鹽水是治療一切的良藥

The writer Isak Dinesen once said, "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea," but salt (or, more specifically, sodium) is also a source of blame for high blood pressure and kidney stones. Too much can make you thirsty, while too little can leave a dish lacking in flavor. What looks like a generic pile of granules is anything but simple.

作家伊薩克·迪內(nèi)森(Isak Dinesen)曾說過，“鹽水是治療一切的良藥:汗水、眼淚或海水。”但鹽(或者更具體地說，鈉)也是高血壓和腎結(jié)石的罪魁禍首。鹽太多會讓你口渴，而太少會讓一道菜缺乏味道?？雌饋硐褚欢哑胀w粒的東西卻一點也不簡單。

A quick science lesson: what we colloquially call "salt" is NaCl, a combination of sodium and chlorine, and humans have natural receptors for it on their tongues. It is essential to life, both for fluid regulation and for its role in maintaining healthy nerve function (via Exploring Our Fluid Earth). But if you're not a scientist or physician, your main interest in salt probably has more to do with its culinary applications.

給大家上一節(jié)簡單的科學課:我們俗稱的“鹽”是NaCl，它是鈉和氯的組合，人類的舌頭上有對它的天然受體。它對生命至關(guān)重要，無論是流體調(diào)節(jié)，還是維持健康神經(jīng)功能的作用(通過探索我們的流體地球)。但如果你不是科學家或醫(yī)生，你對鹽的主要興趣可能更多地與它的烹飪應用有關(guān)。

Believe it or not, the salt you've been consuming is likely sea salt — the difference is how long ago it was in the sea. For the last century, American table salt has typically been sold in a formulation fortified with the essential nutrient iodine (via Nutrients). It is procured from salt mines, which are essentially dried-up bodies of seawater. Other additives may be incorporated during processing, but these aren't bad for you, as the advent of the iodized version of table salt is responsible for millions of lives saved from iodine deficiency, which is linked to acute or chronic hypothyroidism, as well as congenital thyroid deficiency syndrome (via Healthline).

信不信由你，你一直在吃的鹽很可能是海鹽——區(qū)別在于它在海洋中的時間有多長。上個世紀，美國食鹽通常以添加必需營養(yǎng)素碘的配方出售。海鹽是從鹽礦中獲得的，鹽礦基本上是干涸的海水。在加工過程中可能會加入其他添加劑，但這些對你來說并不壞，因為食鹽加碘版本的出現(xiàn)使數(shù)百萬人免于缺碘，缺碘與急性或慢性甲狀腺功能減退以及先天性甲狀腺缺乏綜合征有關(guān)。

As for the stuff in the bottle at the fancy grocery store labeled "sea salt?" That kind of salt came from water that was forcibly evaporated from a moving body of water and thus carries more trace minerals (via Healthline). Because it's less processed, it does not have added iodine. If you're going to use it, chefs recommend using it as a finisher or for dishes that are already cooked — once it's dissolved by heat, you're not likely to notice much of a flavor difference between sea salt or table salt.

至于那些高檔雜貨店里瓶子里貼著“海鹽”標簽的東西?這種鹽來自于從流動水體中強制蒸發(fā)出來的水，因此含有更多的微量礦物質(zhì)。因為加工程度較低，所以沒有添加碘。如果你要用它，廚師建議你用它來完成或者做一些已經(jīng)做好的菜——一旦它被加熱溶解，你就不太可能注意到海鹽和食鹽的味道有什么不同。