- Evil?
The application of salt on food has done much to buoy up society’s tireless march towards progress. Salted meat allowed for preservation of protein, which strengthened pioneers as they crossed vast unexplored distances. And in modern times, salted snack foods allow tireless programmers the sustenance to code the world into the impossibly bright technological future. (Those are my only two examples. Deal with it.)
Humans are wired for salt. It’s one of the basic tastes we can detect—most likely because Na (sodium) in NaCl (sodium chloride, table salt) is integral to the chemical processes that allow us to move and think. Our bodies are very good at regulating sodium: The kidneys do much of this work, and are aided by various organs and hormones that can induce salt cravings when necessary.
For much of the development of our species, our sodium input came from the mineral content of unseasoned plants, and animal meat. Also, maybe, licking rocks. That was enough to get us out of the trees, upright, walking, and hunting. As we eventually began building skyscrapers, cars, video game consoles, espresso machines, and vibrating dildos, we developed an incredible amount of ways to get more sodium into our system.
Salt is very pleasurable and deeply comforting. It makes things taste better. It is important to cuisine around the world.
But have we gone too far?
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, set up by the U.S. government to revise federal nutrition standards, believes we have gone to far. From the Wall Street Journal:
Among the recommendations: Americans should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams a day of salt. Current guidelines recommend a maximum of 2,300 mg, equivalent to one teaspoon of salt, for the general population, and 1,500 milligrams for at-risk adults, such as those with high blood pressure. The panel recommended 1,500 mg for everyone.
We’ve been hearing for years, from folks like the CDC’s Dr. Thomas Frieden and the AMA, that American’s use (some say abuse) of salt is leading to a crisis of hypertension and heart disease and death and mayhem and the rise of Satan’s minions and OH GOD EVERYBODY PANIC!
Not so fast retorts Dr. David McCarron of UC, Davis. He had this to say about the new guidelines in a recent editorial in Canada’s Financial Post:
Our analysis of the government’s data showed that the range of salt consumption by Americans is not different from that of other societies and that it has not increased over the past 25 years — in sharp contrast to Frieden’s opinion and those of Canadian advocates for lower salt intake. More importantly, the lower limit of this range of intake bears little resemblance to the current U.S. government guidelines.
Say what? McCarron suggests there are plenty of scientific studies which point to the fact current salt consumption isn’t harming American health outcomes, and mandatory decreases in sodium intake could actually harm people. Of course, such an opinion isn’t surprising coming from “a consultant for the food industry.”
Around and around it goes. Same as it ever was. We legislate to the stupidest and most vulnerable in our society, and the industries profiting from (often willful) ignorance and complacency push back.
The answers here seem fairly obvious to me. I do not believe our poor health outcomes are related specifically to salt. Rather, the diseases new regulations are being put in place to combat are a result of America’s dependence on processed food and all of the shit that goes into it.
We should be cooking our own fresh food, salting to taste, and being more physically active before and after we stuff our faces. Yes, that’s very easy to say, but it’s harder to get up the gumption to get into the kitchen, or out into the world from some exercise.
The fact is, I want to have a choice to go down to the store and buy a salty box of snack crackers I can eat while vegetating my way through a three hour “Weeds” marathon. I should, in fact, be able to make that choice. I do not want the government making my convenience food taste any more like ass than it already does.
Still, all things in moderation. Salt isn’t the enemy… Laziness is. Unfortunately, until there is a cure for the convenience-sickness plaguing our nation, the Government will continue to legislate our food into a bland mass.
Me? I’ll be in the kitchen with my tiny jar of truffle salt, gleefully seasoning, maybe even over-salting my food. Happily, the feds have no jurisdiction over my stove. They can have my salt shaker when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!
Pass the salt, Blogtownies.
Mmm, edible rocks…
AMEN, PAC! I eat many, many fresh, whole foods and utilize salt appropriately. In our kitchen there is, right now, iodized salt, fleur de sel, sel gris and I think one other variety.
Blaming the decline of American health on salt is like blaming the BP oil spew on the plumber who installed a faulty valve on a hose somewhere in there.
Processed foods wouldn’t be nearly as big a problem if they cut down on the levels of salt (and sugar / corn syrup) in them, and let us add it ourselves to taste. And I’ve been to too many restaurants where a dish has tasted saltier than I could stand, instead of them letting me add it myself at the table.
