For nails in household chores, we have already found out. It's time for the salt. What can an ordinary salt in capable hands?
Remove plaque from a vase or freshen up artificial flowers
If flower residue remains on your favorite vase, rub this plaque with salt. Then rinse with warm soapy water- deposits will disappear. The same trick helps to cope with plaque on the leaves of artificial plants: dip them in a saline solution and hold for a while.
Extend the life of a broom
If you arrange a bath for a new broom, holding its working part in hot salty water, then it will last much longer. Soak the broom for 20 minutes and then let it dry thoroughly.
Remove red wine stains
If wine spills on carpet or clothing, apply a slurry of wet salt on top. Leave on for 20-30 minutes, then rinse hot water. By the way, salt works well with greasy stains if you don’t have time to wash them thoroughly. Just sprinkle a greasy stain with salt, then at least the grease will not spread further through the clothes.
Remove water stains from wood
If there are sloppy marks from glasses or water bottles on wooden furniture, salt will again come to the rescue. Mix it with water to make a paste-like mixture, and gently, without scratching, wipe the surface with a sponge or soft cloth.
Reanimate the sponge
After a short use, the sponges take on a well-worn look, although in reality they can still serve in the household. Soak sponges overnight in saline solution: 1/4 cup of salt per liter of water.
Remove frost from windows and frames
Salt lowers the temperature threshold at which water freezes. This property can be put to good use. Wipe the glass near the frames with salt water, let dry. To keep the windows from sweating, place a rag bag of salt between the panes. The same bag is useful for motorists: wipe wet windows with it from time to time in the cold season.
Fight the ants
If your house is suddenly attacked by ants and there is no special remedy at hand, use salt. Sprinkle it at doors, windows, or right on the ant trail. This will help stop the invasion for a while.
Remove burnt milk from the stove
Salt is generally a good thing for cleaning dishes and some kitchen utensils. For example, salt can be used to clean a coffee pot, rims on dishes from tea or coffee. She copes well with burnt milk. Soak the stain with water and then generously sprinkle with salt. Wait 10 minutes, then try to remove the stain - the process will go much easier.
Remove lipstick marks
Not every dishwasher will cope with traces of modern lipstick, for example, on a glass. Sprinkle salt on the edge of the dish, and then send it to the dishwasher. And a mixture of vinegar and salt added to water will help you get rid of yellow stains on glass: just soak faded glass in this solution.
Peeling pecans
It is not so easy to peel a pecan and remove the core. Try soaking nuts in salt water for an hour or two. It will be easier to clean, and the nut body itself can be removed from the shell without problems.
Return the apple to a fresh look
If the apple is slightly withered and wrinkled, bathe it in a weak saline solution. The skin will smooth out and become more elastic.
Prepare a body scrub
Salt can be used to exfoliate old skin particles before showering. There are many recipes for homemade scrubs, although they usually involve sea salt. But the same effect will be achieved if you simply apply salt to a sponge or washcloth and properly treat the skin before bathing. Such rubbing, by the way, is very invigorating and helps to get rid of morning sleepiness.
Freshen your breath
There is an old grandmother's way: how to get rid of unpleasant odors in the mouth. Now it is forgotten by many, but in vain. A mixture of soda (1 teaspoon), salt (the same amount) and water (half a cup) still perfectly cleans the mouth.
clean refrigerator
Do not like chemicals when processing the inside of the refrigerator? Salt solution will cope well with this problem, if, of course, there are no old deposits in your refrigerator. A handful of salt per 3.5-4 liters of warm water will be enough. The main thing is to dissolve it properly so as not to scratch the surface.
Boil eggs properly
Add some salt to the water where you boil the eggs. This will strengthen the shell and the egg white won't spill out even if the egg cracks. In addition, it will be much easier to clean the eggs.
Fry food without splashing oil
If you are afraid of splashing boiling oil, add a little salt to it in the pan before laying out the food. Excess moisture will be absorbed, and there will be much less splashing.
Fight mold
A mixture of salt and lemon juice is great for mold removal. Useful when cleaning tiles or bathrooms. Salt can also keep cheese from mold: soak a napkin in the salt solution and wrap the cheese in it.
clean piano keys
If you dip half a lemon in salt, you get a natural bleach and cleaner for the keys of an old piano. After application, it remains only to gently wipe the surface with a dry cloth.
Keep water hot
Water in a heating pad or bottle will retain heat longer if it is salted.
Remove traces of sweat
Fresh traces of sweat on clothes are removed with a solution of table salt (1 tablespoon per glass of water).
