Why Did Jesus Call His Disciples, then and now, SALT?

In Matthew 5:1-2 (NIV2011) we read: Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. In the message we will consider: “Why not sugar???” when the Bible says that God is LOVE, and one of the ways that love is often times demonstrated is with a gift containing large amounts of sugar! And salt and sugar look very similar in appearance. Could Jesus have been mistaken to want us to be SALT? We will examine information about salt, along with some of its characteristics or qualities in the light of Scripture.