Some e-commerce platforms have been luring customers with their "special salt". There is Himalayan pink salt, Hawaiian black salt and French gray salt, the prices of which far exceed that of normal salt.

For example, a bottle of Hawaiian black salt, 425 grams in weight, is priced at 169 yuan ($24.11), over 50 times the cost of an ordinary packet of salt. The other "special" salts are similarly overpriced. In their advertisements, the sellers claim that these salts are natural and rich in "nutritious" mineral elements.

While that's what advertising is all about, consumers need to be told some basic truths. First of all, all salts are natural, as they come from seawater or from underground salt mines. All salts are basically sodium chloride and that constituent won't change, no matter where or how the salt is packaged.

More mineral elements do not necessarily make the salt good for health. Arsenic, lead, aluminum, mercury and cadmium are mineral elements that are harmful for the body. Sodium and phosphorus are needed, but our bodies already get the required dose through other diet sources and an excess can be harmful.

There is consensus among health experts that too much salt is not good for health as it can lead to high blood pressure, which can then trigger cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Too much salt in the blood stream also leads to loss of calcium from the bones.

That's why the World Health Organization recommends that an average person take in not more than 5 grams of salt every day; the domestically recommended amount is 6 grams.

So if businesses are advising consumers to get more nutrition by taking in salt, they are misguiding them and also acting against the guidelines set by the national authorities. In such a situation, it is time for the monitoring authorities to get cracking against them.

THEPAPER.CN