Mental Health & Mindfulness for Health & Longevity · Ryan Kimball

12: Salt Essentials - Redmonds Real Salt

·57 min·3 clips

Daryl says salt is altered when minerals are stripped out and anti-caking chemicals like E535 are added.

Salt is often treated like a throwaway mineral until this conversation opens it back up. Ryan introduces Daryl Burchard, who works for Redmond Real Salt and grew up in the family's salt business in Redmond, Utah. That background matters because the discussion stays grounded in how salt is made and why people misunderstand it. Daryl says a lot of people think salt is just salt, but the category is more varied and a lot more interesting than that. The show then moves into the body side of the story and frames salt as something that interacts with moisture. That makes the mineral feel less like a seasoning and more like part of a basic system the body uses every day. From there the conversation shifts to food preservation before refrigeration. Salt shows up in meats, kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, and fermented vegetables because it helps those foods last. Daryl contrasts that older food pattern with the modern processed-food world. He argues that manufacturers often use demineralized salt in canned and boxed products that are already a problem for other reasons. The point is not just that the salt is processed. It is that the salt is usually landing on food that is already heavily processed too. That is where the conversation lands its main practical message. Bad salt on bad food is a bad combination. The episode also clears up the idea that natural salt is somehow literally bleached with chemicals. Daryl explains that "bleached" in this context means whitened through washing and rinsing, not dumped in Clorox. He also points out that natural salts like Himalayan, Redmond, Andean pink, Celtic gray, and Hawaiian red can carry color and unique crystal shapes. The final stretch feels like a listening list for the curious, with references to Redmond products and books for listeners who want to go farther. One book covers the broad history of salt across empires, wars, and trade. The whole conversation works as a practical reset for anyone who has only ever heard salt discussed as a problem.

As heard by us

A clear reset on salt, processing, and the role mineral context plays.

This conversation treats salt as more than a throwaway mineral. It walks through how salt is made, what processing can remove, and why its role in the body is tied to moisture.

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Why you'd press play

You want a cleaner way to think about salt, moisture, and processed food.

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