I've been using RealSalt (finely ground) for years for most of my cooking needs, though I do keep Diamond Crystal Kosher salt on hand as well for some applications, since it's much cheaper.

Last time I was in Costco, I found Himalayan Pink Salt- very course crystals sold in a grinder, similar to a pepper grinder. It's very pretty but not as convenient to use as the finely ground salt in a shaker bottle. I can't taste a difference between the two kinds of salts, although both are much tastier than the kosher salt.

Is there a nutritional difference between the two?

The difference is in the trace minerals.

The bulk of both products is sodium chloride.

Whether the additional minerals is worth the cost is up for debate. But some claim that you absorb the trace amounts in the salt better than minerals found in supplements.

I enjoy the taste of the Himalayan salt a lot.  I used to keep both RealSalt and Himalayan pink salt, but gradually phased out of the Real.  I imagine the mineral array varies between the sources but they are both good.

My health food store sells the Pink salt in a 'fine grind' form, just like other salts.  Very convenient.

I like Celtic sea salt, my sister got me started with it. It is kosher certified. Anyone know what the different minerals are between Himalayan and celtic. I've also got some "black salt powder" from India. It's pink!. Don't care for it as much.

Does anybody know the differences in the trace minerals between these two sources of unrefined, mineral laden, all natural salt? I know that both are better than the refined sodium chloride; but I'm wondering if the Himalayan pink salt is better/worse nutritionally than the Real Salt that's mined in Utah. Or is it best to use  both so we get a wider range of trace minerals?

I also buy the Gray Celtic Sea Salt.  You need less to get the same effect.  It's expensive but seems to last a long time.

RealSalt claims to have 60+ minerals, but it does not want to disclose what the minerals are or wheat their concentrations is.

There product appears to be 98% sodium chloride.

The Himalayan salts vary - There are different sources. There might be as much variation between different Himalayan salts as there is between Himalayan and RealSalt. Here is one analysis of Himalayan:

Hydrogen     H     0.30 g/kg
Lithium     Li     0.40 g/kg
Beryllium     Be     <0.01 ppm
Boron     B     <0.001 ppm
Carbon     C     <0.001 ppm
Nitrogen     N     0.024 ppm
Oxygen     O     1.20 g/kg
Flouride     F-     <0.1 g/kg
Sodium     Na+     382.61 g/kg
Magnesium     Mg     0.16 g/kg
Aluminum     Al     0.661 ppm
Silicon     Si     <0.1 g/kg
Phosphorus     P     <0.10 ppm
Sulfur     S     12.4 g/kg
Chloride     Cl-     590.93 g/kg
Potassium     K+     3.5 g/kg
Calcium     Ca     4.05 g/kg
Scandium     Sc     <0.0001 ppm
Titanium     Ti     <0.001 ppm
Vanadium     V     0.06 ppm
Chromium     Cr     0.05 ppm
Manganese     Mn     0.27 ppm
Iron     Fe     38.9 ppm
Cobalt     Co     0.60 ppm
Nickel     Ni     0.13 ppm
Copper     Cu     0.56 ppm
Zinc     Zn     2.38 ppm
Gallium     Ga     <0.001 ppm
Germanium     Ge     <0.001 ppm
Arsenic     As     <0.01 ppm
Selenium     Se     0.05 ppm
Bromine     Br     2.1 ppm
Rubidium     Rb     <0.04 ppm
Strontium     Sr     <0.014 g/kg
Ytterbium     Y     <0.001 ppm
Zirconium     Zr     <0.001 ppm
Niobium     Nb     <0.001 ppm
Molybdenum     Mo     <0.01 ppm
Technetium     Tc     N/A unstable isotope
Ruthenium     Ru     <0.001 ppm
Rhodium     Rh     <0.001 ppm
Palladium     Pd     <0.001 ppm
Silver     Ag     0.031 ppm
Cadmium     Cd     <0.01 ppm
Indium     In     <0.001 ppm
Tin     Sn     <0.01 ppm
Antimony     Sb     <0.01 ppm
Tellurium     Te     <0.001 ppm
Iodine     I     <0.1 g/kg
Cesium     Cs     <0.001 ppm
Barium     Ba     1.96 ppm
Lanthanum     La     <0.001 ppm
Cerium     Ce     <0.001 ppm
Praseodymium     Pr     <0.001 ppm
Neodymium     Nd     <0.001 ppm
Promethium     Pm     N/A unstable isotope
Samarium     Sm     <0.001 ppm
Europium     Eu     <3.0 ppm
Gadolinium     Gd     <0.001 ppm
Terbium     Tb     <0.001 ppm
Dysprosium     Dy     <4.0 ppm
Holmium     Ho     <0.001 ppm
Erbium     Er     <0.001 ppm
Thulium     Tm     <0.001 ppm
Ytterbium     Yb     <0.001 ppm
Lutetium     Lu     <0.001 ppm
Hafnium     Hf     <0.001 ppm
Tantalum     Ta     1.1 ppm
Wolfram     W     <0.001 ppm
Rhenium     Re     <2.5 ppm
Osmium     Os     <0.001 ppm
Iridium     Ir     <2.0 ppm
Platinum     Pt     <0.47 ppm
Gold     Au     <1.0 ppm
Mercury     Hg     <0.03 ppm
Thallium     Ti     <0.06 ppm
Lead     Pb     <0.10 ppm
Bismuth     Bi     <0.10 ppm
Polonium     Po     <0.001 ppm

