The Salt Craze

It's not really a secret that, in addition to fat and sugar, most processed foods are laden with salt, giving rise to our blood pressure and our risk of heart attack here in the good old U.S. of A. Most people don't really pay enough attention to this until their doctor starts adding medications to their annual checkup and begins the uphill battle of suggesting diet and excercise. We shouldn't really allow our habits to push us to that point.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/15/america.salt.addiction/index.html?hpt=Sbin

CNN Health agrees with me, again. For about five years I've been focusing on reducing and eliminating salt in my diet. It's a gradual process that doesn't necesarily begin with the salt shaker. The thing about cooking fresh is that you control what goes into the meal. So, fresh fruits vegetables meats and grains make up the flavor of the meal. A teensy bit of salt (along with other spices and flavors) will go a long way and slowly you'll find you need less and less. By American standards I am extremely salt ensitive but I don't feel like I'm sacrificing any flavor. On the contrary, I enjoy the meals I am able to season to my liking much more than most meals I eat at someone else's home.

Salt shows up in everything (even canned vegetables can have a shocking amount of sodium). That low calorie frozen meal you think you're being so good by eating is most likely loaded with a quarter to a half of your recommended daily sodium intake. A can of soup is often more. It's important to be aware. So on the days where it's just not practical to cook from scratch, make some better choices with the pre-packaged stuff:

• If you're at a cafe and it's an option, order the low sodium soup. Soup not lower in sodium may have up to a whole day's sodium and the deli meats, cheeses and spreads of a sandwich can put you overboard on salt.
• If you buy a frozen meal, mix in frozen veggies before you heat it up. You're still consuming extra salt but some of it is being used to also season the veggies, so you'll be one step closer to your 5 a day and hopefully full enough to skip the salty snack after lunch.
• Leave the salt shaker in the spice cabinet/at the next table over. I never leave the salt shaker on the table, mostly because I rarely use it. But by not having it in front of me, it's less of an impulse to add it to my food. Making the conscious decision that the meal is actually bland and needs a little salt is often less commonly practiced than shaking unneeded salt on a meal out of force of habit.