I tried that recently instead of using a little olive oil to keep pasta from sticking; not bad.

I use very little salt, usually in pasta water and on the occasional hard boiled egg. That's about it.
I will admit that I don't watch the sodium content in processed foods as closely as I should but use very little table salt

A few words about "salt." A lot of chemical compounds are salts, so what we are talking about here is Sodium Chloride. Most of the world, I believe, get their salt from mines. But at the south end of the San Francisco peninsula salt is produced from sea water. Thus having lived in Northern California for decades I think the only salt I have ever known is sea salt. There is no dietary advantage of sea salt vs. mined salt
What I think is the troublesome part is the Sodium in "salt." Light salt is a different "salt" - Potassium Chloride - and thus has no sodium. So to avoid sodium just buy potassium chloride (i.e. light salt).

Does the potassium chloride actually have a flavor, or is it just used as a filler to make you think you are getting as much salt? If not, would plugging half the holes in your salt shaker do the same thing?

It's a salt. It tastes salty.

It just tastes different from sodium chloride, the same way that citric acid tastes different from acetic acid...

From the NYT over the weekend

The Hard Sell on Salt

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/he...pagewanted=all

<snip>

Case Study: The Cheez-It

on meats like burgers.

There is so much salt in processed/packaged foods. I rarely add it to anything.

Due to high blood pressure, I no longer add salt to meals when cooking or table salt when eating.

For these reasons.. I don't add extra on neither..

Plus, just like pepper, some of the salt and pepper shakers have not been changed out for years.. and ingested, can cause complications..

Maybe a bit OCD, but I choose not add anything, unless its like pepper freshly shaken..

When I buy any prepared foods, I look for very low or zero salt content.

Salt content can be found in surprising places. A lot of mineral water has salt but Whole Foods has a house brand from Italy which has none.

When I cook, I use almost no salt (occasional drop of sea salt, carefully taken out grain by grain) but I do use pepper and other spices.

At the table, pepper rules.

Why do I care? There´s enough in the literature that demonstrates the harmful effects of too much salt that I don´t want to find out, later in life, that I should not have had any.

Agreed..

The health aspect and high blood pressure, are a few important reasons I and my family refrain from 'pouring it on'..

Speaking of pouring it on, what I absolutely do not understand is how some people pour salt onto food before tasting it.

A habit.. or perhaps it taste better with salt?

I think its just America getting used to the tastiness and the satisfaction.. without thinking of the consequences to their health..

I was surprised how quickly I have become used to a lower salt intake. Now I find some foods I used to eat very salty. It's like coming down from a drug addiction :eek:

Agreed..

and after the fact.. it seems so salty, it makes the food almost repugnant..

The natural taste is where its at.. but I guess with North American consumers, the salt has become an addiction..

Not to mention that fat is also addicting as well. Combine the two and you're looking at some health issues down the road.

i had a fever all day but went out to dinner and brought it all back. i've only been eating bananas and fluids. i felt better just now and ate my chicken salad, first thought was "man, this is salty!"

Don't ever, ever, use 'light salt' if you have severe kidney impairment. Potassium accumulation can be extremely dangerous if the kidneys aren't filtering as effectively as normal.

I salt to taste, preferably during cooking rather than at the table, but there are certain things I'd always salt at the table (e.g. poached eggs). I tend not to eat pre-processed foods, so am confident I'm controlling my salt intake adequately. It's an excess that's bad for you, not "any at all".

I'm noticing more and more people obsessing about salt. Don't get me wrong, it's good that the issue has been raised and is in people's minds, but I do despair at the constant fight and self-denial people manage to get themselves into when it comes to food. It just seems rather sad when the first question is always "how much x does it have in it?" rather than "how does it taste?"

Agreed.. lethal combination!

Just like transfat.. they should ban any added salt.. but that means KFC sales would go down..:eek::)

I totally agree. After all, if we had no salt at all we would die. I use salt as it's meant to be used, to bring out the natural flavour of the food. Bread is a good example, try baking two loaves, one with and one without salt. The one without will be bland and tasteless in the extreme. It is tiresome going to a lot of restaurants these days and having to add salt at the table because the chef or cook is terrified to season properly because of the salt nazi's. Everything in moderation and most of us will be just fine.^

Early and often! Bugs the heck out of my wife and my doctor.

Remove added salt, and watch mental retardation and thyroid problems soar!

It is useful for something (given that salt added to processed foods is iodized)

My Dad makes a mean steak where his only "marinade" is some sea salt and lemon juice ^

I use it sparingly because I've never been fond of the taste of large amounts of salt, but I don't obsess over the amount. Certain things just can't be cooked right without it, though, especially most baked goods.

Some salt is necessary..

But the ingestion of salt currently outweighs far the needed salt intake..

Salt is naturally in foods already.. but to add more, when there is already too much.. is cause for health concerns..

:rolleyes:

We get our daily requirement of salt naturally from non-processed food. We have no nutritional need for the excessive amounts of salt added to food.

But a lot of people don't get the iodine that is now in most processed salt- it is not the lack of sodium chloride that causes mental retardation, goiter etc. it is the lack of iodine. Before salt was iodized, there were issues with iodine deficiency in the US, Canada etc, as people do not get enough iodine from their normal diet - and there are continues elsewhere in the world where the deficiency is still a widespread problem.

The only time I add salt when cooking is if I'm making pasta. Otherwise I could easily live without salt in my house. I don't add it to anything else that I cook, and I never salt food once it's done.

When I'm eating out, I use a lot of pepper, vinegar, and mustard, but no salt.

It's not a health thing, though - I just don't like the taste of whatever passes for salt these days (I don't mind "real" salt, but the lo-salt/healthy stuff places are using tastes disgusting IMO).

