Himalayan Salt: Where It Comes From, What’s in It, and What the Claims Are Worth

Pink salt’s minerals are real, but to get a meaningful dose of them you’d have to eat more than 30 grams of it a day, about six teaspoons. That’s what a 2020 analysis of 31 pink salts found, and by then the sodium would far outweigh any benefit.¹ Himalayan salt, usually sold as Himalayan pink salt, is rock salt mined in Pakistan and colored pink by traces of iron oxide. It’s still overwhelmingly sodium chloride, and we couldn’t trace the famous “84 minerals” claim to any lab analysis.

At a glance

What Himalayan salt is

Himalayan salt is rock salt, mined instead of evaporated from seawater. Science-Based Medicine’s Harriet Hall describes the salt beds as deposited from ancient oceans about 250 million years ago and later lifted when the Himalayas formed.⁶ The commercial product comes from Pakistan. Pakistan’s state-owned Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) runs the Khewra mine in Jhelum district, which it calls the world’s second largest salt mine, and registered the geographical indication “Khewra Pink Rock Salt.” PMDC says it extracts about 1.4 million tons of rock salt a year across all its operations, not Khewra alone.² Morton, for its part, describes its pink salt only as sourced from the Himalayan Mountains.⁴

You’ll often read that all Himalayan salt comes from Khewra, that Khewra is the world’s oldest salt mine, that it covers about 43 square miles, and that a British engineer laid out its tunnels in the 19th century. We couldn’t open a source for any of these, so we’re not repeating them as fact.

Color

The pink comes from traces of iron oxide. PMDC sells salt from white through pink and dark pink to grayish. In the 2020 analysis, darker pink salts generally had more minerals than paler ones.¹ That finding covers pink salt bought in Australia. It says nothing about other kinds of colored salt.

What’s actually in it

The best data we found comes from a peer-reviewed study by Flavia Fayet-Moore and colleagues, published in Foods in 2020. They bought 31 pink salts in Sydney, Canberra and Coffs Harbour in June 2018, plus one iodized white table salt as a control, and measured 25 minerals by ICP-MS.¹

The authors caution that each sample was measured once in one lab and that some subgroups were very small. Their conclusion: any benefit from pink salt’s extra minerals would be canceled out by the sodium that comes with them.¹

The “84 minerals” claim

Himalayan salt is widely advertised as containing 84 trace minerals. We couldn’t trace that number to any published lab analysis. The 2020 study measured 25 minerals and doesn’t mention it.¹ Harriet Hall traces the figure to marketing, including a supplement seller’s own product copy. She points out that the elements on such lists include poisons like mercury, arsenic, lead and thallium, and radioactive elements like radium, uranium and polonium, and argues that the health claims rest on minerals present only in minute amounts.⁶ So treat “84 minerals” as a marketing number with no traceable analysis behind it.

Flavor

Himalayan salt tastes like salt. You’ll often see it called milder or less bitter than table salt, but we didn’t find a taste test that backs that up. In the 2020 analysis, pink salt had roughly 8% less sodium by weight than the one white salt tested.¹ The main reason to choose it is the coarse grain, which gives crunch on the surface of food.

How it’s used

Use fine pink salt like any other salt. Coarse crystals go in grinders or on food as a finishing salt, where the color shows. Salt blocks and slabs are sold for heating and cooking on, or chilling and serving from. We didn’t find any published testing of how much salt they pass to food, so that part comes down to taste. For techniques, see cooking with Himalayan salt.

Measuring

Morton’s conversion chart, which it says applies only between Morton products, treats a teaspoon of table salt as equal to a teaspoon of its coarse or fine Himalayan pink salt, but 1 cup of table salt as equal to 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of coarse Himalayan salt.⁷ Morton’s own coarse Himalayan label lists 1.5 g per ¼ teaspoon, the same as its table salt label.⁴ Those two Morton figures don’t quite line up at larger volumes, and we didn’t find an independent measurement, so weigh it for baking.

Buying and quality

Look for a country of origin and an ingredient list that says only salt. Morton’s, for example, lists “Salt.”⁴ Pakistan’s PMDC is the registrant for “Khewra Pink Rock Salt” as a geographical indication. Origin is worth knowing, because the 2020 study found one pink salt over the lead limit the authors used. That sample was the only one from Peru, so “pink salt” on a label doesn’t automatically mean Pakistani rock salt.¹

Storage

We didn’t find a shelf-life figure for Himalayan salt from a regulator or standards body. Just keep it dry.

Safety and health claims

Blood pressure and sodium

Himalayan salt is sometimes promoted as better for blood pressure because coarse crystals put less salt in a teaspoon. But any salt with larger crystals holds less sodium per teaspoon only because fewer crystals fit, and the American Heart Association says total sodium intake is what matters most for heart health.⁸ In the 2020 analysis, a 5 g teaspoon of pink salt still held about 1,974 mg of sodium.¹ The FDA’s Daily Value for sodium is less than 2,300 mg a day; the WHO recommends adults stay under 2,000 mg.⁹¹⁰

Iodine

Himalayan salt isn’t a source of iodine. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements lists Himalayan salt among the specialty salts that usually aren’t iodized.³ Iodine is an essential nutrient. If you use only pink salt and rely on salt for iodine, see iodized vs. non-iodized salt.

Other health claims

Harriet Hall’s review collects claims that Himalayan salt detoxifies the body, lowers blood pressure or strengthens bones, and finds no evidence for any of them.⁶ The 2020 analysis, the only lab study we found that set out to test pink salt’s nutritional value, found no meaningful benefit at normal intakes.¹ We’re not claiming Himalayan salt treats or prevents any condition.

Microplastics

In a 2018 study of 39 salt brands from 21 countries and regions, microplastic contamination was highest in sea salt, then lake salt, then rock salt, according to a Greenpeace press release on the study.¹¹ The release doesn’t give separate figures for pink or Himalayan salt.

Substitutes and comparisons

Any salt can replace Himalayan salt by weight. All you lose is the color and crunch. Comparisons:

• Himalayan salt vs. table salt
• Himalayan salt vs. sea salt
• Kosher salt vs. Himalayan salt
• Celtic salt vs. Himalayan salt
• Alaea salt vs. Himalayan salt
• Fleur de sel vs. Himalayan salt

Related salts: rock salt and black salt.