Himalayan salt is rock salt (halite) mined from the Punjab region of Pakistan. The salt, which often has a pinkish tint due to trace minerals, is primarily used as a food additive to replace refined table salt but is also used for cooking and food presentation, decorative lamps and spa treatments. The product is often promoted with groundless claims that it has health benefits.
Himalayan salt is a table salt. Analysis of a range of Khewra salt samples showed them to be between 96% and 99% sodium chloride, with varying amounts of trace minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, chromium, magnesium, and sulfate, all at safe levels below 1%. Some salts mined in Pakistan are not suitable for food or industrial use without purification due to impurities. Some salt crystals from this region have an off-white to transparent color, while the trace minerals in some veins of salt give it a pink, reddish, or beet-red color.
Nutritionally, Himalayan salt is similar to common table salt, except with regard to the essential mineral iodine. The commercial table salt in many countries is supplemented with iodine, and this has significantly reduced disorders of iodine deficiency. Himalayan salt lacks these beneficial effects of iodine supplementation.
