When shopping for groceries, you may have noticed that seemingly every snack now has a sea salt variety: nuts, chips, popcorn, chocolate — even ice cream. In a time when more consumers are concerned with sodium intake, sea salt is often marketed as a healthier, more natural option. But is that giving table salt a fair shake?

First, let’s define sea salt. Produced by evaporating saltwater from lakes or the ocean, it goes through less processing than table salt. Depending on the water source, trace amounts of nutrients like magnesium, potassium and calcium are left in the salt and can, in some cases, affect color and taste. Gourmet shops offer sea salts from all over the world — some of which cost 100 times more than table salt.

In contrast, table salt is mined from underground salt deposits and put through a refining process to remove minerals. At the same time, it’s imbued with a small percentage of additives to preserve color and resist clumping. Since the 1920s, iodine has also been added to table salt. This essential nutrient is crucial for thyroid health. However, with seafood, a major source of iodine, readily available, iodine deficiency is not the health problem it once was.

So, which is healthier: sea salt or table salt? It comes down to sodium content. Perhaps surprisingly, both options contain nearly the same amount of sodium. But unrefined sea salt tends to have larger crystals that seem “saltier” to the taste. Thus, when seasoning dishes, coarse sea salt goes further than the table variety, which means people may use less of it.

However, when perusing snack options, it’s not the type of salt that matters but the amount of sodium. So check the nutrition label, remembering that the American Heart Association recommends limiting daily sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams.