Why I spent 10 minutes buying salt.

photo courtesy Mister GC at freedigitalphoto.net

It was late in the afternoon.
I was in a grocery store much  like any other big chain store
(unfortunately that is all that is available near my home).
My three kids were hopped up on whatever sugar grandma filled them with and we simply needed to buy salt.
Such a simple task quickly grew into a nightmare.
Here is how it all went down.

As a fitness professional I am constantly seeking the best products to use and using my family as guinea pigs (ah the wonderful benefit of having a health conscious mom). 
With that in mind I wanted to ensure that everything we purchased be pure and beneficial to our bodies. This is always my goal whenever grocery shopping and when it comes to certain foods can be easily attained. For example, when purchasing spices it is best to purchase them separately and combine them on your own. Take curry powder (yum!), you could easily pick up a container of curry powder and be on your way to making something delicious but that pre-blended spice also contains anti-caking agents that vary from maltodextrin (synthetically made) to silicon dioxide (again, synthetically made) and possibly also contain sugar. Sometimes it isn't readily labeled, rather the container might simply state: Spices including turmeric, salt, dehydrated onion. Why take the chance of putting unknown agents into your body? Instead, for curry, simply mix cumin with coriander, turmeric, red pepper flakes, mustard seed, and ginger (recipe here). With this in mind I wanted to make sure the salt we purchased was the best available.

O the terrors!

Remember I have three kids. Remember that they were hopped up on sugar from grandma AND looking to get a free cookie that the store so graciously provides.
Yes, now you understand how this soon became the perfect storm.

We reached the spice isle and after a good 30 second search for salt (which they kindly place on the bottom shelf) the sorting of good vs. bad began.
Sea salt options were slim in this store and since they did not carry the brand I typically purchase, out came the phone for some research. I quickly learned that although sea salt is better for you than regular table salt (sea salt is evaporated and has some minerals left to it whereas table salt is mined and must undergo heavy processing), it often contains anti-clumping agents. Salt all around will clump in humid weather. There is no way around it, aside from anti-clumping agents.  So what is a person to do? I had never noticed anything regarding additives on my regular brand of sea salt.

Meanwhile the natives (my three kids) were exceedingly restless and thus decided to shake their legs out by running up and down the aisle in a game of tag.

After herding the children back to the cart and assuring them that I would be done soon (seriously it's just salt) I got back to my research and found a product that actually was available on the shelf! In hindsight I should research before gathering the natives. Lesson learned.

So what did I buy?  Sea salt.

Okay, okay. I bought Morton's Natural Sea Salt. Is there something better out there? Let me know in the comments. What I really would like for you to take away from this (aside from knowing my kids are those kids) is that you need to pay attention to what you are buying. Read the label. Know what is in it (did you know that if you  buy a stick of butter it includes natural flavorings? That is a whole other blog topic).  With diligence, and hopefully less than ten minutes in the spice aisle, you can also guard yourself from unwanted additives.