- Apr 14, 2003
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Where I live, local conservatives were furious when some cities tried to ban large sodas. It's none of the government's business, they said.
I don't really agree, but I'm going to change the subject from sugar to salt.
When I was a college student, I remember going to a local mall and buying a bag of popcorn. Sitting on a bench munching popcorn, I realized that my mouth was puckered up. I could only eat half a bag of popcorn because it had way too much salt on it.
I am very fond of nuts, especially cashews. Pouring a can of nuts into a pan, I often spoon them into a second pan. Then I hold the first pan over the trash to dump excess salt. After doing this several times, I am able to remove noticeable amounts of salt that I never wanted in the first place.
My elderly relatives told me years ago that they like soup but they can't eat soup from the grocery store. It simply has too much salt.
My doctor has told me that I will live longer if I lower my blood pressure. (Many people have blood pressure much higher than mine.) While exercise helps, lowering salt intake is the best dietary measure to lower blood pressure. The problem is that most of the salt that people eat doesn't come out of the salt shaker. Most salt intake comes from restaurant food and from canned food and other packaged foods.
It is perfectly normal for canned soup contain almost 40% of a person's recommended daily intake of sodium. Worse, even that often assumes that you will eat only half a can in one day. Completely unrealistic for me. Almost 40% of your recommended sodium intake becomes almost 80% if you eat the whole can.
I bought a 26 oz can of Cream of Mushroom soup, store brand. The label says it has 38% of the recommended daily sodium intake, but it also says that the can has eight servings. If you eat the whole can, that's 300% of the recommended daily sodium intake--in a single meal! Your day's total intake could easily be up to 400%, or four times what you need.
Looking up low salt soup on the internet, I learned that you can buy low salt Chicken Noodle Soup. Yet there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of soups on the market. If you want low salt soup, Chicken Noodle Soup seems to be the only game in town.
There is a sad story on Campbell's Soup and salt. Several years ago, Campbell announced that they were lowering the salt content of their soups. Two or three years later they announced that the low salt strategy wasn't selling soup. Campbell's raised the salt content again.
Just think if all of the soup sold was low salt. If people want more salt for the taste, all they would have to do is add it and stir. It's common sense. It's easy to add salt but once it gets mixed in, there is no practical way to remove it.
Lowering salt intake is a much better way to lower blood pressure than taking expensive drugs. These drugs may have unwanted side effects as well.
On salt, and possibly sugar, the free market has not been a resounding success. We aren't making our own decisions, corporations are making them for us. Producers and retailers are making bad decisions en masse. We do need regulation.
I don't really agree, but I'm going to change the subject from sugar to salt.
When I was a college student, I remember going to a local mall and buying a bag of popcorn. Sitting on a bench munching popcorn, I realized that my mouth was puckered up. I could only eat half a bag of popcorn because it had way too much salt on it.
I am very fond of nuts, especially cashews. Pouring a can of nuts into a pan, I often spoon them into a second pan. Then I hold the first pan over the trash to dump excess salt. After doing this several times, I am able to remove noticeable amounts of salt that I never wanted in the first place.
My elderly relatives told me years ago that they like soup but they can't eat soup from the grocery store. It simply has too much salt.
My doctor has told me that I will live longer if I lower my blood pressure. (Many people have blood pressure much higher than mine.) While exercise helps, lowering salt intake is the best dietary measure to lower blood pressure. The problem is that most of the salt that people eat doesn't come out of the salt shaker. Most salt intake comes from restaurant food and from canned food and other packaged foods.
It is perfectly normal for canned soup contain almost 40% of a person's recommended daily intake of sodium. Worse, even that often assumes that you will eat only half a can in one day. Completely unrealistic for me. Almost 40% of your recommended sodium intake becomes almost 80% if you eat the whole can.
I bought a 26 oz can of Cream of Mushroom soup, store brand. The label says it has 38% of the recommended daily sodium intake, but it also says that the can has eight servings. If you eat the whole can, that's 300% of the recommended daily sodium intake--in a single meal! Your day's total intake could easily be up to 400%, or four times what you need.
Looking up low salt soup on the internet, I learned that you can buy low salt Chicken Noodle Soup. Yet there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of soups on the market. If you want low salt soup, Chicken Noodle Soup seems to be the only game in town.
There is a sad story on Campbell's Soup and salt. Several years ago, Campbell announced that they were lowering the salt content of their soups. Two or three years later they announced that the low salt strategy wasn't selling soup. Campbell's raised the salt content again.
Just think if all of the soup sold was low salt. If people want more salt for the taste, all they would have to do is add it and stir. It's common sense. It's easy to add salt but once it gets mixed in, there is no practical way to remove it.
Lowering salt intake is a much better way to lower blood pressure than taking expensive drugs. These drugs may have unwanted side effects as well.
On salt, and possibly sugar, the free market has not been a resounding success. We aren't making our own decisions, corporations are making them for us. Producers and retailers are making bad decisions en masse. We do need regulation.