Does anyone know more about this?
I stumbled on a French dude who made a Facebook Reels video claiming that Himalayan salt is overpriced and is poisoning us. He has a very colorful vocabulary... Is he some French public figure/influencer? Does anyone know him?
www.facebook.com
Claims: Himalayan salt comes from dark tunnels in Khewra, in the heart of Pakistan, hundreds of km away from the Himalayas. No marine life, no nutritional exchange, no oceanic riches. You swallow debris from dead rocks being dynamited in a gravel pit. Scientific analyses reveal a deadly cocktail of industrial contaminants. Each pinch deposits its poisons in your body. Lead, arsenic, heavy metals, and that pink color comes from raw iron oxide, an industrial rust that our digestive system completely rejects. You pay a fortune to ingest the equivalent of a rusty car. During this international charade, our Atlantic coasts silently produce the true salty treasures: Guérande and Noirmoutier offer living crystals, bursting with authentic marine minerals at ridiculously low prices.
I went online to confirm/refute his claims.
1- According to Wikipedia (which can't be trusted), Himalayan salt is rock salt (halite) mined from the Punjab region of Pakistan.
More precisely, mined from the Salt Range mountains,[1] the southern edge of a fold-and-thrust belt that underlies the Pothohar Plateau south of the Himalayas in Pakistan. Himalayan salt comes from a thick layer of Ediacaran to early Cambrian evaporites of the Salt Range Formation. This geological formation consists of crystalline halite intercalated with potash salts, overlain by gypsiferous marl and interlayered with beds of gypsum and dolomite with infrequent seams of oil shale that accumulated between 600 and 540 million years ago. These strata and the overlying Cambrian to Eocene sedimentary rocks were thrust southward over younger sedimentary rocks, and eroded to create the Salt Range.
Composition: 99% sodium chloride, with trace presence of calcium, iron, zinc, chromium, magnesium, and sulfates, all at varying safe levels below 1%.
2- A Blog
www.ruanliving.com
Are There Heavy Metals in Your Salt? Safest Options for Clean Eating - Feb 11, 2025
Of the data that I reviewed, the most common heavy metals tested in salt are aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.
HIMALAYAN PINK SALT: THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Often praised for its trace mineral content and distinctive flavor, Himalayan pink salt is also often contaminated with microplastics and heavy metals. Research analyzing pink salt samples available in Australia found one sample that contained levels of lead that exceeded the national maximum contaminant level set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, posing potential health risks. (Fayet-Moore et al, 2020)
Third-Party Tested Salt Brands with the Least Heavy Metals
I was delighted to learn that laboratory tests of salt brands exist! Before we get to third-party tested salt brands with the least heavy metals
In the study she published on her blog, of course the Kirkland Himalayan salt (Costco house brand) has NA in all the boxes...
There is only 1 brand of Celtic salt (Sel de Guérande) and it's misspelled: it's Selina. No mention of 2 big producers: Le Guérandais, Le Paludier.
I stumbled on a French dude who made a Facebook Reels video claiming that Himalayan salt is overpriced and is poisoning us. He has a very colorful vocabulary... Is he some French public figure/influencer? Does anyone know him?
41K views · 587 reactions | 🤨😱 A chaques fois qu'on pense bien faire on apprend qu'il y a un arnaque ! | Suee Ziie
🤨😱 A chaques fois qu'on pense bien faire on apprend qu'il y a un arnaque !.
www.facebook.com
Claims: Himalayan salt comes from dark tunnels in Khewra, in the heart of Pakistan, hundreds of km away from the Himalayas. No marine life, no nutritional exchange, no oceanic riches. You swallow debris from dead rocks being dynamited in a gravel pit. Scientific analyses reveal a deadly cocktail of industrial contaminants. Each pinch deposits its poisons in your body. Lead, arsenic, heavy metals, and that pink color comes from raw iron oxide, an industrial rust that our digestive system completely rejects. You pay a fortune to ingest the equivalent of a rusty car. During this international charade, our Atlantic coasts silently produce the true salty treasures: Guérande and Noirmoutier offer living crystals, bursting with authentic marine minerals at ridiculously low prices.
I went online to confirm/refute his claims.
1- According to Wikipedia (which can't be trusted), Himalayan salt is rock salt (halite) mined from the Punjab region of Pakistan.
More precisely, mined from the Salt Range mountains,[1] the southern edge of a fold-and-thrust belt that underlies the Pothohar Plateau south of the Himalayas in Pakistan. Himalayan salt comes from a thick layer of Ediacaran to early Cambrian evaporites of the Salt Range Formation. This geological formation consists of crystalline halite intercalated with potash salts, overlain by gypsiferous marl and interlayered with beds of gypsum and dolomite with infrequent seams of oil shale that accumulated between 600 and 540 million years ago. These strata and the overlying Cambrian to Eocene sedimentary rocks were thrust southward over younger sedimentary rocks, and eroded to create the Salt Range.
Composition: 99% sodium chloride, with trace presence of calcium, iron, zinc, chromium, magnesium, and sulfates, all at varying safe levels below 1%.
2- A Blog
Heavy Metals in Salt: Third-Party Tested Options for Safe Consumption
Discover which salts contain harmful heavy metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium, and learn about third-party-tested salt options that ensure purity and safety for your health.
www.ruanliving.com
Of the data that I reviewed, the most common heavy metals tested in salt are aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.
HIMALAYAN PINK SALT: THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Often praised for its trace mineral content and distinctive flavor, Himalayan pink salt is also often contaminated with microplastics and heavy metals. Research analyzing pink salt samples available in Australia found one sample that contained levels of lead that exceeded the national maximum contaminant level set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, posing potential health risks. (Fayet-Moore et al, 2020)
Third-Party Tested Salt Brands with the Least Heavy Metals
I was delighted to learn that laboratory tests of salt brands exist! Before we get to third-party tested salt brands with the least heavy metals
In the study she published on her blog, of course the Kirkland Himalayan salt (Costco house brand) has NA in all the boxes...
There is only 1 brand of Celtic salt (Sel de Guérande) and it's misspelled: it's Selina. No mention of 2 big producers: Le Guérandais, Le Paludier.
