Expert: Chef Glen L. Davis II - 3/12/2009

Question
QUESTION: good morning sir! can you give me the benefits and harmful effects of food seasonings when we are going to use it?

ANSWER: I am not sure how to answer this question because there are so many different things to take into account. If you can focus this question to particular spices I can help you out. If I were to answer this question in such a broad spectrum I would be here typing all day.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: How about salt? Sir please help me out because I'm going to use it for my thesis! Thank you and God Bless!

ANSWER: Salt is vital for the bodys "bio-electric" signals to be properly transmited. If you do not have enough salt you will first notice "sluggish" muscular response and fatuige. Salt is also important for the structure of cell wals.

On the "flip side", to much salt can be fatal. It can also affect some medications and cause blood pressure to "spike". Generally this is only an issue if a person already has blood pressure issues.

If I am not mistaken (it has been a long time since my nutrition class) the minimum daily intake of salt is 3g. Other factors such as the type of salt (like kosher, table and sea salt) can affect the way the body reacts to salt. Kosher is the most pure form of salt, there are no additives. Sea salt is prized for its additional minerals, Fluer de Sel is a good example. It is harvested under a full moon because it makes more minerals "come with it". Table salt is the worst for people to ingest, some of the additives make the salt have more of a negative impact on the body. I am not familiar with all the details about how and why table salt reacts in this way.

I hope this helps to "shed some light" on your salt question. If there is anything else I can assist you with, all you have to do is ask

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: How about the rock and iodized. Is there a difference between the two? Because some said that rock is more delicious than iodized. Is it true?

Answer
Unfortunately the extent of my experience with "rock salt" is limited to "de-icing" the driveway and making ice cream. I do know that chemically they are very similar, however (this is hearsay so I am not 100% sure of the accuracy) a Chef that I trained under once told me that the chemicals that are present in "rock salt" make it easier to overdose. As far as eating rock salt goes, what I have seen is not suitable to eat (because of physical contaminants). Some people call "Coarse" kosher or sea salt "rock salt" but this is inaccurate.