The Salt Myth

rascal said:
I don't put any salt in my veges. No one has ever said you need more salt. But I do keep salt on the table. I was at dinner the other night and a big guy ordered a meal that was massive. He had his back to me and I watched him put what must have been a tablespoon of salt on his meal. I couldn't believe the amount he put on. This guy is heart attack material. His lady friend/ wife was a tiny wee thing. She never used the salt. If it sounds like I was being intrusive, I wasn't, I just observed.

Russ
Click to expand...

The evidence is slim about whether salt is really that bad. I have an open mind about that. But I love salt and use lots of it - so far no heart attacks (I'm in my late 60's). But who knows? I may get struck down shortly! :ohmy:
 
Maybe it's an old wives tale, one my mum never heard,lol. I have no idea why I stopped using it liberally as much as some do. My good mate David, we call him dafyd, the only gay in the village,lol. Uses it way too much IMHO.

Russ
 
As far as i understood, salt is fine unless you have a certain conditions. And as far as listening to your doctor...my mom's doctor made me crazy first telling me to put mom on a low salt diet then the next visit telling me let her eat what she want...i couldn't figure out what i was suppose to be feeding my prediabetic, high blood pressure, low mobility mom.

While needing to monitor mom's blood pressure i would slap the cuff on me periodically and started to notice me running a bit higher than normal...consulted my sis, a nurse, and she made a list of a few things that could cause high blood pressure...so i did two things...i cut out caffine and stopped taking the sinus meds i was using for my sinus headaches. Magically the blood pressure went back into the normal range. Tho now my sinus headache rage unabated on certain weather days.
 
oddduck said:
As far as i understood, salt is fine unless you have a certain conditions. And as far as listening to your doctor...my mom's doctor made me crazy first telling me to put mom on a low salt diet then the next visit telling me let her eat what she want...i couldn't figure out what i was suppose to be feeding my prediabetic, high blood pressure, low mobility mom.

While needing to monitor mom's blood pressure i would slap the cuff on me periodically and started to notice me running a bit higher than normal...consulted my sis, a nurse, and she made a list of a few things that could cause high blood pressure...so i did two things...i cut out caffine and stopped taking the sinus meds i was using for my sinus headaches. Magically the blood pressure went back into the normal range. Tho now my sinus headache rage unabated on certain weather days.
Click to expand...

Isn't it funny how small things make a big difference. I take a pill for pain from an operation 12 years ago. The wounds never knitted properly leaving me with pain. After about 12 months on pain killers I went to my doc, he suggested a pill a day. It's for epileptics but a side effect it stops tissue wound pain. I'm 100% now. No pain at all.

Russ
 
My use of salt has changed over time. I put very little, sometimes so little that I even think I forgot it. I taste and then I add a pinch of salt again, then maybe another one, but perhaps more for automation than anything else. I do not demonize salt, on the contrary, I find it an important ingredient, at least as much as sugar, to be used with a certain parsimony, compensating it by giving space to other ingredients to which, until recently, I gave a marginal consideration, such as other spices or aromatic herbs. I have found out to appreciate much more the taste of some foods that sometimes do not need salt at all (well, maybe a pinch), and I feel less thirsty. But this does not happen when I eat out, perhaps now I'm used to eating little salty and everything seems too seasoned, but I am not denied then by the fact that I drink as a result all the water in the world.
Probably I'm also self-adjusting to avoid future problems .. or at least that's what my doctor says to me, and when in doubt, I listen to him, even doing some examination from time to time to "test" my state of health.
 
Last edited:
I did not read every post so excuse me for repetition
in our distant past salt was a commodity more valuable than gold or any other precious metal
I do not know a decent cook who can function without salt
If ever a supreme being gifted us lowly earthlings with a special gift it was salt.
I will not debate the benefits and detriments of dietary salt
Stop and think
How boring would your food be without salt?
I frequently get on a kick of reading old books
My latest is the Earth Children series by Jean Auel
Fiction
I do give her credit for serious research
She consulted with the top anthropologist and archilogist in the world
To much screwing around and too much introspection
Many of the every day events are research based.
Salt was a most precious gift
Do we consume too much salt ?
Probably.
Not so much by the forum members. The average person gets excessive salt from processed foods
Forum members are die hard fresh cooks. You control your salt intake
One reason why I do not like seasoning mixes
No control of salt.
I like my salt
Sea salt or kosher salt
Never table salt. Unless I am boiling seafood
 
There are some things I salt heavily, some things I never salt (but most people do). I am given to understand that if you eat food that is not highly processed, you are likely not getting all the salt that so many other people are unwittingly ingesting.

I always heavily, heavily salt my fries - (what some of you call chips). Actually, ALL my potatoes get heavily salted except those wonderful Yukon gold types. They taste like cardboard to me otherwise. I don't order soups with potatoes in them - because I always feel that I want my soup with low salt, but that I need to pull out the potato chunks to salt them before I eat them! (At a restaurant, this would look - AND BE - rather futzy.) If I am ever diagnosed with high blood pressure, I will be giving up most potatoes all together. I don't actually eat potatoes all that frequently, TBH.

I never salt: chicken, fried or scrambled eggs, or omelets. I may however make them with other ingredients that already contain salt (ie, cheese), but I don't need to eat them this way. Salads, homemade salad dressings (except for a few specific recipes), green veggies, ocean-going seafood (other than Maine shrimp, which I haven't seen in several years). Ocean going fish arrives at the fishmonger's already salted! Nor will I salt oatmeal (but if I top it with a pat of butter, this is best with salted butter).

Beef, pork, lamb, goat, lake seafood - they get lightly salted. I'm always amazed at the amount of salt those professional and pseudo-chefs ruin good steak with. Some root vegetables work well with a little salt. I will add the recipe-indicated amount of salt to baked goods. Eggs if poached or boiled will get a little salt.

Edit: I use pink Himalayan salt or Sea salt by choice at home. (If canning, where salt is rather mandatory, I use the special canning salt.)
 
Last edited:
In general the salt we all refer to in our diets is sodium chloride, the white granules we all love so much.
However, it is my belief that our bodies have far more salts of a different chemical form permeating our tissues and when these are out of balance, due to our dietary excesses causing that feeling of lethargy, there is a possibility that we automatically blame sodium chloride so mistakenly deprive our bodies of it while failing to address the true source of our malaise. If for example I eat canned preserved meat I often get water retention, bloating and in extreme cases gout. If I consume excessive salt (sodium chloride) I just get thirsty with no other noticeable symptoms. From this personal empirical data, I'm sure there are many complicated chemical reactions taking place in our bodies and often we forget when consuming preserved foods containing acids and alkalines the old school chemistry lab experiments, "acid plus base equals salt plus water". Apologies if I'm getting too far from the original salt research posts.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom