S**t!
No....I mean salt!!
It is essential to our body's proper functioning. While not essential to eating, it does bring out tastes and, for certain recipes, is a requirement to the chemical reaction that occurs in cooking.
Salt can also be detrimental to our health. Various cancers are associated with it as is high-blood pressure. So we can't live without it but we need to watch our intake - just like all other food stuffs and ingredients.
I tend to watch what I eat. I watch ingredients, ensure that I eat balanced (well, fairly balanced) meals. I have to admit though that eating the recommended amount of fruits and veggies proves hard on many days. But, no matter how careful you are the fact is that if you eat processed foods you will eat too much salt and sugar. What I ate for lunch yesterday is an example. It was seemingly a fairly healthy meal.
One can of salmon with one tablespoon of mayonnaise mixed in.
Four pitted, red pepper-stuffed green olives.
About eighteen pita chips.
One banana.
One biscotti.
Water.
On the surface this was healthy. But the key is that most was actually processed. So what was the salt content?
One can of salmon = 697 mg (27% of daily recommended intake)
One tablespoon of mayo = 90 mg (4%)
Four olives = 400 mg (16%)
Eighteen pita chips = 480 mg (20%)
One biscotti = 40 mg (2%)
One banana = 1 mg (negligible)
Water = ? not sure what the sodium content of Montreal tap water is...
If you add it up, this lunch gave me 69% of the recommended daily allowance of sodium! Yowza. Had I bought my salmon and cooked it I could have dramatically dropped this. They mayo could have been avoided but was not a major contributor. The olives...could have looked at the labels and tried to find some that had a lower content. The chips...could have bought pita bread and baked my own. Biscotti...not a major contributor. The banana and water were the only items that were not processed in some factory.
The day before I made a lasagna for dinner. I had salt on my mind again that evening. So I looked at the salt content of the ingredients I was adding. The canned tomatoes had some, the cheese had some as did the mushroom soup and the lasagna noodles themselves. So, I did not add any salt to my sauce, nor to the water to boil the noodles. It made no difference to the taste.
Let's be aware of what is in the foods we eat and eat as little processed foods as possible. At the very least make it a habit to read labels on food.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
It is essential to our body's proper functioning. While not essential to eating, it does bring out tastes and, for certain recipes, is a requirement to the chemical reaction that occurs in cooking.
Salt can also be detrimental to our health. Various cancers are associated with it as is high-blood pressure. So we can't live without it but we need to watch our intake - just like all other food stuffs and ingredients.
I tend to watch what I eat. I watch ingredients, ensure that I eat balanced (well, fairly balanced) meals. I have to admit though that eating the recommended amount of fruits and veggies proves hard on many days. But, no matter how careful you are the fact is that if you eat processed foods you will eat too much salt and sugar. What I ate for lunch yesterday is an example. It was seemingly a fairly healthy meal.
One can of salmon with one tablespoon of mayonnaise mixed in.
Four pitted, red pepper-stuffed green olives.
About eighteen pita chips.
One banana.
One biscotti.
Water.
On the surface this was healthy. But the key is that most was actually processed. So what was the salt content?
One can of salmon = 697 mg (27% of daily recommended intake)
One tablespoon of mayo = 90 mg (4%)
Four olives = 400 mg (16%)
Eighteen pita chips = 480 mg (20%)
One biscotti = 40 mg (2%)
One banana = 1 mg (negligible)
Water = ? not sure what the sodium content of Montreal tap water is...
If you add it up, this lunch gave me 69% of the recommended daily allowance of sodium! Yowza. Had I bought my salmon and cooked it I could have dramatically dropped this. They mayo could have been avoided but was not a major contributor. The olives...could have looked at the labels and tried to find some that had a lower content. The chips...could have bought pita bread and baked my own. Biscotti...not a major contributor. The banana and water were the only items that were not processed in some factory.
The day before I made a lasagna for dinner. I had salt on my mind again that evening. So I looked at the salt content of the ingredients I was adding. The canned tomatoes had some, the cheese had some as did the mushroom soup and the lasagna noodles themselves. So, I did not add any salt to my sauce, nor to the water to boil the noodles. It made no difference to the taste.
Let's be aware of what is in the foods we eat and eat as little processed foods as possible. At the very least make it a habit to read labels on food.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
Comments
There's currently a campaign for Canadians to cut down on salt. See: http://www.giveyourheadashake.ca
As you mentioned, it causes so many illnesses that we should be aware of its effects.