I both disagree and agree with the information on salt. Yes, all salt is, ultimately, sea salt, and, no, there isn't a type of colored salt that will reduce your sodium consumption (unless it's a non-sodium based salt replacement, and those are not without their own medical risks.)
But the trace minerals in colored salts (which are also generally mineral salts, for the chemically inclined) can make a taste difference, and that may cause you to use a little less salt.
Moreover, salt grinder salt generally doesn't have iodine in it. You need SOME iodine in your diet, you don't need it in every salt you consume. I use iodized salt for cooking and baking, but I know some bakers who only use non-iodized salt (usually kosher salt) for baking, claiming they can taste the bitterness of iodine.
I'm also a believer in slightly under-salting in the kitchen and salting to taste at the table. There are chefs who are insulted if you add salt to their foods, I'm not one of them.
If most of the salt you consume comes from packaged foods, you could conceivably get too little iodine, though I've never heard of it happening, and cases of goiters are quite rare in the USA, so few people here are suffering from iodine deficiency. That was not true when I was growing up 60 years ago in rural NW Illinois, I remember several farmers coming in to my grandfather's drug store with big goiters under their chin.
I completely agree with the part about spices and dried herbs not growing old very fast, the stuff about throwing out your spices after 6 or 12 months is IMHO designed to sell more product. However, if your vanilla bean dries out, you won't be able to get as much vanilla flavor out of it.
One of the things that they did at the Chocolate Academy was they collected 'used' vanilla bean pods, after they were boiled in milk, for example, and would dry them out and grind them up. I haven't had occasion to use a vanilla bean since I took the course, but I can see the virtue in doing that, vanilla beans are EXPENSIVE!