As you can see, salt can be useful not only as a flavoring additive. For every little household item, we used to buy a separate bottle with a special agent in the supermarket. But with many household problems, salt will do just as well.
Salt was once worth its weight in gold, but in this century it has suddenly acquired the status of a white poison. There is some rational grain in this, because even the most beneficial substance if used in excessive amounts, becomes harmful to health, and, on the contrary, consumption within reasonable limits provides undeniable benefit body. This fully applies to salt.
Salt tradition
Old traditions say that one who starts his meal with salt and ends with salt can protect himself from seventy-two diseases, including madness and leprosy. Dear guests were always greeted with bread and salt. Salted mushrooms, cucumbers, herring to this day - decoration holiday table. Our ancestors knew a lot about healthy and tasty food.
What is salt
Salt is represented by two elements Na and Cl. But, if you look more closely at the elemental composition of table salt in one hundred grams of the product, it turns out that it contains a complex set of trace elements necessary for the human body.
The daily norm of salt intake per day for an adult is considered to be a dose of no more than a teaspoon, on average from three to six grams, taking into account the salt contained in other foods eaten.
Salt is considered extremely useful for melancholic people. They are shown short-term hot baths with sea or ordinary edible salt before going to bed, at the rate of one teaspoon per liter of water. It is useful for phlegmatic people to rub salt while visiting the sauna. Salt promotes the digestion of food, can eliminate heaviness in the stomach, and has the ability to open blockages in the spleen and liver.
To whom salt is contraindicated
Salt is considered harmful in case of excessive consumption for weakened people with a thin body, sanguine people, choleric people. Salt is not good for the bladder, kidneys and in case of hypertension. Excessive salt consumption reduces the amount of semen and sometimes causes eye diseases, skin disorders, and impaired vision.
Salt is included in some eczema medications. Salt can help:
- with all types of mucous tumors;
- with gout;
- with the appearance of itching;
- with deprivation.
Mix its salt with vinegar, olive oil, honey, and you can use this remedy for all types of sore throats. Salt with honey can help in case of stings of bumblebees, bees, wasps. When tumors appear, salt is mixed with dry mint, raisins, vinegar and applied to the so-called wind tumors. In case of mushroom poisoning, folk healers suggest drinking vinegaromed. To prepare a healing potion, take a glass boiled water two teaspoons of honey and two teaspoons apple cider vinegar, add salt. The solution should be pleasant, sweet and sour.
How to cure scabs and bad teeth
Salt with vinegar is used in the form of lotions when scabs appear on the head, lichen. In combination with aloe, salt is useful in catarrhs (taken orally). Gargling with vinegar and salt will help with gum disease and loose teeth. Rinse your mouth with a salt solution in water, this is useful for strengthening the gums, for healing the holes that form during the removal of teeth.
When periodontal disease appears, it is useful to rub salt, which is dissolved in honey, into the gums (add five to ten grams of table salt to twenty grams of honey and mix thoroughly until dissolved).
For many millennia, table salt was used almost exclusively for food, to protect food from spoilage, to pickle vegetables.
Small quantities were used to make hides. To obtain rawhide, loosened skins are treated with a mixture of alum and table salt; salt enhances the tanning effect of alum and dehydrates the leather fibers, thereby preventing them from sticking together when dried. Since ancient times, dyers have used table salt to make pickles, and soap makers to salt out soap.
This continued almost until the end of the 18th century, until the development of weaving and spinning, the production of cheap fabrics from cotton, required soda and chlorine. Salt turned out to be the most suitable raw material for obtaining these products. In addition, as scientists have established, it could be used in the preparation of Glauber's salt and hydrochloric acid, alkalis, paints, and many hundreds of others. chemical products. For example, the preservation of leather is also not complete without the use of table salt: the washed skins are dipped in a concentrated salt solution to prevent decay.
As with table salt, people got acquainted with soda in ancient times. Egyptian craftsmen widely used soda for making glass and degreasing wool, and used it in medicine.
Until the beginning of the XIX century. soda was extracted from the soda lakes of Egypt and some other countries, as well as from the ashes of plants containing sodium salts in their tissues. In the Middle Ages and later, the Spanish soda "barilla" was famous, which was extracted from a specially bred salsola plant. In France, the source of vegetable soda was the selicor plant, in Scotland it was extracted from the ashes of algae. In the 40s of the XVIII century. French chemist Duhamel de Monceau made an important discovery: he proved that table salt and soda have the same base - sodium. At that time, sodium had not yet been obtained in a free form, and scientists thought that soda was not a chemical compound, but an element, like sulfur or phosphorus.
