Related topics: blood pressure
Salt
hideSalt is a dietary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride that is essential for animal life, but toxic to most land plants. Salt flavor is one of the basic tastes, an important preservative and a popular food seasoning.
Salt for human consumption is produced in different forms: unrefined salt (such as sea salt), refined salt (table salt), and iodized salt. It is a crystalline solid, white, pale pink or light gray in color, normally obtained from sea water or rock deposits. Edible rock salts may be slightly grayish in color because of this mineral content.
Chloride and sodium ions, the two major components of salt, are necessary for the survival of all known living creatures, including humans. Salt is involved in regulating the water content (fluid balance) of the body. Salt cravings may be caused by trace mineral deficiencies as well as by a deficiency of sodium chloride itself. Conversely, overconsumption of salt increases the risk of health problems, including high blood pressure.
For more information about Salt, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with salt
Mexico's conch shells yield clues into effects of warming
Dec 22, 2009 |
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Divers plumb the turquoise depths of ocean waters some 100 kilometers south of this vacation paradise, in search of the distinctive queen conch shell prized by vacationers and souvenir-seekers.
Researchers develop cheap, easy 'kitchen chemistry' to perform formerly complex synthesis
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Dec 04, 2009 |
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A team at The Scripps Research Institute has made major strides in solving a problem that has been plaguing chemists for many years: how best to break carbon-hydrogen bonds and then to create new bonds to join molecules together. ...
Renewable Energy Made by Mixing Salt and Fresh Water
Sep 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- When a river flows into the sea, the location is more than just a haven for water commerce. The mixing of fresh and salt water that occurs at an estuary also dissipates energy, as the different ...
Cholera bacteria show adaptability to changing environments
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The deadly bacterium behind cholera epidemics spends only a fraction of its life infecting humans. Most of the time, Vibrio cholerae lurks in estuaries and other semisalty aquatic habitats.
Salt Water System Could Generate Hydrogen
Mar 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The idea of generating hydrogen from salt water has often been claimed to work effectively. However, the systems proposed so far generally require a much greater energy input than the energy ...
Solar power generation around the clock
Nov 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A Californian company, SolarReserve, is developing a solar power system that can store seven hours' worth of solar energy by focusing mirrors onto millions of gallons of molten salt, allowing ...
Salt and Paper Battery May One Day Replace Lithium Batteries
Sep 15, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Salt and paper battery can be used in many low-power devices, such as medical implants, RFID tags, wireless sensors and smart cards. This battery uses a thin-film which makes it an attractive ...
Could salt crusts be key ingredient in cooking up prebiotic molecules?
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 18, 2009 |
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German scientists investigating the complex chemical mixture thought to be present in the early Earth’s oceans have found that amino acids can be 'cooked' into many other important chemical building blocks ...
High salt intake directly linked to stroke and cardiovascular disease
Nov 24, 2009 |
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High salt intake is associated with significantly greater risk of both stroke and cardiovascular disease, concludes a study published in the BMJ today.
Salt block unexpectedly stretches in new experiments
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jun 24, 2009 |
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To stretch a supply of salt generally means using it sparingly.
Wastewater produces electricity and desalinates water
Aug 06, 2009 |
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A process that cleans wastewater and generates electricity can also remove 90 percent of salt from brackish water or seawater, according to an international team of researchers from China and the U.S.
Study suggests salt might be 'nature's antidepressant'
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 10, 2009 |
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Most people consume far too much salt, and a University of Iowa researcher has discovered one potential reason we crave it: it might put us in a better mood.
Scientists offer new theory for largest known mass extinction
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 30, 2009 |
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The largest mass extinction in the history of the earth could have been triggered off by giant salt lakes, whose emissions of halogenated gases changed the atmospheric composition so dramatically that vegetation ...
Don't worry so much about limiting sodium, researchers say
Oct 20, 2009 |
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University of California-Davis nutrition researchers are challenging the decades-old conventional wisdom that we should watch our salt.
New Evidence Shakes up Perceptions of Salt
Oct 15, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are currently under development and regulations surrounding sodium consumption are being considered, an analysis of evidence to be released online ...
