The headlines keep telling us that we all eat too much salt. And they’re correct — sort of. The truth is that we eat too much of the wrong kind of salt.

I have lectured to doctors around the world on this subject, and one thing is clear to me: Hardly anyone understands the difference between refined and unrefined salt.

The human body has an innate need for salt. After water, it is the most important component of our bodies. It runs thousands of chemical reactions and we can’t survive without it.

Do we get too much? That depends on whether you’re asking about salt that is refined or unrefined.

At my lectures, I encourage doctors and laypeople to recognize that these two types of salt are vastly different.

Refined salt is a lifeless, devitalized product that has no minerals, leaving a product that is 99 percent sodium and chloride. The remaining 1 percent contains toxic additives such as ferrocyanide and aluminum.

A small amount of iodine is also added to refined salt. However, as I write in Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It, only 10 percent of this iodine can be used by the body. Refined salt is a very poor choice for iodine supplementation.

In contrast, unrefined salt contains more than 80 minerals, which differ among brands depending on where the salt was harvested. These minerals are essential nutrients that the human body needs.

For example, unrefined salt contains potassium, magnesium, and calcium. There are literally thousands of enzymatic reactions in the body that elements.

The majority of my patients do not have optimal levels of basic minerals. What are the consequences of this? Basically, any disease you can think of can be traced to mineral deficiencies, including hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and depression.

Unrefined salt has been a big success in increasing my patients’ mineral levels.

Unrefined salt also helps balance the body’s pH level, which is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of bodily fluids.

The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with a reading of 7 being neutral (water). A lower pH level means fluids are acidic; a higher pH indicates that they are more alkaline. Human beings are meant to have a pH of around 7.4.

Most of the ill patients I see have an acidic pH — below 7. Generally, the sicker the person, the lower (more acidic) their pH.

How can you measure pH? Simply place a small piece of pH paper on your tongue (wetting the paper with saliva) first thing in the morning before anything has been placed in your mouth.

The color will give you an idea of your pH. Most laboratory suppliers carry pH test strips.

Unrefined salt is one of the most alkalinizing substances that we know of. In other words, salt can correct an acidic condition by raising your pH.