Duhamel's discovery prompted scientists to use table salt to produce soda. After all, if nature transforms the salt contained in the soil into the soda of soda plants, then why can't a person carry out such a metamorphosis in the laboratory?
In 1775, the French Academy of Sciences announced a prize of 12,000 francs for the best way to obtain artificial soda. Many methods have been proposed for producing soda, but they were all expensive and unprofitable, and chemists continued to look for new ways to produce artificial soda.
In 1789, under the blows of the victorious revolution in France, the absolutist monarchy collapsed. From the first days of the birth of the new system, the French people had to defend the gains of the revolution with weapons in their hands. Surrounded by a ring of hostile states, the young republic was in dire need of ammunition. The basis of black powder, which was then used, was saltpeter; potash was needed to produce it.
In 1794, a government report appeared in the Parisian newspapers: “The Republic needs potash for the manufacture of saltpeter, and soda could in many cases replace potash; nature gives us table salt in immeasurable quantities, from which soda can be extracted. Many well-known French chemists responded to this call - more than 30 proposals were received. Leblanc's method was unanimously recognized as the best.
A mixture of Glauber's salt, limestone (or chalk) and coal is heated in large brick kilns. The mass melts with thorough stirring with iron pokers or scrapers. Blue lights appear on the surface of the molten mass, and when they disappear, the alloy is removed from the furnace.
So as a result of the reaction between the constituent parts of the mixture, soda was born. Glauber's salt was obtained by decomposing table salt with sulfuric acid.
Leblanc's invention freed France from foreign dependence, but the fate of the scientist himself was very tragic: in 1806, being in deep poverty, he committed suicide. The talented inventor and scientist could not overcome the heartlessness and greed of capitalist society.
Only some time after the death of Leblanc, the production of sulfur according to his method began to develop rapidly. Soda plants appeared in many European countries, producing hundreds of thousands of tons of soda and other chemical products. However, there were many shortcomings in Leblanc's method. The most significant of these is the abundance of waste products in the form of hydrogen chloride and calcium sulfide.
In the 30s of the last century, a new, simpler and more profitable way of obtaining soda from table salt was found, but almost 60 years passed before it became widespread. The method is as follows. A concentrated solution of table salt is saturated with ammonia, and then carbon dioxide, a product of burning limestone in kilns, is passed through the brine under pressure. Ammonia reacts with carbon dioxide and water to form ammonium bicarbonate. The latter enters into an exchange decomposition reaction with sodium chloride and the resulting bicarbonate of soda precipitates, which is filtered off and calcined. The result is soda ash, carbon dioxide and water. The gas is again used to saturate the brine. From a solution containing ammonium chloride, ammonia is isolated by heating the solution with lime obtained by burning limestone. Ammonia is also returned to the production cycle.
Thus, with the ammonia method of soda production, the amount of waste is much less than with the Leblanc method. Waste is only calcium chloride, which finds some industrial use: calcium chloride solutions are watered on roads to destroy dust, it is introduced into the composition of cooling mixtures, it is used for drying gases, dehydrating ether and other organic liquids, it is used in medicine.
In Russia, the scale of soda production began to expand only from the 80s of the last century, although small soda plants appeared already in the 60s. In 1864 M.P. Prang built a soda plant in Barnaul; at the plant, according to the Leblanc method, soda was obtained from natural Glauber's salt. The latter was mined from the Marmyshan lakes, located in the Kulunda steppe, 200 km from Barnaul.
The problem of obtaining soda by artificial means was of interest to Russian scientists as early as the 18th century. Academician Kirill Laxman in 1764, 11 years earlier than Malherbe and 27 years earlier than Leblanc, received soda from natural Glauber's salt. He was the first to propose replacing soda and potash with this salt in glass production.
Simultaneously Russian scientists studied the possibility of industrial use of table salt. Many of them - Kireevsky, Krupsky, Mendeleev and others - ardently advocated the creation of a domestic production of soda. Moreover, even then the production of many important chemical products was associated with it: sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, sodium sulfate, berthollet salt, chlorine. Mendeleev wrote that "it is now impossible to imagine the development of industry without the consumption of soda." The appearance on the market of domestic soda, in his opinion, would also render a service to agriculture. The replacement of potash with soda in many industries would contribute to the conservation of forests.
However, the successful development of soda production in Russia was hampered by a high excise tax on table salt. Despite the persistent demands of scientists and industrialists, the tsarist government for a long time did not want to remove the excise tax on salt. It was not until 1881 that the fetters that fettered the emergence of large-scale soda production were broken, and the results were not long in coming. Two years later, the first large soda plant in the Northern Urals was launched in Berezniki, built by the merchant Lyubimov together with the Belgian firm Solvay. For 35 years from the date of foundation of this plant until the Great October Revolution, 878 thousand g of soda ash was produced at the Bereznikovsky plant.
