Sling the salt

LizEstelle

dolly_day_dream wrote:

As my meals generally consist of fresh veg with pulses or nuts is there anywhere else that salt might be lurking cos I would like to use my allowance on chips once a week

What counts is your global intake of sodium. This is not only in salt but other agents used in processed food manufacturing... various preservatives and enhancers.

In other words, 90% of things in any form of PACKAGING will have extra sodium added to them by the makers. You name it... breakfast cereals, bread, biscuits... it's all stuffed with salt.

You are doing absolutely the right thing in preparing your foods from fresh ingredients... if you're on a balanced diet, they will already contain enough trace salt to meet the body's requirements.

liz545

LizEstelle wrote:

If you're used to salt in your bread, it will lack 'taste' - but like all things in this area, it's simply a matter of getting used to it. To think I used to put sugar in my teas and coffees...

Salt also acts as a preservative, so bread made without salt will go stale faster than a salted bread - not really a problem if you're baking daily, but worth bearing in mind. Tuscan bread is traditionally made without salt, which is why they also have a tradition of recipes using stale bread!

FWIW, I don't use much salt, but I can't imagine my kitchen without a box of maldon salt on the counter...

LizEstelle

liz545 wrote:

Salt also acts as a preservative, so bread made without salt will go stale faster than a salted bread - not really a problem if you're baking daily, but worth bearing in mind. Tuscan bread is traditionally made without salt, which is why they also have a tradition of recipes using stale bread!

FWIW, I don't use much salt, but I can't imagine my kitchen without a box of maldon salt on the counter...

Personally, I make small to medium-sized loaves and then freeze them. The freezer acts as the 'preservative'.

Yes, I've noticed the processed food manufacturers often resort desperately to this outdated 'preservation' argument - even in frozen food!!

cupid_s

I keep getting told salt is bad for me and to cut down but to be honest I'd rather not eat most things than eat them without salt. I have tried cutting down by even a small amount and I literally cannot eat the food.

I don't smoke, drink very modestly, am (only slightly) underweight, my blood pressure is usually around 110/68. I know I'll die of something and if that's a heart attack cos I eat too much salt to be honest I don't care!

kittiwoz

I use salt in cooking but don't add it at the table. TBH I don't really worry about it since it seems processed and packaged foods are the main culprits in high sodium diets and I eat very little of those. Also if you add salt to water it reduces the specific heat capacity so it heats up more with the same energy and also increases the boiling temperature. I actually sort of thought that was the main point of adding salt to the cooking water when boiling rice, pasta, potoes etc. It makes more efficient use of energy to cook it.

csarina

I gave up salt years ago, never put it in food and if I do need salt I use lo salt. I do put it in bread though. If we have visitors to a meal, I put salt on the table for them to salt their own food.

mookybargirl

I don't add salt to potatoes or any other veg, or to any cooked meals, although I do add a little in soups and I use lo salt only (although I'm guessing too much potassium will also be harmful to your body).

I can actually taste the salt in my potatoes at my mums now as I'm so use to not having salt in my foods. I know salt is in bread and other foods, but I'm saving for a breadmaker (Panny SD253 ) and trying to cook more and more from scratch so our intake will reduce further.

rainbowrisin

We don't use salt at all in the rainbowrisin residence - it's only the littlies and I, and as they shouldn't have too much salt I don't cook with it. They get enough salt from the occasional choccie biccie or breadstick IMHO. It's like everything else, you soon get used to not using salt, then when we have something processed it's horrible as it's far too salty.

