I pay no attention to how much salt I consume. I don’t think it’s excessive, even including what’s in processed foods, but I honestly have no idea. But my sugar intake is not good, and my many attempts to limit it do not last. I think it’s sugar I’d struggle the most with.
Salt, for sure. Partly because it’s not just a matter of willfully cutting back, but the fact that so many prepared and processed foods have so much of it. Some fast-food burgers plus the fries they come with will all by themselves put you over the optimal or even the maximum daily limit of sodium. And even though I’m supposed to be on a sodium-restricted diet, I will still add salt to home cooking (e.g.- eggs) because it greatly enhances taste.
Sugar is much easier for me to avoid. All my soft drinks are sugar-free, though I get a fair dose of sugar in fruit drinks. I take only a half-teaspoon of sugar in regular coffee, and none at all in cold-brew coffee.
I’m continually being told by people that I undersalted my food. TV and online cookery content routinely uses an excessive amount of salt (often we never see anyone actually eat the meal). I think excessive salting has become normalised.
Everyone agrees Americans have too much salt in their diet.
I’m reminded of the old poem:
“I eat my peas with honey.
I’ve done it all my life.
They do taste kind of funny
But it keeps them on my knife.”
When I heard this as a kid, I asked, “If he’s cone it all his life, why would he think it tastes funny? It’s the only way he’s tasted it. He would think that was normal.”
People who think salt is necessary for everything are used to eating their peas with honey.
Salt for me. I used to be a saltaholic, but that was decades ago. For an awful lot of recipes or dishes, I leave out the salt as enough salt is usually contained in some of the ingredients. For example, I use the better than bullion chicken low salt for collard greens, and don’t add any more salt or salted meat to the dish.
For sugar, I don’t get much and generally avoid processed foods that have sugar and/or pick the brand based on the amount of sugar. If desert is ordered in a restaurant, I’ll typically have 1-2 bites and that’s it. Wierd thing, I have recently rediscovered apples. I think because I’ve been low processed sugar for so long, apples now taste really sweet to me.
I’m sure the OP was asking if it was better to eat less sugar or kill themselves.
Also the folks that insist you have to salt at various different points in cooking so the salt really gets right into the food. It’s almost entirely bullshit.
Looks like I’m going to be in the minority here. Growing up I never salted my food. Ever. It didn’t matter what I made or what I prepared, I never salted it. Everything that I ever got to eat I ate as is.
Granted I realized that other people cook with salt so I obviously can’t say I’ve never had salted food before, mom used to cook for us and I’ve had many food at restaurants and I eat a lot of processed food, pre-made food and sandwiches in the supermarkets and I used to have TV dinners to be a staple of my diet for many decades.
But I’m sure those things already have salt in them, and probably much more unhealthy things too, so my point is… I never added salt. I never got these things and added salt to them, I never prepared a TV dinner and added more salt on to it, I figured salt was already included somewhere. Same at a restaurant and same when I get a sandwich prepared from the store, I don’t go home and add salt and eat it, I just open it up and eat it or I heat it up and eat it. Mom used to put the plate in front of me and I never salted it, I would just start eating. I guess I assume she already salted it or used salt while cooking.
I doubt anybody is going to believe this, but, honestly? I can remember maybe a handful or two handfuls of times I have actually set out to salt something I was about to eat. Usually I will when I have a hard boiled egg, but I rarely eat hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes I will if I make fries up homemade, but not too often.
Again, this does not count things that salt is already automatically on or in, like the potato chips I used to eat all my life. And the snack foods, and the many other things that are salty.
But adding salt? Voluntarily? I think I’ve done it maybe eight or nine times in my life. I almost never salt food, never have, probably never will again.
…
Now sugar on the other hand, I loved baked goods, donuts, pastries, pie, cake, I drink Coke like it’s going out of style. There have been times I have drank an entire six pack of bottles in one day. I think the most recent time I did that was last week. I am definitely diabetes waiting to happen. I’m 46 years old and I don’t have it yet, but I know it’s coming any day. Sugar would be extremely hard to give up for me, I’m definitely addicted I think. When I have gone only one or two days without soda, it is pretty hard and I suffer.
I would say it’s harder for me to give up sugar, but it doesn’t seem like that’s a very popular answer in this topic.
Obviously not. But with sugar, if someone talks about “giving up sugar”, that can actually mean completely eliminating it. But it can’t mean that for salt, so “giving up” must actually mean “reduce to a significantly lower level”. But then we have to ask just what that lower level is, and that’ll make a huge difference to how easy it is to give up. And then, to be a fair question for the thread, we also have to ask how absolute the “giving up sugar” is (which is made even more complicated by the many different forms of sugar).
Most definitely, and I think this is where a lot of people make a mistake. Making it an “all or nothing” event and going cold turkey is painful, and the body often rebels. In fact, most diets fail because they involve the severe deprivation of something the body was accustomed to having. I emulate my SiL in that I eat everything, but in moderation.
salt, because i am addicted to sodium chloride
When I say I’m giving up salt, that’s misleading. I’m only cutting back a good deal. I still add a smidge to eggs or to meat or salad dressing or potatoes. Mr. brown just went to the store with orders to look for a low salt canned tomato sauce, but I know that canners often just up the citric acid to take the place of the salt as a preservative. We’ll see how that works out.
So it’s hard, but the hardest part is not going out to eat at my favorite kinds of restaurants. Even simple sandwich places use salty cold cuts, cheeses, and spreads. I guess I’m limited to undressed salads and sushi/sashimi if I go to restaurants. Good thing this low-salt experiment only lasts two months.
Yeah, I’m not giving up salt. Excessive salt will ruin a dish, but otherwise is a flavor enhancer. Sugar, on the other hand, gives me unpleasant gastric issues, as does dairy. I do just fine without it.
I wish him luck. And if he finds one, let us know.
I was just looking at Amazon. Looks like Pomi makes tomato sauce in a box that’s salt-free and citric acid-free. The only ingredient is tomatoes. I’ll look for it if Mr. brown is unsuccessful.