Shedding fat and staying fit: shake out the salt
You may have long since forgotten what food tastes like when it hasn't been doused with sugar or salt. But it wouldn't be your fault: For decades, commercially prepared processed foods haven't given you much choice. As you'll see when we learn about label reading, it's sometimes hard to find a brand-name food whose list of ingredients doesn't include an "-ose" (meaning sugar) or a "sodium" (usually sodium chloride, which is common table salt). In fact, no alleged "taste enhancer" is added to foods more frequently than salt.
Let's clarify these two important terms, sodium and salt. Though often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, these aren't actually the same. One, however, is a component of the other: Sodium accounts for about 40 percent of sodium chloride, which we know as table salt.
If you're like most Americans, you've probably been consuming far more salt than your body needs without ever being aware of it. For one thing, reaching for the saltshaker may be so routine by now that you just sprinkle away before you've even tasted what's on your plate. Then, of course, there's the problem with "convenience" foods: Far too much salt - as well as other sodium compounds, such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), baking soda, or sodium nitrate - may already have been added to these items, even if you don't add any more yourself.
Does it matter? If it tastes fine the way it comes out of the can, should you be concerned? As you've seen with every other nutrient we've covered, there's a good and a bad side to nearly everything we eat. We need small amounts of essential fats, and you'll see that protein is necessary in modest amounts. The problem is that we consume too much of what we need, and so it is with salt: The human body does need a small amount of sodium, but when it gets too much of it in the form of salt - sodium chloride - serious problems can ensue.
But before we get to the serious health risks that excess dietary salt can create, let's savor the good news just a little longer: Fresh, minimally processed, healthy food actually has more taste - more specific, natural taste - than over-salted or highly processed food. That's because the real flavor of each different food comes through. Let's face it: All over-salted food tastes the same - salty! But fresh foods that aren't masked with a lot of sodium-based "flavor enhancers," such as salt or MSG, have a distinct, wonderful taste of their own - which will come as a delightful surprise to anyone who's never eaten this way before.
Foods like corn on the cob without salt and butter are an entirely new experience: They're deliciously naturally sweet. Vegetables like broccoli, squash, spinach, and carrots all have subtle flavors you may never have fully enjoyed - until you put down the salt. And the lovely nuttiness of whole-grain bread and pasta doesn't need any "enhancing" at all, least of all with salt, which only masks the natural sweetness of these healthy foods. (In fact, the highly corrosive properties of salt can damage your taste buds as well, making it all the more difficult to really taste what you're eating. Removing the excess salt from your diet will help change all that.)
When you do want to add some "zip" to foods, though, you've got any number of options apart from salt. Healthy cuisine is definitely not drab! Spices, herbs, and condiments are exciting elements of cooking and are yours to use with as much imagination as you've got. But if you've relied on salt or other sodium-based seasonings for a long time, you might want to start out by tasting the unadorned foods themselves, undoctored by anything - perhaps for the first time in your life.