We use Himalayan salt exclusively now for several reasons:

1. Sea salt harvested from our current oceans may be contaminated with the garbage that's in those oceans.  Is the Celtic sea from which the Celtic salt is harvested pollution-free?  Since pollution didn't exist when the millennial-old salt deposits were formed (Himalayan and Utahan), I believe they more likely to be pollution-free.

2. We have tired RealSalt several times and find it's too 'sandy' for us -- we don't like crunching grit between our teeth.  When I asked RealSalt about this, first she tried to convince me that silica was so beneficial that I should try and get over my aversion.  When I explained that I took a silica supplement and didn't need to get it from my salt, she told me that I should try again from a part of the mine that had less silica.  That didn't work either, so she recommended their powdered version but DH didn't like the fact that it stuck to itself and was too hard to 'sprinkle.' If you don't take a silica supplement then you might want to consider RealSalt for that reason -- it's silica content is higher than the Himalayan salt.  If you Google 'RealSalt too gritty' you will see that I'm not the only one with that complaint.

3. The iron content in RealSalt is supposedly higher than in the Himalayan Pink salt and since I'm menopausal I avoid any supplements with iron.  If you're younger, that may not be an issue for you.

4. I REALLY wanted to find a way to 'like' RealSalt because it's made in the USA and I didn't want to risk supporting the Taliban by buying products from Pakistan.  But, DH convinced me that by not buying the Himalayan salt, which he loves BTW, I was probably depriving some poor peasant of a living.

I buy our salt in bulk from http://www.saltworks.us/himalayan-salt.asp.  I buy the coarse ground for the grinders on our dining table, the medium grind for DH to sprinkle on stuff that he grills (he likes to see it), the fine grind for shakers, and the powder for the pig by the cooktop because it dissolves better in cooking water.

http://shop.thespicelab.com/p185/100-Himalayan-Crystal-Salt-Packets-Salt-2-Go!/product_info.html sells individual packets that I carry in my purse.  In restaurants, I ask for my meal to be prepared salt-free and then use the packets to season it.

They also carry a 'white' Himalayan salt but I suspect it doesn't have any minerals in it.  It might be useful for seasoning white foods where you don't want the minerals to show: http://shop.thespicelab.com/ad.....8a691c367ff1098e942a

A friend of ours adores the Australian Murray River pink flake salt but I have not been able to determine whether the pollution in the Murray River has affected the salt beds so we use it sparingly. That is one delicious salt though.