Himalayan salt facts for kids
Himalayan salt is rock salt or halite from the Punjab region of Pakistan, near the Himalayas, but falsely marketed as being from the Himalayas. Numerous health claims have been made concerning himalayan salt, but there's no scientific evidence that prove these claims.
History
Although its salt is sometimes marketed as "Jurassic Sea Salt", this salt deposit comes from a sea present during the Permian and Cretaceous eras, around 250 million years ago. This sea apparently ended up landlocked, evaporating until it left a dense salt deposit, colored by a common pink microorganism that had lived in it. Over the next few hundred million years, that deposit ended up at the border of a continental plate, and was pushed up into a mountain range in Pakistan.
The concentration of salt near Khewra, Punjab, is said to have been discovered around 326 BC when the troops led by Alexander the Great stopped to rest there and noticed their horses licking the salty rocks. Salt was probably mined there from that time, but the first records of mining are from the Janjua people in the 1200s.
Himalayan salt is mostly mined at the Khewra Salt Mine in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab, which is situated in the foothills of the Salt Range hill system in the Punjab province of the Pakistan Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is located about 310 km (190 mi) from the Himalayas, 260 km (160 mi) from Lahore, and 298 km (185 mi) from Amritsar, India.
Mineral composition
Himalayan salt is chemically similar to table salt plus mineral impurities including chromium, iron, zinc, lead, and copper. Some salts mined in the Himalayans are not suitable for use as food or industrial use without purification, due to these impurities.
Some salt crystals from the Himalayas have an off-white to transparent color, while impurities in some veins of salt give it a pink, reddish, or beet-red color.
Uses
Himalayan salt is used to flavor food. There is no evidence that it is healthier than using common table salt.
Blocks of salt are also used as serving dishes, baking stones, and griddles.
A salt lamp consists of a large salt crystal, often colored, and lit with an electric light or candle inside. Numerous health claims have been made concerning salt objects, but no scientific evidence supports these claims.
Salt is also sold in the form of large flat "rock panels" used to decorate salt chambers.
Images for kids
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Himalayan salt (coarse)
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Himalayan salt
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Himalayan salt crystals
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Salt lamp
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See also
In Spanish: Sal del Himalaya para niños
