The Salt Argument Revisited By Some Big Names in Food

[weinoo]

In a move as public relations' related as it is health related, the NY Times reports that Boston Market has removed salt shakers from its restaurant tables...

It was a slightly curious gesture: last week, Boston Market, the national chain of rotisserie chicken restaurants, removed the salt shakers from its tables, replacing them with small placards — tucked next to the pepper shakers — promoting the company’s interest in reducing sodium. As a marketing strategy, it was clever, earning the 476-restaurant franchise business more publicity than its popular macaroni and cheese ever could...

“We are removing the temptation to put salt on food right away without even tasting it,” said George Michel, chief executive of Boston Market, in a telephone interview. “As part of our social responsibility and promise to deliver wholesome food, we wanted to take a bold step like this.”

Sodium reduction has lately become a culinary cause célèbre. Subway, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Burger King and Taco Bell, as well as food manufacturers like Campbell Soup and PepsiCo, have all publicly vowed to produce lower-sodium products.

As someone with slightly high blood-pressure (well controlled by some old line medicine), I feel that there is most likely a link between sodium and high blood pressure, and there's plenty of proof about the link between high blood pressure and various other health issues.

So I think it's a good move for these companies to proactively attempt to do certain health-positive things to their food.

What about you?

[gfweb]

Salt is hardly the worst thing in the world healthwise. We need a certain amount of sodium to function. But extra salt makes the body retain water until the kidney excretes it, which raises BP if one's arteries are a little stiff. But controlling salt intake rarely affects BP significantly and high salt diets are only a real problem in those with bad kidneys and heart failure. (One can argue that compliance with a truly low salt diet is nearly impossible and controlling salt would be more effective in BP if people could actually restrict sodium reliably.)

So this is just perhaps well-intentioned marketing BS that also saves Boston Market a little bit of money and gets them some nice press.

[naguere]

Watching TV chefs doing their stuff it never ceases to amaze me how when it comes to seasoning they cast salt on to the dish,

not sprinkle, but cast. It is made a 'shot' moment and you see the kosher salt glittering upon the ingredients.

Personally I would take the salt out of the kitchen and leave the pots on the diners tables.

There will be less salt consumed, that's for certain.

Edited August 27, 2012 by naguere (log)

[Mjx]

In a move as public relations' related as it is health related, the NY Times reports that Boston Market has removed salt shakers from its restaurant tables...

It was a slightly curious gesture: last week, Boston Market, the national chain of rotisserie chicken restaurants, removed the salt shakers from its tables, replacing them with small placards — tucked next to the pepper shakers — promoting the company’s interest in reducing sodium. As a marketing strategy, it was clever, earning the 476-restaurant franchise business more publicity than its popular macaroni and cheese ever could...

“We are removing the temptation to put salt on food right away without even tasting it,” said George Michel, chief executive of Boston Market, in a telephone interview. “As part of our social responsibility and promise to deliver wholesome food, we wanted to take a bold step like this.”

Sodium reduction has lately become a culinary cause célèbre. Subway, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Burger King and Taco Bell, as well as food manufacturers like Campbell Soup and PepsiCo, have all publicly vowed to produce lower-sodium products.

As someone with slightly high blood-pressure (well controlled by some old line medicine), I feel that there is most likely a link between sodium and high blood pressure, and there's plenty of proof about the link between high blood pressure and various other health issues.

So I think it's a good move for these companies to proactively attempt to do certain health-positive things to their food.

What about you?

My first reaction was 'Mitch just wants to see us scream and rant'

On the other hand, I've seen so many people reach for the salt shaker and stat shaking out salt without having tasted so much as a bite, I think getting people to pause, taste, and think about how much, if any salt the food needs, is a good idea.

There will be plenty of people who will scream about 'nanny governments', of course, so I'm hoping that the emphasis will stay on the way food tastes. But it isn't as though they're witholdingt he salt altogether.

Most people who have high blood pressure and take care of themselves are unlikely to thoughtlessly reach for the salt shaker, so I'm a bit sceptical about any purported health benefits of not having the salt shaker on the table.

[Mjx]

In a move as public relations' related as it is health related, the NY Times reports that Boston Market has removed salt shakers from its restaurant tables...

It was a slightly curious gesture: last week, Boston Market, the national chain of rotisserie chicken restaurants, removed the salt shakers from its tables, replacing them with small placards — tucked next to the pepper shakers — promoting the company’s interest in reducing sodium. As a marketing strategy, it was clever, earning the 476-restaurant franchise business more publicity than its popular macaroni and cheese ever could...

“We are removing the temptation to put salt on food right away without even tasting it,” said George Michel, chief executive of Boston Market, in a telephone interview. “As part of our social responsibility and promise to deliver wholesome food, we wanted to take a bold step like this.”

