Salt consists of sodium and chloride and is produced by evaporating saltwater/extracting from salt mines. It is commonly used to enhance flavour, preserve food, and plays a role in biological functions which include muscle contraction, nerve conduction, fluid balance.
Too much of it leads to heart diseases and elevated blood pressure. And because of such risks associated with its high consumption people have switched to pink salts believing it to be a healthy alternative in comparison to table salt.
Pink salt has a natural pink colour and is mined from the Himalayas (Pakistan) and is claimed to be better than regular salt. But there is not much research on it that proves its health claims. It is hand-extracted with minimum processing that yields an unrefined, free of additives and natural pure form of salt considered better than table salt. It also consists of sodium and chloride only. But because it is naturally harvested it possesses other minerals and trace elements that are not found in table salt.
Both salts consist mainly of sodium chloride but pink salt has additional 84 minerals and traces elements like calcium, potassium, strontium and molybdenum to name a few. But the amounts of these minerals are found in very small quantities that do not provide any health benefits.
The only reason to use or add pink salt in your diet is if you want to avoid additives as it is a natural alternative to regular table salt. But it does not provide any other or major health benefit in comparison to table salt.
Table salt in India is fortified with iodine and is a major dietary source of it so if consuming pink salt then one should add other iodine sources to avoid its deficiency.
Salt in our country is being fortified with iron and iodine to tackle iodine and iron deficiency. DFS or Double fortified salt is a fortified product that helps to deliver crucial amounts of iron and iodine to human beings through diet.
DFS formulations provide 100% of the daily dietary iodine requirement and 30-60 % of the daily dietary iron requirement. It helps to combat the iron and iodine deficiencies in our country. Iron is fortified at 0.8-1.1 ppm (mg/g of salt).
The Iodisation of salt in India has been able to save 4 billion IQ points in the last 2 decades. In India, the soil lacks iodine thus our diet lacks iodine and this leads to putting our whole population at risk of IDD. Currently, only 92% of our population consumes salt that is iodised.
Example: TATA salt plus, TNSC salt, Ankur, etc. So, always buy the one with iodised mark only.