Amazing salt and kelp

With a good attitude, there is a good life ~ Huang Yi

Every day we eat table salt, so do you know how table salt is made? I am a Zigong native, Zigong is called "Salt Capital", my college friends asked me before, "Do you Zigong have a lot of salt in every household?" So you never have to buy salt?! Did you get your salt out of your own well? ”

Salt is not only a necessity in human life, it also plays an important role in industrial production. It has long been known to use seawater to dry salt, salt from salt lakes, and salt to fry salt in the salt water of salt springs. So, how exactly is table salt made?

Together we took a shallow dish, a small spoon and a little salt, a glass, and some water. We pour a little salt into a shallow dish. Until the bottom of the pan is covered with water. Scoop water from the glass with a small spoon and stir with a small spoon to dissolve the salt. Then place the shallow dish in a sunny place and wait until the moisture slowly evaporates. You can see the crystallization of the salt precipitate out.

We all know that there is iodine in table salt, so how is this iodine added to it? We also use a similar method to make salt, the specific method is to introduce seawater into the open salt pan, and then use the heat of the sun to evaporate the water to make salt, in addition, you can also make salt by calcination, that is, the seaweed soaked in seawater is burned to ash, and then poured sea water on the ash, it becomes thick brine, and then put it into the pottery and boiled to make salt. People are also now processing salt by mining rock salt. But if it is to make salt for consumption, there must be a key process - iodization.

Grandparents and parents often say, "Eating light is good for the body!" "Why is it bad to eat too much salt?"

Long-term intake of a large amount of salt is very harmful to health, not only will induce high blood pressure, but also may cause gastritis, peptic ulcer, upper respiratory tract infections and other diseases. In addition, excessive salt intake is still the culprit of osteoporosis, because the kidneys will excrete too much salt with the urine every day, and the more salt the human body excretes, the greater the consumption of calcium, so it will inevitably affect the health of the bones.

Some people say that eating coarse salt is good, is eating coarse salt more good for health?

Salt and refined salt, the main component is sodium chloride, the content of sodium chloride in refined salt is more than 90%, crude salt is 85% to 90% or more, sodium chloride can help regulate the osmolality of the human body. In addition to sodium chloride, crude salt also contains magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride, calcium sulfate and other trace compounds, which are essential substances for the human body. However, these compounds are removed from refined salt, so eating coarse salt in daily life is more beneficial to health than eating refined salt.

Speaking of salt, it reminds me of kelp, my grandparents and parents always say let me eat more kelp, I laugh and say, "Kelp is also salty?" Don't you say it's bad to eat too much salt? I'm confused..."

So why do the old people let us eat less salt and more kelp?

Kelp is brown, long, and looks a little strange, but it is a vegetable with very high nutritional value. In many countries in the world, foods made with kelp are very popular, such as kelp pine, kelp sauce, kelp sugar, kelp tea, as well as kelp steamed buns, kelp noodles, kelp bread and so on. Kelp has gradually become an indispensable food in people's lives. Why?

We found hydrogen peroxide, banana water, a moderate amount of alcohol lamp, two beakers, a tripod, crucibles, droppers, and some dried kelp, and asbestos mesh and other things.

We burn dried kelp strips inside the crucible to ashes. Pour all the ashes into a beaker, soak in a little water and let stand for a while. Take the colorless liquid from the upper layer of the beaker and drop it into another empty beaker. Then, we add hydrogen peroxide to the beaker. We will see that the solution in the beaker turns yellow. Then we add banana water to the yellow liquid, and the solution gradually turns dark yellow. Finally we wait until the banana water volatilizes out, leaving a small amount of dark brown solids at the bottom of the beaker.

Kelp contains many compounds of iodine, which can be oxidized with hydrogen peroxide to obtain elemental iodine. Elemental iodine is insoluble in water, but soluble in organic matter such as banana water, and when the banana water volatilizes, the dark brown iodine element remains at the bottom of the beaker. Iodine is one of the essential elements of the human body, 70% to 80% of the amount is present in the thyroid gland. It plays a large role in protein synthesis and decomposition, metabolism of sugars and fats, metabolism of water and salts, absorption and utilization of vitamins, and growth and metabolism. Iodine deficiency in young children can lead to insignia, and iodine deficiency in adults can lead to thyroid disease. We can see that kelp is rich in iodine, so eating kelp often is good for the body.

Friends, do you know why kelp is knotted? Also why does kelp soak for a long time before eating?

Dad once said that due to seawater pollution, the arsenic content of kelp is as high as 35 to 50 mg per kilogram, and arsenic and its compounds are generally toxic and can cause acute or chronic arsenic poisoning. In order to seek a safe way to eat kelp, according to the water-soluble properties of arsenic and its compounds, soaked in room temperature water for 24 hours can reach the standard of safe consumption. Therefore, when soaking kelp, the amount of water used should be more, the time should be longer, and the water should be changed more frequently. Although the kelp soaking time is too long, its basic nutrients will be somewhat lost, but it will not be too large, weighing the pros and cons, kelp is still soaked until it is non-toxic and then eaten to play its role of "healthy food" and "longevity dish".

Since kelp is so good, but there are so many kelp on the market, how do we distinguish between good and bad kelp?

The main reason for choosing high-quality kelp is to see the color, and the good dried kelp is black and there are no spots. Kelp is a sensitive seaweed that cannot survive in polluted seas. Kelp that survives in poor environments can deform and be rare in number. If you find that the color of kelp is dark red, even white, and fishy, don't buy it!