Salt is not the enemy

Katerina Pavlakis written by

Why everything you've heard about salt might be wrong

Who is still afraid of salt?

I often get questions about using salt in cooking. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it necessary?

It's one of my bugbear subjects, so it's high time I wrote a blog about it!

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Unravelling the Misconception

Here's the thing everyone's missing: When we blame foods 'high in fat and salt' for our health problems, we're pointing fingers at the wrong culprit.

Yes, some foods are unreasonably high in salt. But they're almost exclusively ultra-processed foods - the stuff made in factories that you buy in packets. Not your home cooking.

Meanwhile, salt (along with fat, acid, sweet and heat) is one of the main factors that brings out flavour in food (I wrote about it here.) Adding a pinch of salt to your food as it cooks is essential to make flavours sing.

Indeed, as most chefs will tell you, the most common 'culinary crime' in home kitchens is failing to add enough salt.

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Where 'too much' salt really comes from

And guess what: The data confirms the truth about our sodium intake patterns. 

In the UK alone, over 60% of average daily salt intake comes from processed foods! And only around 18% originates from 'discretionary' sources such as salt added during cooking or at the table.

This flips the script completely!

I find it misleading that the public conversation always revolves around avoiding salt at home, which inevitably leads to bland and tasteless meals.

Which in turn feeds our perception of home-cooked food as forever boring while processed foods continue to deceive our senses as the super yummy stuff you can't stop eating and can't get anywhere else except from that branded packet.

The data is very clear: the most effective way of reducing your intake of salt, by far, is cutting down on processed foods and taking control of our own cooking.

There is no need to avoid salt when cooking at home.

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Science moves faster than public awareness

Keep in mind that nutrition science and medicine are constantly evolving fields.

New insights take time to filter down into mainstream recommendations (the data says as long as 17 years!).

Consider this historical perspective: before fridges and freezers became commonplace, people consumed a lot more salt through eating cured and fermented foods, yet the epidemic of chronic disease, including high blood pressure is a recent phenomenon. More recent research suggests that sugar might play a more significant role than salt when it comes to negative health effects.

Salt is hugely important for the body's most basic functions, as it regulates what goes in and out every single cell.

If sodium levels fall fall too low, there can be serious consequences such as collapse or even death (my mum recently ended up on a sodium drip in hospital… turns out her medication was depleting her sodium levels.)

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The Body's Balancing Act

The body has a remarkable system for managing sodium through multiple sophisticated mechanisms. While excess sodium can be efficiently eliminated through urine, no such regulatory process exists for sugar.

This delicate balance relies heavily on other minerals, particularly magnesium and potassium. When we're short on these minerals, we may appear to have 'too much' sodium, when the real issue is a mineral imbalance.

Fresh foods, especially vegetables abundant in magnesium and potassium, can help restore this delicate balance. Unfortunately, diets rich in processed foods usually lack these vital nutrients.

Also keep in mind that table salt has been refined to only contain 'purified' sodium chloride (along with additives), while natural salts like unrefined sea salt, kosher salt or Himalayan pink salt contain additional minerals that help balance sodium in the body.

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Trust your Taste

So please do yourself a favour and keep the salt pot in your kitchen.

You deserve to cook and eat tasty food!

Always 'salt to taste' - we all have our own perception of what is enough, and what is too much.

Add a little at a time, and keep tasting.

You are aiming for 'salted' not 'salty' - you want to taste the flavours coming alive, not buried in too much salt.

You'll know it when you taste it - trust your instincts!#

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PS. In my Effortless Cooking Workshop I walk you though a simple and fun 'taste exercise' to help you experience the impact of salt on flavour, without the fear of ruining your dinner.

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Categories: : (RE)THINK