A Grain of Salt

I’m fascinated with the study of why people do what they do. 

In my attempt to understand more I’ve run across something called heuristics. Heuristics are the short-cuts that we use in decision making that we are oftentimes unaware that we are doing so. 

One of the heuristics is something called the Familiarity Heuristic. This is where we lean toward the known over the unknown thinking that it is safer or more reliable. 

Recently I learned about a new type of salt. For over sixty years I’ve been using Morton’s salt with iodine to salt my food. I remember my mother cautioning me that without iodine I might end up with a goiter. 

I have been religiously checking my salt for iodine ever since then. However, after taking an on-line nutrition course I learned that basically white salt has been over processed and stripped of all its minerals. 

There was a time when the overuse of salt was strictly prohibited because it was thought to raise blood pressure. I remember once in my mid-twenties as I sprinkled a basket of chips at a Mexican restaurant with salt, thinking that once I hit thirty I would start watching my salt intake. That never happened. 

What I have since learned is that the right kind of salt actually has health benefits. Of course the overly processed traditional salt is not the kind that would provide those benefits. 

I purchased some pink Redmond Real Salt from Utah, and haven’t looked back. It is chock full of minerals, and flavor and is pretty darn amazing. I do add one drop of liquid iodine to my drink at lunch to make sure I don’t end up with that forewarned goiter. 

What I found interesting, though, about this familiarity heuristic was that in my mind because I had always used white salt with iodine it must be the better choice.  

Even though, this might not actually be true. 

This concept of finding comfort in the familiar can be misleading, though. Perhaps being aware of this bias might help when confronted with a decision in the future. 

“The known is not necessarily better than the unknown.”

Michael Frank