Unintended consequences...

[daveon]

Sodium Chloride gets a bad press.  It can be a trigger for elevated blood pressure and it generally gets a bad rap for pre-packaged problems.

However, a guilty pleasure of mine is Restaurant Impossible where the improbably small headed Robert Irvine tries to fix broken restaurants.  The last few have had chefs saying, but what about people who can't eat salt!

So...  just to be clear.  There is a difference between a few grammes of salt in every serving of you cornflakes, or a slice of bread and having a fraction of that amount seasoning the food you eat.  You can't cook without at least a little salt and pepper - honestly, I watch my salt content - in fact, I rarely use salt for anything.  But a sprinkle of salt into a meal you're making or on meat makes the difference between something that you can eat and you can't.

That doesn't mean that you're like my dad who, literally, wanted a teaspoon of salt on his dinner.

But for crying out loud people.  You have to have the stuff to live.  Like all things in life, use in moderation.

Comments

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

People get crazy fundamentalist about both salt and sugar. Too much of both is bad, of course, but they spring all the way into the other direction resulting in flavourless food and using nothing but stevia which results in flavourless food.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that I've gone back to using Cream and Butter in my cooking without much of a change in my blood chemistry or weight. I use them in small amounts and the improvement in texture, consistency and flavour makes up for the extra calories and fat.

Of course, I probably should be taking a Statin, but according to my cardiac PA friend, EVERYBODY over 40 ought to be taking a Statin purely because the only relatively harmless chemical he's seen with the same level of preventative effect is Flouride. He does worry it's practically putting him out of work though, as in 20 years of replacing blood vessels he's seen the average age of the person on the table move from 40s/50s to 70s/80s when the cardiac disease is really the least of the problems.

Anyway, food should have taste and be something to enjoy. :)

[daveon.livejournal.com]

One of the things I find weird about the US, and I've had this argument with more than a few libertarians (oddly) is that in America a meal out is not something special and to be enjoyed as an experience. It's more often than not, a pit stop or a fueling stop and the food is accordingly bland and average.

One of the things I loved about France when I lived there was even a lunch at a fixed price dive in Paris was a 90 minute 'experience' with a salad, an amazing entree and usually coffee afterwards.

I've been out for meals with friends here where they get twitchy if the meal lasts more than an hour.

I, and pretty much all the ex-pats I know, are genuinely shocked that cooking your own fresh food from scratch is more expensive than cooking from mixes.

Another trait I see on Restaurant Impossible is people buying sauces in packages and similar and being shocked to find out that fresh is cheaper. The problem is, in the US fresh is only cheaper if you own a restaurant and can buy and sell the stuff in the right quantities.

It boggles my mind that 6 heads of lettuce at CostCo is the same as 1 small bag of mixed salad at my local supermarket. But the trouble is, two of us will be able to eat the small bag of salad but we'll waste 3-5 of the heads of lettuce.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I don't buy from Costco. There are only 2 people in my household. We do have to resort to eating out a good deal, so there is a counter-cultural "slow food" movement that seeks out the 90 minute meal experience. One of our favourite places is Ritual Tavern, which cooks only local foods into seasonal cuisines.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

In grad school I had a roommate who was always on me about the amount of salt I ate. I finally told her I'd cut back when my blood pressure got up to normal. Hasn't happened yet...

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

I remember one of the last conversations I had with my father when he spent the last couple of months of his life in a care home was his complaint that none of the meals he had served there had any salt in them. But they did allow him a salt cellar in his room. He did have high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.