The Great Salt Debate

Recently for school I had an assignment, to do a report on a recent culinary-related article. I found a really good one on the salt debate that is going on in NYC and around the US. “On the Plate, a Pinch or a Pound? “ was the name of the article on the topic of salt usage and sodium intake. It was in the New York Times (which I receive free online, super cool). 

The topic of salt and amount of sodium that is added to our food is a hot item right now in the culinary world, especially in NYC. Recently, the mayor of NYC Michael R. Bloomberg announced his salt reduction initiative. I find this topic of particular interest for many reasons. 

First, are the health conscious reasons. I am very focused on healthier food and the problems with obesity in our society.  Secondly, my mother is very salt sensitive and I grew up not salting food very much. I find I am very aware sometimes to the over saltiness of some foods.  Mostly found in pre-packed foods, which I find myself purchasing much less of the older I get.

An interesting fact I found out was that in NYC the fast-food chains are required to post the nutritional information about their food on the menu.  If only they did that here in Chicago, how awesome. Maybe one might put down the Biggie fries for a small one : ) … just saying. 

NYC seems to lead the trends that happen in restaurants and bars. A good example of this is: NYC has banned all use of trans fats in restaurants. The issue of salt usage is more in the nicer eateries where it is harder to exactly state the amount of sodium used in a dish. 

Every chef has different taste buds and sensitivity to the amount of salt in a dish. Then there are the line cooks. They also prepare and season the dishes how they see fit. 

I’m not saying there should be a line drawn in terms of how much sodium is used in the restaurants dishes.  But I do believe that better nutritional education of the public would be the better way to go. 

The author of this article, Ariel Kaminer, has food from many popular eateries in NYC sent out to laboratories and tested for their sodium levels. She has many different styles of restaurants tested from casuall to fine dining. 

I was amazed at the results. Especially one for a corned beef sandwich from a place called Katz's Delicatessen, which included two pickles on the side. It has a whooping 4,490 milligrams of sodium in it.  The Food and Drug Administration’s maximum recommendation for daily sodium intake is 2,400 milligrams. The corned beef sandwich was almost twice that amount.  Wow, that truly is a sandwich that’s good for two days. At least two days worth of sodium that is. 

After talking to one of my Chefs at school who has actually visited this location and had the sodio-wich, she said it’s not even that big of a sandwich for all that salt. Yikes, over-salted and hungry again in a few hours.

The article talked about the salt reduction initiative, which I’ve heard just a little about. It intrigued me, so I went forth and hunted down more knowledge in the old web-a-roni (yes, I did just make up that word……and sodi-wich as well). Basically, it is a national initiative to reduce the overall amount of sodium in the United Status’s packaged and restaurant food by 20% over the next five years. 

This is in hopes of lowering high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes in this country. Which in turn would save billions of health care dollars. I do find it sad that in this in many ways amazing country that we are so far behind in overall national health. 

I don’t feel that we as customers should have our choices, salty or not salty, taken away from us. I just believe that if there is better education and information available for the public, healthier choices can be made. Scarily, I found that only about 11% of the sodium we intake comes from salting our own food. About 80% is already added into our food before we even purchase it. 

Here are some ideas to help substitute and/or reduce the amount of salt you use.

 SALT-FREE IDEAS to add flavor to your food:

-lemon or lime juice

-vinegars

-fresh garlic or roasted garlic

-fresh herbs

Also, here are some common salt/sodium descriptors and what they mean which can really help you when purchasing food. It’s always good to read the labels. To see what you are really putting in your body. To salt or not to salt these days is truly the question.

Sodium Descriptors

"Sodium descriptors" are not required on food labels, but are often seen. These labels often confuse consumers. A quick check of several Internet sources revealed the following:

Sodium free: Less than 5 mg of sodium per serving.
Very low sodium: 35 mg or less per serving.
Low sodium: 140 mg or less per serving.
Reduced sodium: Product contains at least 75% less sodium than the original product. The label must tell you the amount of sodium per serving in the new and original product.
Without added salt: No salt is added during processing to a product that would normally have salt added.
No added salt: Unsalted. Sodium free: Less than 5 mg of sodium per serving.

Next week starts The Week Of Eating In challenge offered by Huffington Post to dine in and not eat out for a whole week. To help you along with this, I will be posting short blogs with a quick, fun and tasty recipe every day starting Monday February 22 through Sunday February 28. I will be taking the challenge and I hope some of you will join me too. 

Till then live, love and eat some fantastic food.