Salt

[somewhereintheworld]

I don't use salt at all in my cooking. I know a lot of it is bad for your blood pressure, but I'm now thinking maybe we need a little bit. What does everyone else do?

I don’t often add salt but I do use ingredients like stock cubes, cheese or chorizo that have plenty of salt in, so I don’t need to add salt separately. I do add salt to pasta water and steak and also some recipes where I’m not using anything else salty - like curries.

I find that food can be tasteless without salt - spuds, pasta & rice especially so.

I'm on BP meds, but without salt I get night cramps in my legs.
Everything in moderation.

You definitely do need salt in your diet but I reckon most people will get enough from any pre prepared food they buy

Oh yes potatoes! Mash and baked potatoes definitely need salt.

I agree - up to a point.
People who are concerned about what they are eating will probably not consume much pre-prepared food..

Yeah. We buy the basic goods and cook from scratch. It takes a bit of extra effort but the benefits include delicious salty butter and proper sea salt in cooking.

bliss.

I try for a 3 day fast every now and again and one of the worries of doing this is salt levels dropping.

The easy solution to this is electrolyte fizzy tablets, but I am trying to eat clean and these are highly processed so i wanted a different solution. I asked ChatGTP

ChatGTP suggested I try a pinch of salt in my black coffee. I was skeptical, but found I really like it!

When I'm not fasting I don't add salt when cooking or eat anything processed, so have the same low salt worries. I therefore add a pinch of salt to one or two of my coffees every day.

I go for "lo-salt" sometimes, especially for stuff that needs a lot of salt, like homemade bread or if it's going to dissolve. I use stock cubes and don't usually salt anything that has stock cubes/cheese/bacon in it. Anything that needs salt as an external feature that you taste directly I use flakey sea salt for.

I rarely add salt into recipes, like curries/bolognaise etc. I do like a little bit on eggs

Like a pp, I do use stock cubes, cheese and other salty ingredients so guess we aren’t exactly salt free!

By pre prepared food I don’t just mean ready meals and UPF though. Ketchup, soy sauce, cured meats, smoked fish, cheese, sausages, salted butter, some tinned pulses and veg. All of these are pre prepared foods with salt in. Bread has salt added - even if you make your own it needs salt.

Hats off to anyone who uses zero pre prepared ingredients.

I use salt. Food without salt is always lacking in my opinion. I alter if using salty cheese, or stock cubes etc. But eggs, potatoes and pasta are all bland without. Heck, I've even added it to sweet dishes like chocolate mousse. I dont eat many upf foods, so little to no shop bought bread, no cereals (I eat porridge), no shop bought sauces appart from the occasional squirt of ketchup. The salt i bought on holiday in August is still foing strong, so I don't think we are excessive on our use.

No BP problems.

If you want to use it, why not add somw to your water next time you're making pasta/rice/potatoes?

I read years ago that 1 slice of commercially made bread has enough salt for a day! Not sure how true that is though.

My grandparents used to add salt to ALL boiled vegetables, then sprinkle a very liberal amount of the actual food also. They lived to be 89 and 102!

I don't add salt when cooking, but do like it on chips. You'd have to be eating everything from scratch to not be getting salt in your diet.

There is salt and salt.

Table salt (sodium chloride) I would never add to food. Real salt as in sea salt or rock salt, I add liberally to taste. Real salt is less processed and contains loads of other trace minerals which we are often lacking.

I never used to add salt to meals only a little in water when boiling veg but now I need a high salt diet so I add it to all sorts , my favourite is honey on toast with a crunchy layer of maldon.

I use salt. I used to get awful headaches and exhaustion after exercise but now I don’t since I salt my food.

Drink plenty of water and don’t eat loads of processed food then adding salt is fine within reason.

If you weigh out a weeks worth of salt intake into a smaller container it’s quite a lot, you could easily use it over a few weeks for all your meals for multiple people.

I stopped using salt in my cooking when weaning my baby, and it was several weeks before I realised why I was feeling slightly nauseous all the time. So I had to secretly eat medicinal crisps when he wasn't looking.

I don't add salt and do sometimes wonder if my food is bland to others.

I find most processed food and some restaurant meals too salty, as I'm not used to it.

Oh I love salt. My fave is those really salty special butters you get! Like pp I use rock salt, or Himalayan salt, and to me it is a natural product to enjoy in moderation, many things don’t taste remotely the same without salt. Thinking eggs and lentils, there’s more I’m sure. I don’t add a huge amount when cooking but more likely to grind a bit on the finished meal. My bp always perfect so far.

I don't tend to add plain salt to cooking (force of habit since having DC), but do add things like stock or soy sauce. DH and I will salt food at the table to our own taste if it needs it though and we aren't UPF-free.

Every time I've done 5:2 or fast-800 type calorie restriction I've had to consciously up my salt intake or I've had horrific headaches.

I like the idea of medicinal crisps.

I eat medicinal chocolate as it helps with low mood. I'm not depressed, so it obviously works.

I switched to low salt.

I try to eat healthily but still have some things that are not. Think I'll try a pinch of salt and see how it goes. Thanks for all your answers.

I find adding salt just makes things taste salty! I know its supposed to bring out the flavour of food but my tastebuds just cant detect that!

Get yourself some Cornish smoked salt and some Maldon flakes. Add to everything and enjoy.

If you don't add a decent dash of salt to boiling vegetables, all you do (because of osmosis) is draw the salts and minerals in the veg out into the cooking water.

You need a decent dash of salt. A very small amount of that will penetrate the veg; the vast majority gets poured away down the sink. But it stops the goodness of the veg being drawn out into unsalted water.