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Talking Heads ~ Salt: You Can't Live Without It, Can You Live With It?
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Talking Heads #8
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting..."
Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the Op-Ed page.
A two week forum for opinions on anything in print: magazines, newspaper articles, online: bring your ideas and let's discuss.
Our Eighth Selection is: Salt!
You can't live without it, but can you live with it?
Salt of the earth, a man worth his salt...take what he says with a grain of salt…. below the salt at the table…throughout history salt has played an important part of every life.
.....Salary…..(from sal, salt, salarium, the Roman soldier was paid money so he could buy salt).
......In 1924 Iodized salt saved lives when the addition of iodine to salt addressed iodine deficiency related diseases
......The Salt March: In early April, 1930 Mahatma Gandhi, 61 years old, reached Dandi after walking 241 miles in 24 days. He then defied the law by making salt.
...... National Salt Reduction Initiative of 2010 seeks a crackdown on the salt added in restaurants and processed foods.
Don't eat salt, you say? Bet you do! Do you know where most of it lurks and that you can't taste it?
Do you know the recommended salt intake?
Have you looked at a can of tomato soup lately?
Too much fuss over nothing? Can't eat watermelon without salt?
Read the one page briefing article in Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1975316,00.html Salt in US Food of April 5, 2010 and let's discuss: is this just another fuss over nothing or is there a hidden killer in our midst?
Let's discuss!.
ginny:
Welcome to a strange sounding topic but it's suddenly in a lot of prominence due to the realization that hidden salt in our food, in restaurants and in processed foods like TV dinners, soups, etc., may provide us with more salt, even IF we may not be able to taste it, than a bowl of salted peanuts.
Is this just another hysterical fad? Are "they" telling us what to eat again? Do YOU like salt and eat a lot of it? What is the recommended salt intake for persons per day and what would happen if we each took out one of those handy prepackaged meals or soups and looked for the sodium content? (Try soup if you want a shock).
The new issue of Time Magazine has a very short very interesting article of some of the highlights of the history of salt, and the insidiousness of its prevalence in our food, but there are a lot of things they might have included and didn't. What about those who brine a turkey? One thing for sure: it's in everything!
Or is it?
Is this just another fad or is it worth thinking about? Do YOU watch your salt or eat out with abandon? My doctor told me the restaurants don't care about your health, all they care about is trying to make the food taste good. Does food taste bad without it? The heading (thanks to Pat for that beautiful arrangement) says it all.
You can't live without it and it's been the focus of some major events in history but can you live with it? How much salt is too much? Does it affect you at ALL?
What about salt substitutes? Some people claim they are poison.
Let's discuss the newest health focus and one of the oldest: salt!
mabel1015j:
I recently read Kurlansky's Salt, a World History - or i read half of it, it got to be a little too much, but the beginning was interesting. Salt is so important to so many aspects of life, including our own, so having it available was very important and some communities had none and in other places towns grew up around salt mines, or salt ponds.
Interesting topic, Ginny............i'll be back after reading the article.......jean
Frybabe:
Ahhhhhh, I lost my post. Oh, well.
I read Kurlansky's book one or two years ago. More than you ever thought you wanted to know about salt, but really, really interesting most of the time.
I don't add salt to my cooking and try to buy products which are lower in salt. Just try finding something that is low salt, low fat and not full of sugar that still tastes decent and isn't way, way expensive.
Sea salt must be the in thing again. George has been making fun of it the last several days. My current favorite potato chip is made with sunflower oil and sea salt.
PS: I can't get to the article. I get an error message, article not found.
ginny:
Oh you're right! Thank you for mentioning it, Frybabe, here's the article:; http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1975316,00.html
Must have cut something off the one in the heading I'll fix it now.
I've not even heard of that book, Jean, and Frybabe, did you finish it Frybabe?
I forgot about salt mines!
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