Here we are in 2026!
How did that happen so quickly or is it just me that feels that way? Well, it is here whether we are ready or not!
Every January many of us move our attention from excessive holiday eating to a more healthy and balanced diet. In our household there is a difference of opinion about salt and how much flavor everything needs, especially in my home-made gravy. My husband loves to add salt to any dish or recipe, and I prefer to keep it light and add any needed salt at the table. He also prefers salted butter, but I prefer unsalted, especially for cooking or baking. That is not to say that salt is not a valuable ingredient in our kitchen, and we even have seasoned salts and fancy pink Himalayan salt for different recipes; I just prefer to use less of it!
This all got me thinking about the origins of salt – a commodity we take for granted and can pick up cheaply at any grocery store. Did you know that salt used to be so scarce and valuable that it served as currency in ancient civilizations?
Salt is a mineral and its value was so high it became synonymous with wealth, creating expressions like “worth one’s salt”.
The history of salt production dates back to ancient China around 3,000 BC when they boiled ocean water until only the salt crystals remained. Ancient Egyptians realized that salt’s preservative properties could prevent bacterial growth and extend food shelf life, making it indispensable for storing fish, a dietary staple in their civilization. They also used salt in their religious ceremonies and for their mummification of their dead.
The establishment of salt trade routes was crucial to global commerce in ancient civilizations, especially from coastal areas to inland. Ancient salt production used methods that remain to this day. Solar evaporation, first used by the ancient Chinese and popular in warm, dry and windy areas such as the Mediterranean regions, captured seawater and allowed natural evaporation to create salt crystals. On land, salt mining dates back to the Bronze Age when our distant ancestors used mining techniques to retrieve underground salt deposits. As with many things, the industrial revolution transformed salt production from smallscale operations to highly mechanized processes.
The use of vacuum evaporation to produce salt is interesting as it begins with solution mining, where water is pumped into underground salt deposits, dissolving the salt to create brine that is then processed through a series of vacuum chambers operating at increasingly lower temperatures.
Today China produces the most salt followed by the USA but only about 6% of global salt production is used for food with the rest utilized in chemical manufacturing, road de-icing, and water treatment.
The development of iodized salt in the 20th century stands as one of the most successful public health interventions in history. The connection between iodine deficiency and health problems began emerging in the 19th century, although ancient Chinese medical writings documented the effectiveness of iodine containing seaweed and burnt sea sponge in treating goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland in the neck.
Iodine was discovered accidentally in 1811 by French chemist Bernard Courtois while extracting sodium salts for gunpowder manufacturing.
By the early 20th century, iodine deficiency had become a major public health crisis in many regions worldwide, especially where the soil was low in iodine such as the Great Lakes region, Appalachia, and the Northwestern United States.
This deficiency became a big problem in recruitment for World War One as many potential soldiers were discovered to have iodine deficiency leading to goiter and hypothyroidism. Severe iodine deficiency during pregnancy led to children with low IQs and neurological issues.
Switzerland was the first country to introduce salt iodization in 1922 as simply adding iodine to salt was a population- wide solution leading to goiter rates dropping dramatically within just a few years. In the USA iodized salt first appeared on grocery shelves in Michigan in 1924 with immediate and dramatic results. Following this regional success, iodized salt programs expanded rapidly across the globe. However, the land of my birth did not introduce an iodized salt program but relied on changes in the dairy farming industry to increase iodine intake. In the 1930s, British farmers began to add iodine to cattle feed in order to improve cattle health and used disinfectants containing iodine which had the benefit of increasing the levels of iodine in milk. Milk and dairy products became an important source of iodine and milk consumption was encouraged especially after World War Two. The UK’s 1946 School Milk Act provided 1/3 pint of milk to under 18-year-olds and in the 1950s there was a marketing campaign to “Drinka Pinta Milka Day”.
Today, there is some concern across the world that increasing consumption of processed foods, which typically use non-iodized salt, has created new worries about low iodine intake in developed countries. There is a lot more information at www.britannica.com I will leave you with a quote from American motivational author, Richelle E. Goodrich: “Just like salt makes sweet taste sweeter, trials make happy feel happier”.
God Bless America and Happy New Year!
Lesley grew up in London, England and made Georgia her home in 2009. She can be contacted at lesley@lesleyfrancispr. com or via her PR and marketing agency at www. lesleyfrancispr.com