Salt does make things tastier.
The usual scolds from the CSPI show up naturally.
Salt is good. More salt is better.
I don’t know how I feel about this. While on one hand, of course everyone is free to choose (or not choose) any product they wish. However, the average person consumes a great deal more sodium per day than they realize and hypertension and obesity (and all its related health issues) are at alarming rates in this country. Canned soups, in particular, are notorious villains in the amazingly-high sodium-content food product-onslaught that is everywhere in our 21st-century connected world. A single serving will often give a person more than HALF of their entire day’s worth of recommended sodium intake (which the FDA is considering cutting drastically from 2400mg/day to 1500mg/day).
People often think of soup as a healthy alternative to bad food choices. And in many respects, it can be. But the ridiculous, completely out-of-proportion sodium content of the average canned soup, IMO, weighs heavily against any health benefit that may have been reaped. Sure, people can still go buy this salt-laden crap but market it as what it is; good-tasting but not wholesome. More of an indulgence, a convenience.
How does sodium cause obesity? I don’t think it does except in certain special cases where water retention (not real obesity) is a pronounced risk (HRT patients seems to show up as an example).
A little salt subtly enhances all the other flavors found in food, and is an essential component to any dish.
A lot of salt just makes things salty. And if that’s the only good flavor your food has going for it, then it’s not very good food.
I didn’t say it did but it does led to hypertension and hypertension and obesity are highly correlated so it relates to the overall issue.
The question then becomes whether the original Campbell’s formulations had “a lot” of salt, or whether the reduced sodium versions had “less than a little/enough.” The market apparently punished Campbell’s by voting the latter.
But (one might argue) maybe the American palate is skewed by a couple decades of excessive salt? It’s not impossible, but I think I’m a pretty good control as I went a good number of years with no added salt in my food and using low sodium/natural products due to family members being diagnosed with high blood pressure. I’m pretty sensitive to too much salt (and I cringe when I see people salting salad, pizza, burgers). But I thought the original formula of the Wolfgang Puck tomato soup (Campbell’s high-end offering) was just right, and had plenty of flavors other than “salty.” I think lowering the salt would have made it, well, less good (I forget if they actually changed the Puck soups or not).
Well, I know that my gramma’s tomato soup was excellent, significantly better than Campbell’s, despite having only a small fraction of the salt. And I’m sure many other folks could say the same thing. Now, obviously Campbell’s isn’t using Gramma’s recipe, and maybe theirs really does need all the salt they put in. But that gets back to my point that if that’s the only flavor you have, it’s not very good.
Can’t somebody who thinks their soup isn’t salty enough add more salt a lot easier than somebody who thinks their soup is too salty can take the salt out? So it seems like this choice is just alienating customers, because the “pro-salt” people can add salt to their existing soup, but with the change, the “anti-salt” people won’t be able to eat it.
Gramma’s tomato soup probably used fresher ingredients and didn’t need to be masked by oversalting and high fructose corn syrup. One can get canned tomatoes with no salt added. Brands that use low-heat pasteurization have the best flavor.
CA salt can be added at the end, but it is not the same. Salt added during the cooking process flavors every bit of the meal more completely and evenly than adding when eating. That said, canned soups are notoriously high in sodium, as are most processed foods.
I never ate canned soups as an adult because they all tasted like crap, salty or saltless, and I LURVES me some soup! We are gonna be making corn chowder tomorrow, my job will involved grilling the corn to give it a nice smoky flavor. Mmmmm. So there’s the whole crappy taste thing.
Why does Campbells have to add it? Why can’t you just put it in yourself?
Well, they still have their “lower sodium” varieties, right? And they’re not adding salt to THOSE, are they?
It’s like “V8”. This is a product that is aggressively marketed as a health-concious food-choice. But this vegetable juice blend also has around 1000mg of sodium per serving-not exactly what you find when you are truly on the road to improved health (which is pretty much the only reason people buy the stuff). And why is all that sodium even needed? They offer a low-sodium variety of V8 that tastes pretty much the same as the “hypertension in a bottle” original. I think it’s similar with the soups. One’s palate quickly adjusts to the “norm” and having modestly lower sodium-content in soups (not as an option, just the “norm”) would not even be noticed.
Wife says, “Salt is why God gave us kidneys.”
Tip to reduce your sodium intake: Use popcorn salt. It’s ground finer so when you add it to something you are about to eat a little goes farther.
The article says it’s only for the “Select Harvest” brand. The kind that looks like this. They’re not adding salt to their regular soup or their healthy soups or any of their other soups.
But that doesn’t make for an interesting story.
See post #10.
We’re trying to reduce our sodium intake, but I don’t want to cook every damned thing we eat from scratch, so I’m very glad to see more lower sodium choices for prepared foods. It’s true what everyone says, that when you start eating lower sodium, regular foods start tasting too salty. They can take more sodium out of a lot more things as far as I’m concerned.
All true. If I can make it from tomato paste or even fresh tomatoes, far better.
It is just the season here for the Romas to ripen. There will obviously be no sugar or HFCS (though in defense of Campbell’s, Wolfgang Puck included no extra sugar/HFCS)
I’m one who noticed that Campbell’s was missing something. If it was salt, them so be it. I’ll admit that I did explore other soup brands in an effort to find the flavour that I expected from a soup.