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Too much salted dough? A report by the Center for Disease Control claims the majority of salt in the American diet comes from bread consumption. You might find this surprising, especially considering evidently high-salt items like potato chips rank far lower on the list (tenth, in fact). The CDC attributes this to people’s willingness to overindulge in those sorts of foods, which despite a lower salt content in general can smuggle a high sodium total into the body. Salt intake for an otherwise healthy adult is advised at no more than 2,300 milligrams per day, but the average American consumes 1000 milligrams more than that. (Photo by Charles Haynes) source

Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Aug 2011 22:48

» Are food companies are pulling a fast one on us? According to the study, they’ve been adding extra salt to food to trick us into eating more. “They train your taste buds — the more salt you eat, the less salt you taste, the more salt you want, to get that saltiness,” notes Professor Francisco Cappucio of the University of Warwick, one of the authors of the study. He notes that this extra salt makes us want to eat more, leading to higher food industry profits. By cutting salt intake worldwide, we could save thousands of lives each year in the U.S. alone, the study notes — and 8.5 million lives in the next decade. The study suggests that the UN get involved.

Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

Salt really changes the way that your tongue will taste the product. You make one little change and something that was a complementary flavor now starts to stand out and become objectionable.
Kellogg vice president and food scientist John Kepplinger • On why he sees salt as a key ingredient for processed food. The New York Times wrote this massive, impressive exposé on the fight to limit salt in processed food. As part of it, Kepplinger prepared a bunch of foods without the salt, and among other things, Cheez-Its, which are loaded with salt normally, tasted absolutely awful. Processed foods and restaurant meals now account for 80 percent of all the salt that people eat nowadays, something some politicians are trying to limit. They say it could save as many as 150,000 lives per year. As well as make crackers taste like cardboard. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

2,300 the number of milligrams of salt dietary guidelines recommend
you eat daily
3,200 the number of milligrams of salt people actually eat daily; see the problem here? source

» Putting it in manufacturers’ hands: The Institute of Medicine released a report about this on Tuesday, which the FDA may use to set limits for how much salt can be in certain foods. The food industry is complaining about this: “It is a very complicated, technical challenge for our food scientists to execute this,” said General Mills vice president Susan Crockett. “What you want to do is reduce the sodium so the taste is good enough and the consumer doesn’t add salt with the shaker.”

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink