Iodized Salt vs Sea Salt Comparison [Nutrition, Taste, Cost & More]

Iodized salt vs sea salt are beneficial for your body and necessary for your daily diet, but they also have differences in some criteria.  

Keep reading this article to explore more about the two common salt types, and decide which one is better and healthier. 

Iodized salt vs sea salt

What Is Iodized Salt?

Also called table salt, iodized salt is a salt containing small sodium amounts of potassium iodide. 

In other words, it is just ordinary salt that can be sprayed with potassium iodate. It tastes and looks the same! 

Most of the table salt used today is iodized, which comes with multiple benefits, such as Tata salt, one of the salt products providing plenty of iodine supplements.

Iodized salt 

What Is Sea Salt?

Unlike iodized salt, sea salt is produced by the sea water's evaporation. It is used as a spice in food, cooking, cosmetics, and preservation. 

Sea salt is also known as sun-dried, sun-dried, or simply salt. 

The extraction of sea salt, such as rock salt, from mining dates back to prehistoric times.

Sea salt

Iodized Salt vs Sea Salt: Comparison

You find it difficult to distinguish two common salt types: sea salt and iodized salt?

Let’s look at the summary table below to see the main difference between iodized salt and sea salt easily: 

The main differences between table salt vs sea salt

Apart from referring to the comparison table above, you can consider some specific criteria to have a full comparison of the two salt types. 

Nutrition

Sodium is a mineral necessary for maintaining normal muscle and nerve function as well as for maintaining fluid balance. It is found in various foods with salts composed of sodium chloride.

Both iodized salt and sea salt contain the same sodium amount. Thus, you shouldn't use over 1500 milligrams daily. 

Despite that, the difference between table salt vs sea salt is the dimension of crystals. 

Several types of sea salt include larger crystals than iodized salt. As a result, a spoonful of sea salt usually contains less sodium than a spoonful of iodized salt. 

A high-sodium diet raises blood pressure and increases the risk of stroke and heart disease. 

The nutrition comparison of the sea salt and iodized salt

Taste & usage

Unprocessed sea salt is crunchy and sharper in taste than iodized salt. Yet, it can lose its taste and color when dissolved or cooked and is less "salty" than iodized salt due to the additional minerals' presence. 

Comparing sea salt vs iodized salt baking, iodized salt is preferred because the fine granules dissolve quickly.

Health effects

Iodized salt contains iodine, a necessary nutrient helping maintain a healthy thyroid. It's also beneficial for pregnant women. 

If you don't get enough iodine, your body can't produce enough thyroid hormone, resulting in an enlarged thyroid gland and goiter. Therefore, this salt type can help prevent goiter. 

Which is better sea salt or iodized salt? Sea salt is better and healthier because it is more natural, with more healthy minerals, including iron, magnesium, and sulfur.

The benefits of sea salt include reducing flare-ups and skin irritation in people with eczema once used in a warm bath.

Sea salt, high in magnesium, promotes hydration and helps reduce dry skin irritation.

So, the difference between iodized sea salt vs sea salt is so slight that it doesn't matter.

The difference between the health effects of sea salt and iodized salt

Variants

Regarding the difference of variants between natural sea salt vs iodized sea salt, sea salt is available in multiple variants than iodized salt. 

It is available in varieties at a wide range of prices, including Fleur de Sel from France, Real Salt from Oregon, Chardonnay sea salt, smoked sea salt, flake sea salt, gray sea salt, Pink Himalayan salt, and Celtic sea salt. 

Cost

Cost is one of the key criteria leading to the basic difference between salt iodized vs sea salt. 

Iodized salt is more affordable than sea salt. While sea salt costs up to $0.79, iodized salt just costs $0.49 per pound. 

The cost of iodized vs sea salt

Popularity

The last difference between iodised salt vs sea salt is popularity. Sea salt has gained popularity, especially in most restaurants, because of its natural and healthy minerals and processing.

What Are Eating Too Much Salt’s Health Risks?

Whether you use too much iodized salt or non-iodized salt may affect health conditions. Over-consuming high salt can cause heart disease, high blood pressure, and heart attack. 

Nevertheless, your diet needs the right salt amount to stay healthy.

According to American Dietary Guidelines, the average sodium in the American diet is too high, about 3,440 mg daily. We recommend taking 1,500 mg.

Lowering sodium in the diet reduces the developing high blood pressure and heart disease risks. 

Serious health problems from consuming much salt

Most people who consume salt don't come from adding salt to their home cooking. Instead, the American Health Association says more than 75% of the sodium in people's diets originates from processed foods.

Apart from packaged and processed foods, users should be aware of the high levels of salt found in chicken, cheese, and bread.

Manufacturers can include iodized salt or sea salt additives to prevent clumping. 

These additives are anti-caking agents: calcium silicate, potassium ferrocyanide, silicon dioxide, yellow soda water, or iron ammonium citrate. 

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these additives are often quite safe to utilize in salt to help eliminate clumping.