The history of salt consumption

It's hard to say, when the first time our mistress sprinkled his simple food with a pinch of salt. But it is known that in ancient times the Egyptians evaporated it from sea water in special baths under the scorching rays of the southern sun. Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC.e. For the same purposes, logs were used which were lowered into the waters of the Persian Gulf. Then these logs were dried in the sun and scraped salt crystals from them. In the XIV century, throughout all of Russia, the White Sea salt was famous, which was obtained in salt varnish by evaporation in the fire of sea ice pickles.

People from ancient times also knew about underground deposits of rock salt - polygaliths. More than 2500 years ago, in the wealthy cities of Greece, the elect relished the "Garon" - a fish dish, which for three months was kept in a steep brine-brine.

According to the information, which is trustworthy, the trade and political union of northern German cities - Hansa also owed its wealth to the Baltic herring of a special ambassador. This expensive delicacy in the XIV-XV centuries.successfully competed in the world market with furs and flax of Russia, wines of France and English wool.

For centuries, pickles, marinades and smoked products served as the most accessible and effective means of preserving for future perishable food products. Over the years, sodium chloride is becoming more accessible, and the food preserved with it is spreading throughout the world. Along with this, many people gradually become blunted with the sensation of normal salinity of food and often, more and more quantities of table salt are systematically absorbed by man, habitually, rather than to satisfy the physiological need. So, presumably, from generation to generation, the taste for salty foods and even salted foods was formed and consolidated.

It is believed that a wild beast, even the most cautious, forgets about the danger, getting to the solonetzes. Academician N. M. Amosov in this connection writes: "Do animals eat salt in the wild? And our distant ancestor used it? No and no. Well, if the ancestor lived close to the sources of salt, and if far away? About the animals and say nothing - they still do not eat it. That cows with pleasure lick the salt, does not prove anything. Tasty love all. And it is not always useful. "

And, no less importantly, food salt before and now the product is far from the same. Long did not know that when evaporation of sea water under the sun, the chemicals in it crystallize in a certain order. The salt evaporated under the same sun is a mixture that is close in the set and correlation of its basic components to inorganic compounds of human blood, which indirectly indicates the origin of all living things from the World Ocean. Polygalites of natural salt deposits differ approximately by the same properties.

But for a long time already salt from sea water is evaporated by other technology, and polygalites so thoroughly crushed that in them, except for sodium chloride, there is practically nothing left.