Salt Through the Ages

One of my roles as a Penn State Extension Food, Family and Health Educator is to supervise four paraprofessionals working with the EFNEP (Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program) program which at Penn State is called the Nutrition Links program. I take turns with other supervisors in providing professional development trainings to these staff members. As a training topic, I picked salt, in part because of the various types of salt available: sea salt, kosher salt, Himalayan salt, iodized salt all came to mind. The more I thought about the topic and researched it, I discovered many interesting things about salt that I would like to share here.

One of the NutritionLinks program goals is to improve health through good nutrition. Consuming excess amounts of salt is known to be a health hazard – contributing to high blood pressure that can then lead to a wide variety of maladies. Avoiding salt isn't the answer since our survival depends on proper fluid balance, muscle contraction and relaxation such as occurs in the heart and blood vessels, and transmission of nerve impulses. Salt is an essential ingredient in many baking recipes and works well in food preservation. In addition to its culinary uses in baking and food preservation, salt is a precious mineral that can be used to tan leather, dye cloth, and even be used as currency. What follows is part of the workshop where I gave some background on the impact salt has had on society throughout the ages. I hope you enjoy a little history lesson on salt.

My research indicated that as early as 6050 BC the Egyptians used salt as religious offerings. A 2700 BC Chinese treatise on pharmacology mentions 40 different kinds of salt. Egyptian art tracing to 1450 BC depicts salt being made. In ancient Greece slaves were traded for salt. Perhaps you've heard the saying, "not worth his salt" indicating that this person underperforms for the amount they are paid. It is believed that Roman soldiers were paid in salt – "salarium" which is where our word salary comes from. Around the world towns and cities were founded and named for local salt mines – Salzburg, Austria for one.

Salt has been involved in human conflict. In early American history, the British denied colonists access to salt and many other governments raised revenue by imposing taxes on salt. In the 20^th century, Mohandas Gandhi used the issue of British salt taxation as a means of nonviolent civil disobedience by leading fellow Indians on a 240-mile march to the sea in efforts to break from British rule by defying Britain's Salt Act of 1882. Under British rule, Indians were prohibited from collecting or selling salt, a dietary staple. They were forced to buy this essential mineral from the Brits who had a monopoly on salt production and collected a heavy salt tax, impacting all Indians but more so, the nation's poorest citizens. As a history buff, I found it interesting to watch several YouTube videos of actual footage of this march.

Syracuse, NY has the nickname of "Salt City" due to production of salt from its briny salt springs where the fluid was eliminated either by boiling or solar evaporation. It was a major salt producer for the US through much of the 19^th century. The Erie Canal, constructed in 1825 was known as the "ditch that salt built" because salt was the principal cargo of canal barges and salt taxes paid about half of the construction costs.

Modern photography had its beginnings with salt prints – the primary paper-based photographic process in the years 1839 to 1860 when it was replaced by daguerreotypes. Another unusual use of salt is as a glaze for stoneware pottery. It produces a slightly orange-peel texture and is translucent and depending on other minerals present in the salt can provide a clear, brown, blue or purple finish.

In Leonardo DaVinci's famous painting "The Last Supper", Judas is depicted as having spilled a bowl of salt – a portent of evil and bad luck. To this day, tradition endures that when people spill salt they should throw a pinch over their left shoulder to ward off any devils or evil spirits who might be lurking behind them. Why the left shoulder? In Latin, the left side was called "sinistra" but took on the meaning of unlucky or evil. Conversely, because your guardian angel sits on your right shoulder and you don't want to knock him off!

A Buddhist tradition of throwing salt over your shoulder before entering your house after you attend a funeral prevents any evil spirits who might be clinging to your back from entering with you. Sumo wrestlers of the Shinto faith enter the ring after a handful of salt has been thrown in the center to drive off malevolent spirits. In the Judeo-Christian faith salt is a symbol of wisdom, incorruptibility, eternity and alliance between God and man. On the eighth day following a birth, a piece of salt was rubbed on the baby to keep away demons and evil spirits. Jesus called his disciples "the salt of the earth" that are to be a force capable of keeping men from the corruption of sin. You may recall the story in the book of Genesis about Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt as punishment when she disobeyed by looking back at her home city of Sodom.

I really enjoyed doing the research for this project and hope you enjoyed learning a thing or two about this amazing and versatile mineral. Just remember to stay healthy, limit your salt intake!