There is certainly a body of scientific evidence which indicates that excess salt intake can be a contributory factor in hypertension, but it's certainly not a clear cut link. Believe it or not, it is very difficult to prove that ciggies have caused lung cancer on an individual basis - where smokers with lung cancer have sued tobacco companies in the states they have more often than not lost, as they can't proove that it was the ciggies which directly led to the cancer - and that's given the significant body of scientific evidence which suggests a strong causal relationship. I am not suggesting everyone goes out and lights up, by the way - ciggies are nasty things.
My limited understanding of ways in which hypertension can be controlled in addition to prescription medication is that exercise has been demonstrably proven to reduce the dyastolic figure by up to 5 points. A lot of the dietary stuff may have some impact on some people, but as far as i'm aware it does vary from case to case.
I'm not sure it's appropriate for the Government to legislate over salt levels in processed foods. People do have a choice over whether they eat them or not, and if people follow the healthy eating advice and limit their consumption of processed foods then I don't think it reasonable to ban salty treats if people wish to buy them. The best way to make something attractive is to ban it IMHO - look how alcohol intake soared during the US prohibition years.
Will remove self from soap box now:o and attend to the washing up!:D

LizEstelle

rainbowrisin wrote:

We don't use salt at all in the rainbowrisin residence - it's only the littlies and I, and as they shouldn't have too much salt I don't cook with it. They get enough salt from the occasional choccie biccie or breadstick IMHO. It's like everything else, you soon get used to not using salt, then when we have something processed it's horrible as it's far too salty.

There is certainly a body of scientific evidence which indicates that excess salt intake can be a contributory factor in hypertension, but it's certainly not a clear cut link. Believe it or not, it is very difficult to prove that ciggies have caused lung cancer on an individual basis - where smokers with lung cancer have sued tobacco companies in the states they have more often than not lost, as they can't proove that it was the ciggies which directly led to the cancer - and that's given the significant body of scientific evidence which suggests a strong causal relationship. I am not suggesting everyone goes out and lights up, by the way - ciggies are nasty things.
My limited understanding of ways in which hypertension can be controlled in addition to prescription medication is that exercise has been demonstrably proven to reduce the dyastolic figure by up to 5 points. A lot of the dietary stuff may have some impact on some people, but as far as i'm aware it does vary from case to case.
I'm not sure it's appropriate for the Government to legislate over salt levels in processed foods. People do have a choice over whether they eat them or not, and if people follow the healthy eating advice and limit their consumption of processed foods then I don't think it reasonable to ban salty treats if people wish to buy them. The best way to make something attractive is to ban it IMHO - look how alcohol intake soared during the US prohibition years.
Will remove self from soap box now:o and attend to the washing up!:D

Yes, it's VERY appropriate to legislate. I am so tired of seeing this wishy-washy approach to obvious, commensense measures which seems to rule in this country.

Why are we almost always the last country to act in situations like this?

According to the philosophy you're propounding, we shouldn't have seat belt laws, we shouldn't have fire regulations, we probably shouldn't have traffic lights. What the hell... let's all have 'choice'... except in the case of processed food, there IS no choice.

We surely don't elect a government just to sit on its hands and look pretty. We elect them to promote the public good and to protect us at least from the worst excesses of private greed and vested interest.

Nobody's saying that individuals can't add salt to food if they wish. What IS being said is that it should be an opt-IN situation and not one where there isn't a single retailer offering at least the choice of a low salt régime.

rainbowrisin

As I see it there is a choice with processed food - if you don't like what's in it then don't buy it. If enough people didn't like what was in processed food and didn't buy it then the manufacturers would manufacture alternatives. My understanding is that some have already begun to do this - I seem to recall some media hoo hah over levels of salt in soup which resulted in salt reduction?
My understanding is that there is now, at least in some supermarkets, clear labelling on what is in foods, again enabling the consumer to make an informed choice.
I'm not quite clear what you would legislate for or against? Make it a legal requirement that Walkers make salt free crisps (yum yum;) ), or illegalise salty crisps?:eek: I would suggest that such legislation would be unwieldy and unworkable.
I believe that with education and persistence people's attitudes to what they eat will change - in the same way as attitudes to smoking have changed over the past thirty years or so.
I completely agree with you that processed food is disgustingly unhealthy, not just because of the high salt levels (again, I agree with you, they are very high) but because of all the rubbish in them, so I rarely buy it - I wouldn't buy it even if manufacturers were compelled to produce "healthy" processed food (that's an oxymoron if ever there was one;) ).
I merely suggest that some sort of knee jerk legislation would do little to tackle the issues, and propose what I believe to be some more workable (albeit less satisfying) alternative approaches.