As David so succinctly mentioned earlier, salt is poppin’ a cap in our national ass! And while I generally agree with everything he has to say on the subject (although there is no reason in the world to do anything but lightly butter, add a smidgen of grated parmesan or THIS to steamed broccoli), I do think he left one important thing out.
I went to a very highly regarded restaurant the other night—the name of this particular eatery is irrelevant, because nearly every high-end joint in Portland is guilty of this—and my food was wildly over-salted before it arrived at my table. Everything else about this particular meal was great, except for the overabundance of salt. My parents—thankfully—never included very much salt in my diet as a kid, which is great because I’m not addicted to it now. On the other hand, now I have what I suppose would be called a “salt sensitivity” and get raging headaches after eating these virtual salt blocks that are delivered to my table. So in closing, let me reiterate….
That’s why a little shaker of it is on the table, right?
Many over-season, yes.
But please do not fall down the government nanny trap of trying to advocate laws to tell people how and what to eat.
Salt is not classified as an addictive substance.
Salt is a building block of life.
“Salt is a building block of life.”
You’re a salt hippie, salt hippie!
Sodium is certainly present in many chemicals and organisms but table salt is not a “building block of life”, whatever that means.
I think he confused NaCl with DNA, which is the building block of life.
I agree. Portland over salts. I blame it on chefs burning off their taste buds sucking on cigarettes. But that’s just me…
Sugars over salts, redheads over blondes, bourbon over ice.
you whiny bitch!
Steve now that your are getting older you sodium RDA is decreasing. It is now half what is listed on the ingredient panel. The American RDA is a political document. So I will cite the science based Canadian one: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2006…
Per day:
1,000 milligrams (mg) for children aged 1 to 3
1,200 mg for children aged 4 to 8
1,500 mg for people aged 9 to 50
1,300 mg for adults aged 51 to 70
1,200 mg for seniors over 70 years of age.
Exceeded by any one meal out in america.