During the years of Soviet power, the Bereznikovsky plant was reconstructed and expanded, the production of soda increased several times compared to pre-revolutionary. More recently, at the plant, soda, as in tsarist times, was obtained from natural salt brine pumped out of the bowels of the earth. Now it is produced from artificial brine obtained by dissolving potash production waste. This significantly reduced the cost of soda.
In our time, a number of large soda plants operate in the Soviet Union.
The use of soda in the national economy has expanded enormously. Soda is no longer needed only by soap makers, glass makers and textile workers, but also by metallurgists (separation and purification of non-ferrous metals, removal of sulfur from cast iron), dyers, furriers and food workers (manufacture of confectionery and mineral waters, clarification vegetable oils). A lot of soda is used to soften water used in factories and plants, in steam boilers of locomotives and power plants. Soda serves as a raw material for the production of many chemical products (magnesia, sodium sulfate, sodium fluoride, etc.).
If all the table salt, which is processed all over the world for soda every year, is loaded into freight cars, then the train would stretch from Moscow to Vladivostok.
Most of the salt consumed by the chemical industry goes to the production of soda, caustic soda (caustic soda) and chlorine. Back in 1883, Russian scientists Lidov and Tikhomirov developed an industrial method for obtaining caustic soda from table salt by electrolysis of it aqueous solutions. In this case, along with caustic soda, chlorine is also obtained. Both of these products are very necessary for many branches of the national economy.
Per last years salt not only became a source of chemicals, medicines, fertilizers, explosives, but also acquired some new "professions". It is successfully used to extinguish burning soot, to harden steel products. It is used to accelerate the melting of ice, for the preparation of cooling mixtures used in refrigerators. Salt is needed for clarification of turpentine and rosin, in the production of the highest grades of glove husky. In the tobacco industry, some varieties of tobacco are treated with salt to improve its quality.
During the construction of artificial reservoirs, the walls and bottom of reservoirs are usually protected with clay, lined with concrete or asphalt. However, clay does not completely hold water, and concrete and asphalt are too expensive. It was necessary to find some cheap and at the same time sufficiently waterproof material. Academician A. N. Sokolovsky became interested in this problem several years ago. Studying the properties of soils, he noticed that the soil impregnated with salt does not allow water to pass through. Salt fills the pores of the soil, making it waterproof. Such soils are called salt marshes, often their surface is covered with a thin snow-white coating of salt.
In the steppes of Kazakhstan and the Crimea, in the Caspian Sea and the Dnieper region, small lakes form on salt marshes in early spring, which sometimes do not dry out until the end of summer. Such an artificial "lake" was made in Sokolovsky's laboratory. Soil was poured onto a thin sieve inserted into the funnel and washed with a solution of table salt; an artificial salt marsh was formed. But after all, in natural conditions, the salt marsh is watered by rains, melted spring waters are washed. Therefore, fresh water was poured through the funnel. At first, it leaked quite quickly - about 30-50 drops per minute, but gradually the drops fell less and less, and finally they were gone. Water does not seep through a thin layer of earth - only 3-4 mm, which has turned into a salt lick.
Therefore, if you cover the walls and bottom of any reservoir with a thin layer of earth soaked in salt, there will be no leakage. The experiments carried out by Sokolovsky on salinization of irrigation canals in some collective farms of the Volga region turned out to be successful - the leakage of water completely stopped.
Salinization of water bodies is beginning to be widely used in Ukraine, in the Lower Volga region, and Uzbekistan. Salt successfully replaces asphalt and concrete. In addition, soil treatment with a salt solution is much cheaper than covering with asphalt or concrete. Indeed, for solonetzation, you can take dirty, non-edible salt, waste from some chemical plants.
Salt provides invaluable services to builders. For example, in winter, during the construction of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station, clay soil froze and turned into hard stone. Even excavators and bulldozers could not cope with the frozen ground. The Leningrad Civil Engineering Institute has developed a way to protect clay soil from freezing. Plots of land on which it is necessary to dig ditches or pits in winter are thickly sprinkled with table salt in autumn, and then even in the most severe frosts the earth remains soft.
Salt is a substance of inexhaustible possibilities. Already now there are more than a thousand different ways to use it. And how many of them, and how many unexpected ones, will appear in our atomic age!..
Rock salt is a sedimentary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride. The composition of impurities depends on the characteristics of the deposits. Why is it rock salt, and not just, for example, sodium or chloride? This name reflects the state of the mineral and the attitude of man towards it. In the state of a natural deposit, these are really salty stones. Then, after processing halite, as this salt is also called, it becomes just the former salty powder. It is in this form that it acquires the name of table salt.
