It has contributed to the building of civilizations. Men have used it as currency and gained great wealth from it throughout history. It plays a vital role in keeping humans and animals alive, but too much can be deadly. It’s in nearly everything we eat or drink in one form or another. We use it to preserve foods, but we also use it to cover roadways in the winter. It’s salt. We love it, we crave it and, sometimes, we even hate it.

Salt, a chemical compound of sodium and chloride found in nature, is a vital mineral for proper body function. Salt is one of several electrolytes the body uses to regulate water in our bodies. Our bodies are made up of approximately 60 percent water (give or take 5 to 10 percent depending on certain factors). Water helps our organs and cells thrive and makes them able to complete the vital tasks that keep us alive. Without delving too far into the science behind it all, the long and short of it is, maintaining a healthy water/salt balance is essential to life. Too much salt can lead to problems such as hypernatremia (associated with dehydration), or elevated blood pressure. Too little salt, though less common, can be a problem too, causing hyponatremia which occurs when cells swell with excess water.

Salt is one of five flavors the human palate recognizes. Because it makes such a wonderful “natural” preservative, salt is heavily used in processed foods. In fact, so much salt is in the foods we eat, that some people regularly consume far more than the recommended daily allowance, which is 2,300 mg per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Consider this: just a quarter pounder with cheese at a popular national fast food chain contains 1,110 mg of sodium per the chain’s website. Add condiments, fries and a soda and you’re more than halfway to your daily limit with just that one meal. Twenty-three hundred mg equals 2.3 grams, or just a little over one half a teaspoon of salt per day. With the salt found in the foods we eat, there’s little or no room leftover for table salt.

There are several kinds of salt that humans use for consumption, but they all have essentially the same chemical make-up, with minor differences, though many chefs will swear by one over another for taste differences in certain dishes.

Most table salts are finely ground rock salts from underground salt mines, which some processors have fortified with iodine ”“ another essential nutrient. Any salt can be ground into a fine salt powder like table salt, however, table salt is the most common finely ground salt found on most tables.

Kosher salt is not always kosher, though it gains its name from how Jewish dietary requirements called for preparing meats. Kosher salt is usually coarse and dissolves well in liquid brines.

Sea salt is a popular salt, which, as the name indicates, comes from evaporated water. Within the category of sea salts, though, are several different salts which are named based on the body of water from which they originated. Sel gris, for instance, known as Celtic sea salt, or gray salt in French, is usually coarse and gray due to how the salt is processed from evaporating water. It is considered mineral rich and is a dense, moisture-filled salt.

Not all salt is white. In fact, some people avoid the whitest salts because they believe that the salt may undergo bleaching during processing. However, pure salt crystals are naturally white and only change color when exposed to other elements. Himalayan salt can be white or pink in color, and is usually coarse. It is mined from ancient sea salt deposits and turns pink due to iron oxide. Likewise, Hawaiian sea salts are usually either reddish in color from their exposure to red volcanic minerals, or black due to the addition of charcoal, which is full of trace minerals.

Keeping track of sodium content in food can be a daunting enough task without adding more salt to dishes. They key to low-sodium cooking is to use fresh herbs and spices to make meals that are so flavorful, adding salt is unnecessary. Using citrus sauces on meats, or garlic with vegetables is helpful as well. This low-sodium sauce is delicious served with fish, chicken or even pork. It’s sweet, tart and savory, creating an explosion of flavor in your mouth with each bite. Best of all, the recipe serves eight at just about 35 calories a serving. There’s only 145 milligrams of sodium and an added bonus of 26 mg of potassium and 16 percent of your recommended daily Vitamin C. This sauce is low in fat and carbohydrates and even has a gram of protein per serving.

Sweet and

Savory Citrus Sauce

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons raw, organic honey

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoons olive oil

ground pepper (to taste)

Boil juices and minced garlic over high heat until the juices have reduced to about 1/2 cup. This should take approximately 10 minutes, give or take a couple depending on your stove temperature and the pan you use. Once reduced, whisk in honey, mustard, soy sauce, olive oil and pepper. Pour over your favorite baked meat and enjoy. Super simple and quite tasty.