As someone who has high blood pressure I have been warned off salt, in fact the general population is encouraged not to over salt food. Therefore I was horrified to note the amount of salt TV chefs use in their demonstrations. Water for boiling pasta was literally inundated with salt.
This is surely a bad example for viewers - and is it strictly necessary to improve taste?
H.M., Rotorua
Plain and simple, people love salt. Salt, sugar and fat appeal to our deepest cravings, probably a throwback to the times when these things were scarce, precious, and even life-saving.
Now, it's quite the opposite, with excessive salt intake being linked to increased hypertension, stroke, and heart disease deaths.
The human body requires only about 500mg of sodium a day. The average Kiwi consumes seven times that amount of sodium each day, or 3500mg.
As we consume more and more sodium, our taste buds adapt, and we need increasing amounts to relieve the perceived blandness.
In fairness to TV chefs, about 80 per cent of our sodium intake comes from processed foods, not home-cooked foods. The low-salt solution is to just cook your own food.
When we salt cooking water, the vast majority of the sodium will be poured out down the drain - estimates are that salting your pasta water will add about 200mg of sodium per serving. For the sake of comparison, just one slice of takeaway pizza has about three times more sodium.
The bottom line is that its hard to make home-cooked food as unhealthy as most processed food, even if you try.
So although I don't encourage adding salt to your pasta water, I'd say go ahead and use a little, if it means you'll eat even one less store-bought, canned, or processed meal.
Gary Payinda MD is an emergency medicine consultant in Whangarei.
Have a science, health topic or question you'd like addressed? Email: drpayinda@gmail.com
(This column provides general information and is not a substitute for the medical advice of your personal doctor.)
