Saaaltyyyy salty salty salty...

Really interesting article on salt in the New York Times. I skimmed most, but the first couple pages have Fun Facts!

As a demonstration, Kellogg prepared some of its biggest sellers with most of the salt removed. The Cheez-It fell apart in surprising ways. The golden yellow hue faded. The crackers became sticky when chewed, and the mash packed onto the teeth. The taste was not merely bland but medicinal.

“I really get the bitter on that,” the company’s spokeswoman, J. Adaire Putnam, said with a wince as she watched Mr. Kepplinger struggle to swallow.

They moved on to Corn Flakes. Without salt the cereal tasted metallic. The Eggo waffles evoked stale straw. The butter flavor in the Keebler Light Buttery Crackers, which have no actual butter, simply disappeared.

...

processed foods, along with restaurant meals, now account for roughly 80 percent of the salt in the American diet. The rest comes from the kitchen salt shaker or occurs naturally in food.

...

In calculating the percent of the daily recommended sodium intake in each serving, companies use the standard for healthy adults below middle age, a teaspoon of salt, or about 2,300 milligrams. But the recommendation for the vast majority of Americans — children, adults of middle age or older, all blacks and anyone with hypertension — is less than 1,500 milligrams a day.

When you make similar recipes at home, the amount of salt you use is minimal compared to these descriptions. I guess because you use more expensive ingredients. If I make cookies, for example, there's some salt in my processed ingredients (margarine) but otherwise you're putting maybe half a teaspoon. And you can eliminate that teaspoon and the cookies will still be tasty.

In something like guacamole the salt makes a big difference, but again, more than 3/4 of a teaspoon and it will taste too salty.

Shows what a difference it makes to your health to sometimes make homemade food. Or at least, you have more control and knowledge. A good reminder for me, because the more I work the more processed food I buy.

Mind you - I don't have a very discerning palate, but there are some foods that I now like much better when homemade. Hummus, cookies, granola--the store bought versions don't taste as good as they used to. Especially cookies! I'm always disappointed by processed cookies, even brands I used to love.

Mmmm. Cooookies.