Healthy Eating and the Salt Issue
I recently watched a programme that described how the amount of salt in food produce has significantly reduced and continues to be a downward trend. This left me pondering though as to the reasons why initially salt content was so high and secondly the need for us all to retrain our taste buds and eat natural food without adding salt.
Salt occurs naturally in foods as do sugars and vitamins so what is required is the fundamental changes to our diet, correct?
The one thing salt will do is preserve food and before refrigeration and freezing it was a fundamental part of maintain a balanced diet of food types.
The preservative element may explain the initial high content but not fully as many of the foods examined were freeze dried or packed for freezing. The only conclusion is that the customer was and is demanding the content based on taste.
Our health is therefore in summary being compromised by ourselves and the programme summarised that the constant reduction reprogramming our taste buds was right. We no longer need salt as a preservative and therefore reducing the content should not be a problem.
So, what should we do to help in improving our health reducing salt?
- Buy fresh fruit and vegetables and reduce the amount of processed food purchased.
- Do your research on foods, have you ever considered the salt content in cheese? What about one brand of porridge oats versus another?
- Check the salt content traffic light on the packaging. If it is red do not buy it and if it is orange stop and consider why do you need it. The producers will go further to reduce the content if it is impacting the sale of their products.
- Buy unprocessed food and prepare the meal at home. We live in a society where speed is important but an extra 15 or 30 minutes should be worth the effort and long-term impact on health.
- Consider the transport of foods and storage as well as the seasonal consumption. When a food is in season it is at its best for both quality and taste.
In summary, we cannot depend on the industry to fix our taste buds as they will always have a commercial bias and although foods standards might be forcing the issue we can do so much more ourselves with a little bit of time, effort and thought.
We might enjoy it!
