shoestring gringa

Now why is she writing a post about salt in Mexico,  you’re probably asking yourself.  What could possibly be different about Mexican salt?  So I will tell you.  In some places (Yucatan is where I experienced this) it is almost impossible to find salt which is not fluoridated.  Being one of those cranky people who thinks fluoride is poison, I had a huge problem with this.

I  had to search all over Mérida before locating some unfluoridated salt, and it may have been there by accident, it was so difficult to find.  I think I finally found it at Comercial Mexicana (a large supermarket chain).   The next time I visited the states I brought back pounds of the stuff in my suitcase, worried I’d never be able to get it locally again.  (Reminder:  Finding an item someplace in Mexico one time is no guarantee you’ll ever see it there again.)

An internet search revealed that a number of countries in Latin America and, amazingly, France, have salt fluoridation programs purportedly for the prevention of dental decay.

Having read that, I assumed the disgusting phenomenon was the case in all of Mexico, but have been pleasantly suprised to find out otherwise.  In Zacatecas both unadulterated and fluoridated salt were easily available.  And in Sonora I haven’t seen any fluoridated salt at all.  Even better, in Sonora there’s a  local brand of sea salt, Sal Bahía (it is iodized).  As to the rest of the country, I don’t know, so I recommend carefully examining the label of any salt you buy if you object to fluoride.  Yodada = Iodized, and Fluoridada = Fluoridated.  Let the buyer beware!