Comments on: Do I eat too much salt? http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt Food - Photography & More Fri, 18 May 2012 02:01:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29445 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:54:41 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29445 Laura, Thanks for your input, I was hoping for it! That's interesting about the FDA. Perhaps it's a case of salt being the easy short cut option to enhancing flavour rather than using your brain and tastebuds to find another way? Thanks again Laura, Miles Laura,
Thanks for your input, I was hoping for it! That’s interesting about the FDA. Perhaps it’s a case of salt being the easy short cut option to enhancing flavour rather than using your brain and tastebuds to find another way?

Thanks again Laura,
Miles

]]> by: Laura http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29421 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:29:34 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29421 We in the west - absolutely do ingest too much salt. And it doesn't come only from fully processed meals - but insidiously in many packaged products one wouldn't expect it - like "sweet cream butter" - which still has a fair amount of salt or - "low-fat turkey" slices with nearly a gram of sodium in a 2-3 slice serving. In the US, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has announced that it will be working with manufacturers of processed foods to reduce the salt level in the American diet in increments so that there will be little noticable effect on consumer choice. The salt will be replaced with other herbs and spices to boost the flavor without salt. Who knew - herbs and spices could add flavor?!? We'll see how it goes and whether there is an effect on consumer choice - dividing the public into salt-cravers and those who can get by with less. Good issue, Miles. We in the west - absolutely do ingest too much salt. And it doesn’t come only from fully processed meals - but insidiously in many packaged products one wouldn’t expect it - like “sweet cream butter” - which still has a fair amount of salt or - “low-fat turkey” slices with nearly a gram of sodium in a 2-3 slice serving.

In the US, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has announced that it will be working with manufacturers of processed foods to reduce the salt level in the American diet in increments so that there will be little noticable effect on consumer choice. The salt will be replaced with other herbs and spices to boost the flavor without salt. Who knew - herbs and spices could add flavor?!?

We’ll see how it goes and whether there is an effect on consumer choice - dividing the public into salt-cravers and those who can get by with less.

Good issue, Miles.

]]> by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29225 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:52:59 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29225 Cid, Only you would have Himalayan salt!!! Try some Maldon and keep your carbon footprint down :) Thanks Cid, great comment. Miles Cid,
Only you would have Himalayan salt!!! Try some Maldon and keep your carbon footprint down :)

Thanks Cid, great comment.

Miles

]]> by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29224 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:51:40 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29224 Rod, Very perceptive comment and again a lot to do with what has been bred into us over a long period of time. You are quite right that along with ice, salt was the main preserving ingredient so I suppose it has been a natural process to get to where we are. Great point about the sodium, very interesting. Miles ps Now you know why I left the hand salted salmon to you :mrgreen: Rod,
Very perceptive comment and again a lot to do with what has been bred into us over a long period of time. You are quite right that along with ice, salt was the main preserving ingredient so I suppose it has been a natural process to get to where we are.
Great point about the sodium, very interesting.

Miles
ps Now you know why I left the hand salted salmon to you :mrgreen:

]]> by: miles http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29223 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:48:23 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29223 Lyn, A great comment and you make some very interesting points which I hoped would be touched upon. I have to say that I treat most of these 'good for you' products with a degree of sceptism particularly those with an otherwise unrealistic shelf life. It is great how you have decided to bring your son up and I don't think you can always hide behind the full time job excuse. Some things have to be worth making the effort for. Thanks Lynn. Miles Lyn,
A great comment and you make some very interesting points which I hoped would be touched upon. I have to say that I treat most of these ‘good for you’ products with a degree of sceptism particularly those with an otherwise unrealistic shelf life. It is great how you have decided to bring your son up and I don’t think you can always hide behind the full time job excuse. Some things have to be worth making the effort for.
Thanks Lynn.

Miles

]]> by: Cid http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29214 Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:29:10 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29214 Miles, I don't think I fall into the category of eating too much salt.... at least that's what I quickly assumed. Sugar and butter might be more of a concern for some of us. Perhaps it's because I don't eat that many mass produced ready meals, most of which I find dreadful and almost always disappointing. The question for me is what kind of salt to buy and at the moment I'm making my way through a small bag of pink Himalayan salt which is probably going to last me for ages. My grinder gets a bit 'gummed' up due to condensation so I can twist all I like, but to very little effect :) Interesting to note that some people are low in sodium which has to be monitored by the doctors.... no wonder the public gets confused. Cid Miles,

I don’t think I fall into the category of eating too much salt…. at least that’s what I quickly assumed. Sugar and butter might be more of a concern for some of us. Perhaps it’s because I don’t eat that many mass produced ready meals, most of which I find dreadful and almost always disappointing. The question for me is what kind of salt to buy and at the moment I’m making my way through a small bag of pink Himalayan salt which is probably going to last me for ages. My grinder gets a bit ‘gummed’ up due to condensation so I can twist all I like, but to very little effect :)

Interesting to note that some people are low in sodium which has to be monitored by the doctors…. no wonder the public gets confused.

