Who invented table salt

But in older times salt was heavily taxed and wars were fought over it. In some ancient civilizations, salt was in such high demand that it was actually minted into coins to serve as the basic currency.

Where salt was scarce, it became as valuable as gold. Because everyone, rich and poor, craves salt, rulers going back at least as far as the Chinese emperor Yu in B. Salt taxes helped finance empires throughout Europe and Asia, but also inspired a lively black market, smuggling rings, riots, and even revolutions.

Pure salt consists of the elements sodium and chlorine. Its chemical name is sodium chloride and its formula is NaCl. Its mineral name is halite. Table salt is a chemically simple combination of two components, sodium and chlorine. The basic components of salt are, by themselves, potentially dangerous. Sodium will ignite immediately if it comes into contact with water, and chlorine is poisonous if ingested. In combination, though, the two elements form sodium chloride, commonly known as salt.

In the body, salt is as important to humans as water or air, in fact each of us contain from four to eight ounces of salt. Salt helps maintain the normal volume of blood in the body and also helps keep the correct balance of water in and around the cells and tissues. It is also necessary for the formation and proper function of nerve fibers, which carry impulses to and from the brain, and plays an important part in the digestion of food and is essential in making the heart beat correctly.

The sodium found in salt is an essential nutrient. In combination with potassium, it regulates the acid-alkaline balance in our blood and is also necessary for proper muscle functioning. Salt is essential to our well being. For years, many researchers have claimed that salt threatens public health, mostly by contributing to high blood pressure. All salts come from a sea, but not all salts come from the oceans we know today.

The oceans that once covered the earth left a generous supply of salt beds and underground deposits which provide pure salt unpolluted by modern mankind. Salt was used as currency in ancient Rome, and the roots of the words "soldier" and "salary" can be traced to Latin words related to giving or receiving salt. During the Middle Ages, salt was transported along roads built especially for that purpose. One of the most famous of these roads is the Old Salt Route in Northern Germany, which ran from the salt mines to shipping ports.

Salt taxes and monopolies have led to wars and protests everywhere from China to parts of Africa. Anger over the salt tax was one of the causes of the French Revolution.

In colonial India, only the British government could produce and profit from the salt production conducted by Indians living on the coast. Gandhi chose to protest this monopoly in March and marched for 23 days with his followers. When he arrived on the coast, Gandhi violated the law by boiling a chunk of salty mud.

People across India began making their own salt in protest, and the march became an important milestone in the struggle for Indian independence. Salt production also played a significant role in early America. The history of the world according to salt is simple: animals wore paths to salt licks; men followed; trails became roads, and settlements grew beside them.

When the human menu shifted from salt-rich game to cereals, more salt was needed to supplement the diet. But the underground deposits were beyond reach, and the salt sprinkled over the surface was insufficient.

Scarcity kept the mineral precious. Salt routes crisscrossed the globe. One of the most traveled led from Morocco south across the Sahara to Timbuktu. Ships bearing salt from Egypt to Greece traversed the Mediterranean and the Aegean. Herodotus describes a caravan route that united the salt oases of the Libyan desert. In , when he first returned from Cathay, Marco Polo delighted the Doge with tales of the prodigious value of salt coins bearing the seal of the great Khan.

As early as the 6th century, in the sub-Sahara, Moorish merchants routinely traded salt ounce for ounce for gold. Ironically, however, in the last quarter of the 20 th century, salt itself was under fire, seen as a culprit that contributed to high blood pressure and the risk of stroke and heart attack. Now, the tide is turning again with recent scholarship indicating that too low of a salt intake could have adverse effects for heart patients and that the previous concerns about high-salt consumption and blood pressure may well be baseless.

They stated,. After more than random clinical trials and 13 population studies without an obvious signal in favor of sodium reduction, another position could be to accept that such a signal may not exist. That said, their estimates may well be based on faulty assumptions about sodium consumption given extensive research done, particularly in the last decade, looking at the age old idea of salt and cardiac issues, finding no such connection when it comes to high-sodium intake. A Brief History of Salt.

Salt Blocks Used as Currency. Salt in Judaism was used or mentioned to seal lasting pacts because it does not decay itself and prevents other things from spoiling. This attribute is exactly what is needed for an eternal promise.