Nobody is saying it’s the #1 cause of unhealthiness. But it’s a big cause.
No one is talking about outlawing salt. The current talk is of regulating the amount of salt allowed in packaged foods, TV dinners and the like. Manufacturers pack their food products with salt to cover the shitty taste. You’ll always be able to add salt to your food; this regulation would just set a more sensible default.
Also, cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients is great. It’s also time-consuming and expensive and takes a long time to learn. You ought to use your soapbox to advocate policies to improve things for the people relying on processed foods: an end to irrational agricultural subsidies, community support for cooking classes, improving nutrition education in schools, subsidizing grocery stores in underserved areas, and improving the quality of packaged foods (which the salt regulations would help accomplish).
And your shitty paragraph about truffle salt? Exactly the same shit as conservatives who say, “Earth Day? Fuck that shit, I’m gonna turn my air conditioner and furnace on full blast, leave the lights on, and idle my car in the driveway all day. That’ll show those chumps!” It’s juvenile, unfunny, and beneath you.
@eldepeche
I thought that paragraph was HI-larious. Seriously. Comedy gold.
Also, last I checked, my blood pressure was absolutely normal and my truffle salt wasn’t destroying the planet. You should be more upset about me being a truffle-salt eating elitist fuck than some kind of… What? Contrarian earth raping republican? It doesn’t track.
I have advocated for the policies you mention, but I also believe this idea that cooking from scratch is some god-awful expensive burden is complete bullshit. Find the time to boil some potatoes, or bake a whole chicken. It’s not that big of a deal.You should be pissed that we live in a world where processed foods have erased our societies wherewithal to cook for themselves. I know I am.
But on the balance, I agree with you. Thanks for participating in the discussion!
@Stu
If a restaurant is over-salting, then it’s simply a bad restaurant. It doesn’t need regulation. It needs a bad review.
Sure, salt in processed food makes the shitty product taste way better, but I think it’s the least of processed food’s problems. I’d be way more concerned about all of the corn, chemical additives derived from corn, and fat.
These regulations will not work as long as people can salt food themselves.
The USDA or someone, some big org everyone knows but whom I’ve forgotten, admitted recently that salt ITSELF isn’t the problem, but the types of foods it usually COMES in is. Like, someone who eats junk usually DOES have a higher risk of hypertension. Someone who eats more salt than the first guy, but only on fish and veggies? Fine.
It’s not the salt, it’s the crap it’s in. And it’s in the crap because that’s what makes it taste good, and that’s the way I like it, and the government had better keep their noses out of my cheetos. Being fat is still legal. Hell, SMOKING is still legal. And dinking. Excuse me while I go indulge every bad behavior I can.
Just kidding.. I’m a pansy whose quit everything in hopes of 2.4 more years of life. 🙁
This was a great post, PAC.
Most of the sodium we consume, whether from processed food or Mortons table salt, is chemical waste. It’s a bi-product of other industries. It’s bleached and processed, sometimes out of giant piles contaminated by hydraulic fluid from the machines that move it around. But hey, no reason to freak out. Eat less processed food and it won’t be so bad when you do get the munchies.
I suggest those who truly love salt to get on up to The Meadow on N. Mississippi and see their nearly 100 varieties of natural salt, including delicious salted chocolate (sweet Xenu, you don’t know what you’re missing!) and find out more about salt’s amazing role in civilization.
I am slightly too lazy to check and see if Patrick’s already blogged this, so sorry if it’s a repeat (I’m not really sorry), but there was a really great New York Times article a couple weeks ago about what happens to processed foods when salt is removed or reduced:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/health/3…
Corn flakes taste “metallic.” = gross.
I smoke. And drink. And eat way too much salt. And exercise only when I feel like it. And I’m way too close to 40 to get away with that shit.
BUT…I’m normal weight and my BP is healthy. It’s called GENETICS. Woo hoo. Earth to America: SALT IS ONLY BAD FOR YOU IF YOU HAVE A FAMILY HISTORY OF HEART ISSUES. So stay the fuck away from my salt and keep your laws off my body, or I will personally blow some tar-ridden cancer straight up in your pedantic face.
P.s. You WILL die.