{"id":20613,"date":"2016-12-24T21:20:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T21:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=20613"},"modified":"2022-12-31T12:35:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T12:35:26","slug":"salt-awareness-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=20613","title":{"rendered":"Salt Awareness Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I reckon that Salt Awareness Week ran concurrently with Clueless Week, with participants in the latter generating publicity for the former. While reading a shock-horror story about salt in crumpets, I discovered this MSN news feed on the subject and, as a chemist, immediately realised that those responsible for Salt Awareness Week \u2013 some idiots claiming to be \u2018doctors\u2019 at treated.com<\/a> \u2013 haven\u2019t got a clue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an aside, I bought some of the usual Christmas provisions from Asda this week. One item was a Gala Pie which, for anyone who doesn\u2019t know, is a bit like a pork pie with a hard boiled egg in the middle. I had a slice of it today and I can only describe the taste as something akin to eating cardboard wrapped around raw tofu. In other words, flavourless \u2013 and this is purely a result of it having no salt in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve written about salt many times before (use the site\u2019s search field to find posts), pointing out that there is no conclusive evidence that salt is bad for you unless you eat a bucket of it a day (and a bucket of spring water would also probably kill you). In most cases, my point has been that taking salt out of food renders it flavourless, since salt is a flavour enhancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current \u2018wisdom\u2019 says that you should not eat more than 6g of salt a day (around one teaspoon). Since salt is a chemical compound of sodium and chlorine, and it is the sodium which is the alleged problem, 6g of salt is equivalent to about 2.4g of sodium. But what these \u2018experts\u2019 fail to clarify or delve into is that many natural foods contain sodium in the first place. A 100g portion of virtually any fish contains at least a fifth of your daily recommended daily sodium intake (RDA). A similar portion of any cheese contains between a fifth and more than a half of your RDA. Almost any unprocessed food item contains sodium in measurable amounts, so you\u2019re going to get sodium whether you like it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without getting into the minefield of whether 6g of salt applies just to added salt or all sodium from any source, let\u2019s get back to that Salt Awareness thing. They had identified the top 20 \u2018saltiest snacks\u2019 and expressed the results \u2018per 100g. Thus, Peperami was no. 2 on the list as having 4.1g of salt. The problem is that a single Peperami only weighs 25g, and that \u2018shocking\u2019 figure assumes that you eat four of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also dissed Space Raiders Pickled Onion snacks, at no. 3,  for having 3.3g of salt. Except that a single 22g pack of these only contains about 0.6g of salt. You can see how misleading this is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At no. 14 was Babybel, those little cheese circles you can buy, with 1.8g of salt. A single Babybel weighs 22g, and so contains  only 0.4g of salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At no. 16 there was the obligatory slur on Heinz\u2019s Tomato Ketchup, also with 1.8g of salt. But a typical serving of ketchup is about the same weight as a Babybel, so again only contains 0.4g of salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And my favourite one is Dairylea Cheese Triangles, with 1.7g of salt. A single triangle weighs 17.5g, so you\u2019d have to eat almost the whole pack to be anywhere near 1.7g.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is Hellman\u2019s Mayonnaise, with 1.6g of salt. Except that depending on how you use it, a single serving of Hellman\u2019s can be as little as 10g \u2013 or less than 0.2g of salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that there are people who are so stupid as to eat ten Peperamis or half a bottle of ketchup in a single sitting is irrelevant. The fact remains that the figures provided are purposely misleading about a subject which no one understands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n