Sodium reduction has lately become a culinary cause célèbre. Subway, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Burger King and Taco Bell, as well as food manufacturers like Campbell Soup and PepsiCo, have all publicly vowed to produce lower-sodium products.

As someone with slightly high blood-pressure (well controlled by some old line medicine), I feel that there is most likely a link between sodium and high blood pressure, and there's plenty of proof about the link between high blood pressure and various other health issues.

So I think it's a good move for these companies to proactively attempt to do certain health-positive things to their food.

What about you?

My first reaction was 'Mitch just want to see us scream and rant'.

On the other hand, I've seen so many people reach for the salt shaker and stat shaking out salt without having tasted so much as a bite, I think getting people to pause, taste, and think about how much, if any salt the food needs, is a good idea.

There will be plenty of people who will scream about 'nanny governments', of course, so I'm hoping that the emphasis will stay on the way food tastes. But it isn't as though they're witholdingt he salt altogether.

Most people who have high blood pressure and take care of themselves are unlikely to thoughtlessly reach for the salt shaker, so I'm a bit sceptical about any purported health benefits of not having the salt shaker on the table.

[slkinsey]

I think that the link between salt intake and blood pressure is tenuous at best on an epidemiological basis, although may have some effect on an individual basis depending on the genetic makeup of the individual person. I'm in pretty good company in thinking this. That said, it is true that people who eat mostly processed and prepared foods rather than cooking for themselves -- an increasingly large percentage of the population in western world -- consume a tremendous amount of salt (and also a tremendous amount of sugar). If companies like Boston Market and Subway (etc.) can make their food taste good without adding a ton of salt, I think this is probably a good idea for a number of reasons.

[bmdaniel]

The other key point is the disconnect between what makes sense for an individual and how people working in public health think about issues. If one in 1,000 people have an adverse blood pressure reaction to salt, it can make a lot of sense from a public health perspective to reduce sodium intake (that's 300,000 reduced adverse incidents in the US). However, from a personal perspective, you are making 999 people eat bland food with no benefit whatsoever.

My wife and I both have very salty palates - the trend I do not like is not offering salt in higher end dining settings. Us salting the food doesn't mean the chef messed up, it means we like our food a little saltier than the average person.

[Darienne]

Interesting posts. I am married to a man who salts his food without tasting it. Oh well...

According to my personal anecdotal and totally unscientific evidence, Americans use more sugar than Canadians, while Canadians. on the other hand, use more salt than Americans do. Certainly Canadian butter is saltier than American, while American grocery-store purchased bakery goods are far sweeter than their Canadian counterparts.

[weinoo]

Personally I would take the salt out of the kitchen and leave the pots on the diners tables.

There will be less salt consumed, that's for certain.

I doubt it. The food would taste lousy and people would oversalt at the table. Food properly salted in the kitchen is the right way to go.

My first reaction was 'Mitch just wants to see us scream and rant'

What?! I'm insulted. Hold on while I grab a bag of pretzels...

If companies like Boston Market and Subway (etc.) can make their food taste good without adding a ton of salt, I think this is probably a good idea for a number of reasons.

Exactly.

[Toliver]

As Sam mentioned, there are arguments against a low sodium diet:

Low sodium versus normal sodium diets in systolic heart failure

Conclusion Compared with a normal sodium diet, a low sodium diet significantly increases morbidity and mortality in systolic HF.

So after all these years of using quite the heavy hand when adding salt to the food they serve, these same chain restaurants have suddenly "seen the light" are going to deign to police our intake of sodium by removing salt shakers from their restaurants? Really?

No thanks.

[Katie Meadow]

Ouch, I don't know why I always get sucked into the salt threads. The American rant "Don't tell me what to do" has resulted in all kinds of hideous practices, from talking or taking cell phone calls at the movies to monthly mass shootings. Any whiff of control, especially when accompanied by "This is good for you," will be resisted. When it comes to eating less salt, it would be nice to think that restaurants and processed food manufacturers could simultaneously agree to lower the salt content of all their foods. That way the people who eat out most of the time or who buy the oversalted processed grocery products will slowly accomodate their taste buds to less salt.

If you cook most of your own meals and don't buy a lot of junk snacks or processed foods it is very easy to reduce the salt in your diet. Everyone I've ever known who has done it claims that their taste for salt simply adjusts. I need comparatively little salt now in order to make my food adequately salty. I cook with modest amounts of salt and sprinkle high quality sea salt on my food as needed. And I appreciate every crystal. In fact, I can TASTE every crystal. More than half the time when I eat out--be it high end or funky--the food tastes too saltly. For a variety of reasons we don't go out often. When following a recipe, I typically cut the salt according to taste (sometimes dramatically), unless it is baked goods. If it's a Rick Bayless recipe I might cut it back even more. When I watch him cook on TV I can't believe the mountains of salt he casually tosses in.

