The Salt Police (BBC)

Phil_aka_Pip

Sporky said:

Even though adding fuouride to water and folic acid to bread has had significant benefits - mostly because people just don't realise they need them, or aren't willing to pay (separately) for them?

Yes, on principle. And also because them that don't need flouride in their water end up with grey mottled teeth. The additives are an extra cost. If you start adding them where does it end up: statins in your Complan/Werthers Originals/Horlicks just because a lot of older people are likely to "need" statins?

Phil_aka_Pip

MrBump said:

So.  Salt bad.

For you, apparently, yes. Cut it down. Don't bug me with it though

Sporky

Phil_aka_Pip said:

 them that don't need flouride in their water end up with grey mottled teeth.

I think you're missing a lot of qualifiers in that. 

Teetonetal

MrBump said:

I'm upped my salt intake recently - I'm doing Slimming World (Mrs Bump is doing it, I'm doing it passively by proxy), and an upshot of that seems to be that I'm cooking with more salt to compensate for the vast amounts of butter/olive oil I typically cook with.

And at the weekend I ended up at the local out of hours primary care facility in Southend with a massive build up of crystallised uric acid in my big toe (yes, that's gout to the layman), often a consequence of too much salt.

So.  Salt bad.

What on earth are you thinking there? Salt is not a replacement for fat, and tastewise very different.

The funny thing is, that you actually need very little salt to enhance flavour. It's a bit like smoking and sugar, once you remove them and get used it it, that becomes fine.

Suddenly food is too salty, sugar is too sweet and cigarettes stink.

Salt as a flavour enhancer is a myth, it just changes the taste and if you are used to the salt, it tastes better because its the taste you are used to.

VimFuego

thing is, with a takeaway as an example, it's very easy to add more salt, my limited understanding of chemistry tells me it's not so easy to remove salt from a dish. So I'm all in favour of limiting salt and letting the end user decide if they want more. 

Sporky

VimFuego said:

my limited understanding of chemistry tells me it's not so easy to remove salt from a dish

Potatoes.

That's what I read in a cookbook. Probably only works with fairly wet stuff that you can carry on cooking for a while, but the suggestion was the that potatoes would leech some salt out.

Phil_aka_Pip

Sporky said:

That's what I read in a cookbook. Probably only works with fairly wet stuff that you can carry on cooking for a while, but the suggestion was the that potatoes would leech some salt out.

If you made a stew that was too salty, wouldn't adding anything to it add bulk and therefore reduce the average salt content in each spoonful? I'm sure it would work with potatoes, but I bet other chopped root veg would work just as well.

Sporky

Probbly, but I think potatoes were reckoned to be likely to be in one's store cupboard, and unlikely to spoil a stew. Also easy to fish out before serving if you don't actually want potato in the finished article.

I think the idea was also that you weren't so much diluting the salt as relying on the potatoes to suck it up.

I've not done any sort of testing on this at all so can't vouch for the scheme's efficacy, but I can follow the logic.

crunchman

I'm always wary of these types of things.  If you do a lot of exercise and sweat a lot, you will need more salt to replace the stuff you have lost in your sweat.

Years ago, my dad stopped putting salt on his food and got cramps in his feet, which went away when he started putting salt on again.  The difference was that he was probably having the traditional English meat and two veg diet with a lot of unprocessed fresh stuff in it, and he was also working on a farm and probably sweating a lot.  The problem is he still pours far too much salt on his meals these days when he is not doing nearly as much physical activity, and there is a lot more processed food around.

If I have a Chinese takeaway once a month as a treat it's not a big issue.  If someone is stupid enough to have one every night then let them suffer rather than make silly rules that affect the rest of us.

Teetonetal

VimFuego said:

thing is, with a takeaway as an example, it's very easy to add more salt, my limited understanding of chemistry tells me it's not so easy to remove salt from a dish. So I'm all in favour of limiting salt and letting the end user decide if they want more. 

Exactly. Such an easy issue to solve this.

57Deluxe

Phil_aka_Pip said:

@57Deluxe  ; do you surreptitiously add your own salt or is that banned as well?

Oh yes. Strange thing is though, when I go round me Mum's she puts salt on everything she serves me up even on a bloody cheese sarnie and I can't take it - and her Aldi crisps are way too salty for me. So my complaining to her makes me sound like the SALT Activist!

Phil_aka_Pip

@57Deluxe I must try Aldi crisps!