Speaker 1: a year. Salt is long held called an important place
Speaker 1: in religion and culture. At the time of Brahmanek sacrifices.
Speaker 1: In Hittite rituals and during festivals held by Semites and Greeks.
Speaker 1: At the time of a new moon, salt was thrown
Speaker 1: into a fire, where produced crackling noises. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks,
Speaker 1: and Romans invoked their gods with offerings of salt and water,
Speaker 1: and some people think this to be the origin of
Speaker 1: holy water in the Christian faith. In Judaism, it is
Speaker 1: recommended to have either a salty bread or to add
Speaker 1: salt to the bread if this bread is insalted. When
Speaker 1: doing kdush for Shabbat, it is customary to spread some
Speaker 1: salt over the bread or dip it into a little
Speaker 1: salt when passing it around the table after the kadush
Speaker 1: to preserve the covenant between their people and God. Jews
Speaker 1: dip the Sabbath bread and salt. Salt plays a role
Speaker 1: within different Christian traditions. It is mandatory in the right
Speaker 1: of the Tridentine mass. Salt is used in the third
Speaker 1: item of the Celtic Consecration that is employed in the
Speaker 1: consecration of a church, and it is permitted to be
Speaker 1: added to the water where it is customary in the
Speaker 1: Roman Catholic Rite of Holy Water. The Bible makes multiple
Speaker 1: mentions of salt, both of the mineral itself and as
Speaker 1: a metaphor. Uses include the tale of how Lot's wife
Speaker 1: is turned into a pillar of salt when looking back
Speaker 1: at the cities of Sodom and Gomorah as are destroyed.
Speaker 1: In the New Testament, Jesus refers to his followers as
Speaker 1: the salt of the earth. In Aztec mythology, Wisto Sewattl
Speaker 1: was a fertility goddess who presided over salt and salt water.
Speaker 1: Salt is an auspicious substance in Hinduism and is used
Speaker 1: in ceremonies like housewarmings and weddings, and Jainism, devotees lay
Speaker 1: an offering of raw rice with a pinch of salt
Speaker 1: before a deity to signify their devotion, and salt is
Speaker 1: sprinkled on a person's cremated remains before the ashes are buried.
Speaker 1: Salt is believed to ward off evil spirits. In Mayahana
Speaker 1: Buddhist tradition, when returning home from a funeral, a pinch
Speaker 1: of salt is thrown over the left shoulder, as this
Speaker 1: prevents evil spirits from mendering the house. In Shinto Shilloh,
Speaker 1: literally salt is used for ritual purification of locations and people,
Speaker 1: and small piles of salt are placed in dishes by
Speaker 1: entrances to ward off evil and to attract patrons.