Probably there are many reasons to cut back on salt. Several years ago I tried really hard to see if I could lower my blood pressure by strictly reducing the salt in my diet. No bloody marys, no cheetos. The difference it made wasn't enough; for others it does work. Everyone's physiology is different. Still, I'm convinced that decreasing salt intake does not decrease enjoyment once your taste buds get used to it.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'm going to die eventually regardless of what I eat. I might as well enjoy what I eat while I'm still here!

Then again, at the altitude where I live, a higher-sodium and -fat diet is almost obligatory for good health....

[rancho_gordo]

Watching TV chefs doing their stuff it never ceases to amaze me how when it comes to seasoning they cast salt on to the dish,

not sprinkle, but cast. It is made a 'shot' moment and you see the kosher salt glittering upon the ingredients.

Personally I would take the salt out of the kitchen and leave the pots on the diners tables.

There will be less salt consumed, that's for certain.

Fast food chains aside, I think when you salt while cooking you can control things and use less salt because you are salting the entire dish. Salting at the table can lead to oversalting because you're just sating the surface, not the whole piece of food.

[janeer]

I never salt my food before tasting it. But I find it annoying when I have to wait around and signal a server to bring me salt and pepper when the food is poorly seasoned--which in a surprising number of establishments, it is. Seasoning food, it seems, is the hardest thing about cooking for most people.

Boston Market is quite scientific in their preparations, so lack of salt is scarcely an issue. Not the worst idea there. But still, let the person choose. Better to put a little sign saying, "We've done our best to season your food to perfection. May we suggest tasting it before salting?"

[Edward J]

I know very little on nutrition and rad very little on slat and BP connections.

What I DO know, though, is what every bartender the world over knows...

Salt is an appetite and thirst stimulant.

[andiesenji]

Some people do use a lot of salt but I have seen people carefully restricting their salt intake but drinking diet soda, which I think is much worse.

People that restrict salt too severely can have problems from not enough sodium chloride.

People that exercise heavily and limit their intake of any of the electrolytes can have problems with muscle cramps, dizziness, vision problems and occasionally fainting.

[naguere]

Salt as we all agree is very important at the table.

To be 'Below the salt' would indicate you were not at the top table .

In England at any rate. The salt cellar would be with the host.

No Chefs there, they would be sweating it out below stairs...

Here is a good salt cellar:

http://www.jamesgreer.net/2011/05/14/cellinis-salt-cellar-2/

[Kouign Aman]

I feel that there is most likely a link between sodium and high blood pressure

There is, for a certain genetic subset of the population. Fairly small one.

It would be interesting to compare the sodium levels of one's home cooking with that of the much maligned processed and restaurant foods.

[Porthos]

I dined at a restaurant in Anaheim about a month ago. They had no salt or pepper on the table. My steak was under-seasoned so I had to get a server's attention to bring me some salt. Curiously, my side of creamed spinach was over-salted,

Addressing the topic - I don't need other people deciding what is right for me. I happen to have rather low blood pressure and should not be denied what salt I do want because someone who is not going to eat MY food may need to control their sodium intake.

It reminds me of the move afoot to limit the size of drink cups in fast food establishments. I drink diet soda or iced tea so I'm not awash in calories when I order a large drink. Let others take personal responsibility for the amount of calories they are taking in.

[andiesenji]

I dined at a restaurant in Anaheim about a month ago. They had no salt or pepper on the table. My steak was under-seasoned so I had to get a server's attention to bring me some salt. Curiously, my side of creamed spinach was over-salted,

Addressing the topic - I don't need other people deciding what is right for me. I happen to have rather low blood pressure and should not be denied what salt I do want because someone who is not going to eat MY food may need to control their sodium intake.

It reminds me of the move afoot to limit the size of drink cups in fast food establishments. I drink diet soda or iced tea so I'm not awash in calories when I order a large drink. Let others take personal responsibility for the amount of calories they are taking in.

Exactly my point. There are some foods that simply do not taste "right" without a little salt. And there are some occasions when the body really needs salt. That's why in hot climates, before the availability of electrolyte drinks, workers were issued salt tablets. The Romans issued salt tablets to their troops 2000 years ago when marching long distances in heat.

I happen to have an unusual type of hypertension - systolic hypertension - where only the systolic is elevated and the diastolic (the bottom number) is normal or, with my medication, sometimes very low.

When this happens - recently it dropped to 49 - I feel very weak and shaky. A little salt dissolved under my tongue will relieve these symptoms in a couple of minutes. This usually happens when I eat a food that is a natural diuretic without sufficient salt to counteract the effects.

Spinach, asparagus, etc., are the worst offenders so I avoid them if possible.