Rock salt is a sedimentary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride.
Halite stone belongs to natural minerals of the class of halides of the subclass of sodium chloride. However, most people on the planet know this stone simply by the name of salt.
The mineral halite received its scientific name in Ancient Greece. The translation of this word is ambiguous, but its meaning is with two concepts - the sea and salt. Chemical formula simple rock salt is NaCl as the main substance and other elements as impurities. Pure rock salt contains 61% chlorine and 39% sodium.
V pure form this mineral can be:
- transparent;
- opaque, but translucent;
- colorless or white with signs of a glassy luster.
However, pure NaCl is rare in nature. Its deposits may have shades of colors:
- yellow and red (presence of iron oxide);
- dark - from brown to black (impurities of decomposed organic matter, for example, humus);
- gray (impurities of clay);
- blue and lilac (presence of potassium chloride).
The mineral halite is fragile, hygroscopic and, of course, salty in taste. It dissolves well in water at any temperature, but melts only at high temperatures - not lower than 800 ° C. When fire melts, it turns yellow.
The crystal structure of rock salt is a dense cube, in the nodes of which there are negative chlorine ions. The octahedral voids between the chlorine atoms are filled with positively charged sodium ions. The structure of the crystal lattice is a pattern of ideal order - in it, each chlorine atom is surrounded by six sodium atoms, and each sodium atom is adjacent to the same number of chlorine ions.
Ideal cubic crystals in some deposits are replaced by octahedral ones. In salt lakes, crusts and drusen can form at the bottom.
Gallery: rock salt (25 photos)
Rock salt stone massage (video)
Origin of salt deposits
Rock salt is a mineral of exogenous origin. Salt deposits were formed during sedimentary processes in a dry and hot climate. The origin of salt deposits is associated with the slow drying of endorheic salt lakes, sea bays and shallow waters.
In small quantities, salt halite is formed during soil salinization, during volcanic activity. Soil salinization occurs in arid regions. This process can develop in natural or anthropogenic conditions. Natural salinization occurs where groundwater with high water salinity comes close to the surface. Such water evaporates, and a salt crust forms on the surface of the soil. In addition, the soil can also become saline from above, for example, during surge sea floods or tsunamis. In this case, a large amount of salty sea water penetrates into the lower horizons of the soil, and then evaporates, and salt is deposited on the surface.
A person salts the soil with abundant watering in an arid climate. In regions where the evaporation of water from the lower layers of the soil in aggregate exceeds the inflow of water with precipitation, the soil is highly mineralized. If it is watered, then evaporation also increases. As a result, minerals deposited in different soil layers come to the surface. On such soil, a salt crust is formed, preventing any manifestation of life.
Rock salt, according to its origin, is divided into the following categories.
- Self-sustaining, which is formed in evaporite basins, deposited as granular crusts and druses.
- Stone, lying in large layers between different rocks.
- Volcanic salt rock that is deposited in fumaroles, craters and lavas.
- Solonchaks representing salt crusts on the soil surface in arid climate.
Geography of the main deposits
Halite is concentrated mainly in deposits of the Permian period. It was about 250 - 300 million years ago. Then, almost everywhere in Eurasia and North America, a dry and hot climate formed. Salt water reservoirs quickly dried up, and salt layers were gradually covered by other sedimentary rocks.
On the territory of Russia, the largest halite deposits are located in the Urals (Solikamskoye and Iletskoye deposits), in Eastern Siberia near Irkutsk (Usolye-Sibirskoye deposit). Halite is mined in industrial scale in the lower reaches of the Volga, as well as on the shores of the famous salt lake Baskunchak.
Significant halite deposits are located:
- in the region of Donetsk (Artemovskoye field);
- in the Crimea (Sivash region);
- in northern India in the state of Punjab;
- in the USA - the states of New Mexico, Louisiana, Kansas, Utah;
- in Iran, the Urmia deposit;
- in Poland, the salt mines of Bochnia and Wieliczka;
- in Germany near Bernburg, where halite has blue and lilac hues;
- large salt lakes are located in the western part of South America.
The use of rock salt
No matter how they scold the use of rock salt in the food industry and in everyday life, a person cannot do without this “white death”. These are not just compounds of minerals, although the complex composition of rock salt in some deposits is very much appreciated in medicine. Salt dissolved in water or food is an increase in the number of ions, that is, positively and negatively charged particles, which activates all processes in the body.
