Do You Want Salt With That?

                                                                                                               Image:Marie Vonow

I don't think I am exaggerating when I say we have all heard that too much salt in your diet is not a good thing. It seems you don't need much salt in a dish for it to be 'too much'.

This has led to guilt about sprinkling salt on your food or including it when you cook. There's lite salt but the potassium in it makes it unsuitable for some people, specifically those with kidney problems. Another alternative to salt is to use herbs to add flavour.

No added salt products
We can now buy various processed foods including sweet corn, soup, stock, tomatoes, margarine, gravy mix, bacon, ham, feta cheese. vegemite and baked beans with reduced or no added salt. An increasing number of reduced salt products are appearing on supermarket shelves.

Salt reduced stock   Image:M Vonow

This seems like a move in the right direction to make it easier for people to eat less salt and enjoy a healthier diet. It would seem the message of eating less salt is getting through to people.

Or maybe not.

Why did someone think it was a good idea to introduce a whole pile of new salty temptations? Ones which combine sweet and salty in the one item? Delicious, yes. Good for your health, no. Now there are recipes for salted caramel, salted chocolate and so much more. I love salted chocolate popcorn.

Sweet/salty treats
I did a quick online search and found recipes for -

• salt and honey ice cream

• salted peanut candy bars

• salted caramel apples

• chocolate brownies with a layer of salted pretzels as the base

• mandarin pieces dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with salt

• potato chips dipped in caramel and milk chocolate

• pretzel chocolate chip cookies

There are heaps more recipes, many with long drawn out names! If you Google you will see what I mean.

The problem with all these yummy modern culinary inventions is that they contain not only salt, which many people are trying to restrict in their diet, but also sugar which many people are also trying to cut down on!

New temptations have been created when there were already enough salty foods to cut down on and avoid. Combining salt and sugar in all these treats seems outright mean to me!