Cid

]]> by: Rod http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29209 Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:59:59 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29209 Miles, I think we've become accustomed to the taste of salt in the UK over many many centuries. Being a seafaring nation, food was loaded with salt as a preservative as it was 1500 years ago inland. How many times have you seen people reach for Salt & Pepper before even tasting their food ? I suspect manufacturers do this because it sells, and is perhaps self-perpetuating. Reduce the salt and customers who are used to plenty of salt think it's bland and don't buy it again. I would imagine it's also a cheap way of introducing flavour I also think it's more difficult to rationalise in label terms. We can all understand that a single ready meal which has 1,500 calories is bad As we can if we see something with 39% fat content but . . . What's 3.9g of salt ? Interestingly I just looked at a tin and noticed it didn't mention <i>salt</i> but stated <i>sodium</i> - that strikes me, whilst correct, as misleading ! A lot of average people may know too much salt is bad for you but . . . <i>sodium</i> ? Best Rod Miles,
I think we’ve become accustomed to the taste of salt in the UK over many many centuries.
Being a seafaring nation, food was loaded with salt as a preservative as it was 1500 years ago inland.
How many times have you seen people reach for Salt & Pepper before even tasting their food ?

I suspect manufacturers do this because it sells, and is perhaps self-perpetuating.
Reduce the salt and customers who are used to plenty of salt think it’s bland and don’t buy it again.
I would imagine it’s also a cheap way of introducing flavour

I also think it’s more difficult to rationalise in label terms.
We can all understand that a single ready meal which has 1,500 calories is bad
As we can if we see something with 39% fat content but . . .
What’s 3.9g of salt ?

Interestingly I just looked at a tin and noticed it didn’t mention salt but stated sodium - that strikes me, whilst correct, as misleading !
A lot of average people may know too much salt is bad for you but . . . sodium ?
Best
Rod

]]> by: Glitter Monkey (Lynn) http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29208 Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:43:48 +0000 http://www.milescollins.com/wordpress/do-i-eat-too-much-salt#comment-29208 I have to jump right over the fence and say "Yes" - we all eat far too much salt and the pre-packaged and processed food industry definitely is at least partly to blame. When our son was born six years ago I cut out adding ALL extra salt in my cooking and nothing tasted "right" for about a month. Then the real flavours started coming through again and I have to say I don't add it at the table very much either now. My father was an "auto-condimenter" - he added salt and pepper to everything before he even tasted it and I do think that was a generation thing as it does seem to be the parents or grandparents of friends that were/are guilty of that particular habit. I hope that as a generation (I am nearly 40) we are becoming more aware of what is in our food but I fear this may be misplaced :-( I am in a very fortunate position of being a full-time housewife and mother and grow and preserve as much as possible of our own produce and also cook and bake most things from scratch. I was in the supermarket today and purposefully looked at the pre-packed salads (and ready meals) after seeing this very same issue on BBC News on Thursday. Hmmmm - it's a minefield out there!! Not only is the nutritional information misleading at best, it's also very scary at what is added to our food. Most of the "low fat" or "eat smart" variety of things had lots of sugar in them - so I suppose they are replacing the tasty fat with sugar so where is the gain?? The salt content in the salad I looked at (Morrisons) definitely didn't seem too bad to me but then why is there any salt in there anyway?!! A thread very worthy of discussion Miles!! Lol Lynn ♥ I have to jump right over the fence and say “Yes” - we all eat far too much salt and the pre-packaged and processed food industry definitely is at least partly to blame. When our son was born six years ago I cut out adding ALL extra salt in my cooking and nothing tasted “right” for about a month. Then the real flavours started coming through again and I have to say I don’t add it at the table very much either now. My father was an “auto-condimenter” - he added salt and pepper to everything before he even tasted it and I do think that was a generation thing as it does seem to be the parents or grandparents of friends that were/are guilty of that particular habit. I hope that as a generation (I am nearly 40) we are becoming more aware of what is in our food but I fear this may be misplaced :-(

I am in a very fortunate position of being a full-time housewife and mother and grow and preserve as much as possible of our own produce and also cook and bake most things from scratch. I was in the supermarket today and purposefully looked at the pre-packed salads (and ready meals) after seeing this very same issue on BBC News on Thursday. Hmmmm - it’s a minefield out there!! Not only is the nutritional information misleading at best, it’s also very scary at what is added to our food. Most of the “low fat” or “eat smart” variety of things had lots of sugar in them - so I suppose they are replacing the tasty fat with sugar so where is the gain?? The salt content in the salad I looked at (Morrisons) definitely didn’t seem too bad to me but then why is there any salt in there anyway?!!

A thread very worthy of discussion Miles!!
Lol Lynn ♥

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