However, halite has also found its application in the chemical industry. For example, the production of hydrochloric acid, sodium peroxide and other compounds that are in demand in various consumer sectors is indispensable without NaCl. The use of halite, in addition to its consumption in food, provides more than 10,000 different production and end-use processes.
This mineral is still the most popular and cheapest preservative that helps people live from one crop to another, transport food over long distances, and stock up on food for future use. The function of salt as a preservative has saved and is now saving people around the world from starvation.
In our time, sodium chloride has become one of the cheapest food products. And once there were salt riots. Convoys with this product moved under heavy guard. This product was part of the soldiers' rations. Perhaps the consonance of the words soldier and salt is not accidental.
How rock and extra salt is produced (video)
Salt extraction methods
How is halite mined today? Modern mining is carried out by several methods.
- Mass production a large number rock salt is produced by the mine method, which consists in extracting rock salt from sedimentary rocks. Since halite is a solid solid monolith, it must be softened at high temperature and under pressure. Salt combines are used to raise salt to the surface.
- The vacuum method is to digest minerals from water with a high concentration of dissolved salt. To obtain brine, a well is drilled, reaching a rock salt deposit. After that, clean fresh water is pumped into the bowels. The mineral quickly dissolves in it, forming a saturated solution. After that, the brine is pumped to the surface. Usually, salt is mined this way for food and medical needs, since the brine does not contain impurities of other rocks.
- The lake method is based on the extraction of salt in open salt reservoirs. This method does not require the construction of boreholes or the construction of mines. However, the product obtained in this way needs to be thoroughly cleaned, which affects the cost.
- The method of evaporating sea water has been practiced for about 2,000 years. It was popular in countries with dry and hot climates. To obtain salt from sea water, energy sources were not needed here, since the sun itself did an excellent job of evaporating water. However, such a process was very slow, therefore, with a large concentration of the population, thirsting for salt, a special heating was used.
The opposite of evaporation is a method practiced in regions with a cold climate. This is because fresh water freezes faster than salt water. For this reason, in the vessel, early ice, when melted, was practically fresh water. In the remaining water, the salt concentration increases. So from sea water it was possible to simultaneously obtain fresh water and saturated brine. Out of the water late ice salt was digested quickly and with less energy consumption.
Nowadays, NaCl is a product that has become familiar, and the sign that spilled salt to a quarrel is bewildering. The use of sodium chloride in food has the character of bringing its taste to the state of sea water. This is the need of all organisms living on land.
The fact is that life arose in sea water. Not surprisingly, the internal environment of the human body corresponds to the parameters of salty sea water. So by consuming salt, we restore the mineral balance established by evolution. Just do not make a saturated solution from a weak saline solution and eat a lot of salt.
“Recently, it has become fashionable to completely abandon the use of salt, they say, salt and sugar are our white enemies. And there were times when salt replaced money and was the cause of unheard of “salt” riots caused by large taxes on salt (for example, in Moscow in 1648), or spontaneous "protest campaigns" (India, the beginning of the 20th century) against the monopolization of salt production by the British colonialists.
I. Lapshina
Salt is a natural mineral substance. There is evidence that the extraction of table salt was carried out as early as 3-4 thousand years BC in Libya. Salt is evaporated from water (the famous lakes Elton and Baskunchak), mined from the bowels of the earth, from sea water (sea salt). The world's geological reserves of salt are practically inexhaustible. In Russia, back in the 16th century, the well-known Russian businessmen Stroganovs received the largest income from salt mining. From the foothills of the Urals, salt was sent to Moscow, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaluga, and even abroad. Large salt mines are known in Spain, Germany, Austria. In one volume or another, every country in the world is mining some kind of salt. Currently, the world's salt production is, according to the US Geological Survey, approximately 193 million tons per year and significant volumes are carried out in more than 100 countries.
The United States is the world's largest salt producer at the country level. However, they themselves are not able to fully satisfy their needs for salt at the expense of local production and are forced to purchase sodium chloride in significant quantities on the external market.
The most expensive type of salt is high-quality vacuum salt; it is several times more expensive than evaporated and rock salt. Brine is the cheapest type of salt and is used in industry, as is the low quality salt used for road de-icing. The average price for table salt today is 15 USD. per ton.
But once salt was an expensive commodity. Lomonosov wrote that at that time four small pieces of salt in Abyssinia could buy a slave. Salt was served on the table in expensive salt shakers, it was cherished, saved, boasted about it: the presence of salt on the table was a sign of prosperity and prosperity. Salt was stockpiled in case of disasters and paid with it instead of money. The Latin word "salarium" and the English word "salary", meaning "salary", "salary", are of "salt" origin. Because of salt, there were popular unrest and military clashes - remember the famous "salt riots" and wars over rock salt deposits and salt reservoirs. The value of salt gave rise to a number of proverbs, sayings, aphorisms, which emphasized the deep significance of salt in human life. One saying "you can live without gold, but you can't live without salt" is worth it!
