“Salt is easily the most important thing chefs keep in the kitchen,” says Robert Hartman, chef de cuisine at Saint Theo’s restaurant in New York City. It helps bring out the natural flavors in food, ...

Salt is a key part of our diets. It's also vital for our survival, as dietitian Lena Beal, MS, RDN, LD and National Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics previously told USA TODAY.

Salt comes from dead, dried-up seas or living ones. It can bubble to the surface as brine or crop out in the form of salt licks and shallow caverns. Below the skin of the earth it lies in white veins, ...