I guess you didn't mention iodine in your posts prior.. so it is without doubt we do need some iodine in our daily diet..

What other foods are there that contain iodine? Sort of suffering to gain a benefit if we are adding more salt than we need..

Ohhh I so did!!!!

"It is useful for something (given that salt added to processed foods is iodized)"

Seweed is the best source of iodine I know of, it is also in some saltwater fish, milk and yogurt (because iodine is added to the cattle feed I believe) and by the same token, some meat if it grazes by the sea (where it is present in the soil and the animals ingest it), same for veg grown in iodine rich soil (although iodine levels in US soil are far lower than they used to be). As most people don't eat seaweed on a regular basis, have no real way of knowing what the iodine levels are in our veg and meat, especially inland, and many people don't eat saltwater fish that often (especially given mercury scares), iodized salt was seen as a huge advancement to preventing iodine deficiency, and the symptons and diseases it causes.

Seaweed (and anchovies & capers) are good savoury ("umami") flavour providers as well, though. They do a great job in providing that extra flavour enhancement without the same quantity of salt.

Since the daily iodine requirement is only 150mcg and that most processed foods contain no iodized salt, your post stating that the quantities of salt in processed food has a use is rather invalid.

Salt used in processed foods is not iodized. Given that people are cooking less at home and buying either restaurant or processed foods

Iodized salt

Maybe a bit of reevaluation in the diet..

processed food.. I heard its not good, but Emma69 says its good..

Iodized salt.. ok I admit, I didn't know they added iodine in iodized salt.. but this makes sense..

But, that doesn't mean all salt is iodized.. so just by adding salt, and too much of it won't help..

To be more clear.. no salt, and if you can find some iodized salt, should be helpful with the diet..

But I don't know about processed foods.. I heard it causes cancer..

I don't believe that is actually true. If you look at the information that is out there for people with thyroid cancer (who have to be on low iodine diets) you can find lists of products that use non-iodized salt (and there really are not that many - one notable exception is Lays). So many of the common big brands, tomato ketchup, soups, cakes, bread etc contain iodized salt (most of the information is by people who have called the companies to specifically ask them, and is shared because these people cannot medically ingest iodine) Catering supply stores / whole sale outlets, places where small processed food producers buy their ingredients from, sell iodized and non iodized salt, which last time I looked cost the same, thus when I buy a jar of pasta sauce from the farmer's market, as I did yesterday, that salt is quite probably iodized (as something like 70% of manufactured table salt - which is what they buy in wholesale form from the catering supply store) is iodized. Kosher and sea salts tend to be more expensive, so are not the first choice for a use where the taste difference would be negligible. 'Processed foods' covered everything from major producers (say, Kraft for example) right down to the farmer who sells pasta sauce at the farmers market - both have vastly different resources, methods etc so grouping 'processed' to include both means things cannot necessarily be same for both. I can't recall the last time I ate KD, but I have eaten non-homemade (but made by small producers) pasta sauce at least 3 times in the last week.

I think people are more salt aware, as people are becoming more aware of hypertension etc. Certainly I see less salt added at the table than I saw 10 or 20 years ago (I was very conscious of it because as a family we really didn't have much salt - all home cooked foods, and no salt shakers on the table, so I was very aware of other people adding salt to everything, and finding pre-made foods very salty tasting) and I know far more people who use salt like Maldon rather than cheaper processed (and more often than not, iodized) table salt in their cooking (both for taste, and some food snobbery) now than in previous years. Those could certainly contribute to iodine levels.

But one factor that doesn't seem to be addressed in that article is that fact iodine levels in meat, vegetables and milk are far lower these days than say, 20 or 50 years ago (due in part to soil levels of iodine being a lot lower) thus the non-salt sources of iodine are decreasing. Another factor is that uses of salt that existed say 50 years ago are almost obsolete, or replaced by other processes (who cures meat with just salt anymore - very few, because nitrates an nitrites leave a product that appeals more to consumers (nice pink colour) and improve food safety). Things that were once almost always preserved in brine (which more often than not is artificial, not brine from the sea) are now offered in water packed containers, or other methods (canned, vaccum packed, etc) that taste better and as people are increasingly aware of the dangers of excess sodium. When was the last time you ate brined carrots, for example?

I haven't added iodized salt to food at home for the last 5 years. I don't eat fish, seaweed or seafood, never eat meat, and very rarely eat yogurt (maybe once or twice a month) and never drink milk. So it stands to reason that I must be getting my iodine from elsewhere (and having had thyroid function tests recently I know my levels are ok), which leaves processed foods like bread, sauces, etc. as the only real source (I do eat eggs, but at around 10 micrograms each, they certainly don't make up my RDA).

I think its good that its' clarified now the difference between salt consumption in general and iodized salt..

In a professional kitchen, salt has many uses and IMO is essential:

1. If there is a grease spill, it will help quickly absorb it, so you can just sweep it up.

2. If there is a need to KEEP ice cream, appetizers, or something essential to be near frozen state and I only have ice, liberally sprinkling salt into the ice and covering the whole container in foil is pretty close to freezer temperature as I can find.

3. Salt crusted roasts are incredible. You can always scrape off the majority before you eat the food, but it helps with the moister content.

4. Balance of flavors and seasoning. Salt enhances or brings out the natural flavor of foods. It also can help balance something that is too sweet.

5. Blanching green vegetables. This helps bring out the green color in vegetables when doing the blanch and shock technique.

6. Brine solutions for curing and for soaking. When I make fried chicken, I brine the chicken, as I find it helps in the cooking process with retaining moisture. For curing, it helps pull out moisture or impurities for items you are not going to cook in the same fashion with heat.

I agree professional kitchens need to use salt as part of their recipe..

I can't remember the last time I added more salt than what the food I ordered already came with..