"As long as salt and sugar are considered white death, cocaine can sleep peacefully."
However, in the 1960s with light hand Herbert Shelton and Paul Bragg dubbed table salt "white death", and this statement still exists today. It all started with the announcement of salt as the culprit of hypertension, kidney failure, coronary heart disease, and obesity. This is partly true, but it is not necessary to urge absolutely everyone to avoid salt, this is also an excess.
So, salt (sodium chloride) is an important element that ensures the vital activity of humans and animals, as well as a product that has a wide range of industrial applications. Salt is the basis for the production of chemical products, primarily chlorine and caustic soda, on the basis of which many plastics are made, including PVC, aluminum, paper, soap, glass. According to experts, salt in modern conditions directly or indirectly has over 14 thousand areas of application.
Let us dwell on the well-known table salt, which most of us eat. So, table salt is crystalline sodium chloride, contains 39.4% sodium and 60.6% chlorine. As you know, it dissolves well in water of any temperature.
Sodium is one of the main cations necessary for the implementation of the vital functions of the human body. In our body, about 50% of all sodium is in the extracellular fluid, 40% - in the bones and cartilage, about 10% - in the cells. Sodium is found in bile, blood, cerebrospinal fluid, pancreatic juice, and human milk.
Sodium is involved in maintaining acid-base balance, sodium metabolism is an important link in the body's water-salt metabolism, ensures the constancy of osmotic pressure. The sodium-potassium pump ensures the movement of amino acids and glucose across the cell membrane. It is also necessary for the normal functioning of nerve endings, the transmission of nerve impulses and muscle activity, including the muscles of the heart, as well as for the absorption of certain nutrients by the small intestine and kidneys.
It must be borne in mind that we consume sodium not only with table salt, but also with other sodium compounds in the form of preservatives (sodium nitrate), flavoring agents (monosodium glutamate) or baking powder (sodium bicarbonate).
Chlorine, in turn, is involved in the formation of special substances that promote the breakdown of fats. It is necessary in the formation of hydrochloric acid - the main component of gastric juice, takes care of the excretion of urea from the body, stimulates the work of the reproductive and central nervous systems, promotes the formation and growth of bone tissue. Human muscle tissue contains 0.20-0.52% chlorine, bone - 0.09%; the bulk of this trace element is found in the blood and extracellular fluid.
The daily need for salt in temperate climate zones is 10-15 g per day (an annual human need for salt is 7 kg). In hot countries, there is more sweat, more fluid intake, so more salt is needed. In cold climates, water-salt metabolism is not as intense, salt consumption is less there. That is why many peoples of the North, such as the Chukchi or the Eskimos, can do without salt for a long time. The need for salt increases with physical activity. And it is recommended to drink water to quench thirst not boiled, not distilled, but mineral, which includes sodium chloride. And after intense exercise (for example, after long walks), it is recommended to drink lightly salted water and not try to quench your thirst with clean water from mountain streams, where the salt content is very low. With significant losses of sodium chloride by the body (uncontrollable vomiting, prolonged diarrhea), the amount of salt consumed is greatly increased, and in some cases it is even necessary to inject a salt solution intravenously.
Pregnant and lactating women need more sodium. During pregnancy, blood volume increases by 50% with one child and even more if there are several. Accordingly, the volume of water retained in the cells also increases. Slight swelling is quite normal during pregnancy. You should not limit yourself because of this in the consumption of salt, and even more so, you should not use diuretics. Pregnant women need liquid to increase blood circulation and for the rapidly growing cells of the baby, as well as to create "maternal reserves" of blood, so necessary during childbirth. So talk about the cravings of pregnant women for pickles is fully justified.
The addition of salt during cooking and in ready-made meals is necessary; it is not enough with natural products. For a normal person in normal, non-extreme conditions, the consumption of salt is approximately the same: 10 g in the form natural products and 5 g for adding salt to food during cooking and salting during meals. Salt content in foods varies greatly: it is highest in bread, cheese and meat products; in vegetable - it depends on the type and growing conditions, and in granulated sugar, sodium chloride is completely absent.
For cooking and salting, in addition to the usual salt obtained from various sources and different ways(rock salt, boiled salt, garden salt) also use edible sea salt, which, in addition to sodium chloride, contains potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, magnesium carbonate, calcium sulfate, and also iron, boron, iodine, phosphorus, silicon. Due to these mineral additions, sea salt is considered more beneficial. They also use iodized salt, fluorinated, iodized-fluorinated and the so-called "reduced sodium salt" - where part of the sodium chloride is replaced by potassium chloride, and it is recommended for those who are forced to reduce their salt intake for health reasons.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 1/3 of the world's population (including a fairly significant part of the population of the Russian Federation) lives in areas that are more or less iodine deficient. The latter leads to an increase in cases of diseases thyroid gland and delayed mental and physical development in children. Iodization of table salt abroad has been carried out for 60 years. At the same time, in Russia in 1998, iodized salt was completely absent from store shelves. Fortunately, we are not limited in our choice now. Just keep in mind - in order to preserve a valuable trace element (iodine), it is better to boil and fry everything undersalted, and add salt to the food already on the plate - to your liking.
Table salt is used to prevent spoilage of products, since the brine has an increased osmotic pressure, in which the bacterial cell suspends its vital activity. However, brine is most often used differently - as a universal remedy for relieving a hangover. Timely intake of brine also relieves the urge to vomit (relevant for pregnant women) and is good cosmetic- brine baths make hands soft and tender, and washing the face with brine visually rejuvenates it (due to the influx of water to the upper layers of the skin and smoothing fine wrinkles) - both aristocrats and commoners used these recipes in past centuries.
Excess salt intake is just as harmful as any excess. When eating salt, it is very important not to oversalt it. And if an inexperienced culinary specialist slightly overdid it with salt, then you can correct the situation by adding a potato and a handful of rice. But it’s better not to salt everything - you can add salt to an already prepared dish. As they say, "under-salted on the table, and over-salted on the back" - a saying for negligent housewives.
For some diseases, it is recommended to limit salt intake - for cardiovascular, inflammatory, and renal failure. In some cases, doctors prescribe salt-free diets - there in food there is only the salt that is contained in the products, without additional salting, and products with high content sodium chloride (cheese, for example) is excluded. And in the most severe cases, special salt-free bread is prescribed. But such salt-free diets are not prescribed for obesity, especially for alimentary, when a person<наел>their extra pounds because of their unbridled appetite. Desalted food is tasteless, poorly satiating and makes you want to eat something tasty. And hence the breakdown from the diet, and bouts of bulimia.
And still, due to the fact that it is easiest to lose weight by reducing the amount of water in the body, many losing weight completely refuse salt. With such an unreasonable method of losing weight, in addition to water, vital elements, including sodium, chlorine, potassium, and magnesium, also leave the body. On a salt-free diet, you can quickly lose weight, in just a few days, but not for long, this weight will soon return back (well, if without weight gain) - because the fluid in the organs and tissues is quickly restored. Moreover, this imaginary weight loss can lead to a deficiency. beneficial trace elements with all the ensuing troubles.
At the same time, salt-loving "salty souls" are drawn to the salt shaker without even tasting the food, and normal salts seem insipid to them. But after all, oversalted food is the occurrence of edema, an increase in the load on the kidneys, an increase blood pressure and early development of atherosclerosis. And one more insidiousness: overly salty snacks stimulate the appetite, and hence overeating, leading to overweight- an unpleasant load on the whole body: primarily on the cardiovascular system and on the musculoskeletal system. And it has been noticed that after salty dishes, he is drawn to fatty and sweet. That is why in some restaurants salty snacks are cunningly served, so that after them the visitor will certainly order something "dense", and then also confectionery.
If you're used to adding salt to your meals while eating, try cutting out salt altogether when cooking. And use fresh or dried herbs and spices as flavorings for food or salad dressings. Pickles, marinades, corned beef and smoked meats should take the last place in your diet. For example, bouillon cubes contain on average about 60% salt per unit weight, smoked salmon - 5%, sauerkraut- 2%. And when using ready-made seasonings and sauces, you need to pay attention to the label, which indicates the salt content. So, for example, know that soy sauce is mixed with table salt, and it cannot be a substitute for it.
More useful alternative salt - lemon juice, garlic or pepper. Low-sodium salt is now widely used - half sodium and half potassium. However, if you have diabetes or suffer from kidney disease, it is better to avoid such substitutes. In diabetic patients, potassium is often retained in the body, so they need to ensure that its content does not reach dangerous levels. high level; people with kidney disease also have difficulty excreting potassium, so they should also limit their intake. In turn miso, tamari or soy used in oriental dishes, are concentrated sources of sodium, but are used only in small amounts.
In conclusion, I will say - everything should be in moderation, you should not go to extremes. Note that this does not only apply to the use of salt.
