The daily grind
We all know that salt is bad for us. But cutting down is easier than we think, and may make our food taste better. Or so say a group of chefs intent on re-educating our palates
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Your support makes all the difference.When the chef Raymond Blanc first came to Britain, he was in for a culture shock. The British palate, he found, had become so accustomed to excess salt in processed foods that when they tasted his freshly prepared, lightly salted cooking, people found it bland.
Some years later Blanc met Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital in London, and became one of a growing band of chefs to take on board Professor MacGregor's message: that excessive salt intake is a major health problem - and that cutting it out of our diets is much easier than we believe.
Since then, Blanc has further cut the amount of salt in his cooking. "Chefs should be responsible for helping to create a healthier relationship with food," he says. "And that includes using less salt. Eighty per cent of the food we eat is processed. We may eat branded cereals every morning to give us fibre, but what we don't realise is they're full of salt and sugar."
Nick Nairn, another of Professor MacGregor's disciples (Anton Edelmann is also among their number), has gone one step further: he cooks with no salt. And he believes that, as a result, the meals he prepares - and eats - taste far superior. "My taste buds are now more attuned to the different nuances and subtleties of food," he says.
Nairn's decision to eschew the kitchen's most widely used flavour enhancer came about three years ago. He went to a lecture given by Professor MacGregor entitled Neptune's Poison Chalice. "I had no idea until I heard Professor MacGregor speak just how bad salt is for you," Nairn says.
Nairn ran two of Scotland's leading restaurants, Braeval and Nairns, and now heads Nairns Cook School in Port of Menteith, Stirling. He is perhaps best known for his regular appearances on the BBC show Ready Steady Cook.
Professor MacGregor's revelations shook Nairn into drastic action. "I decided that day I would no longer put salt in my cooking. I went cold turkey." The professor listed the ailments caused by too much salt in the diet. As well as high blood pressure, he spoke about water retention leading to weight gain (particularly in women), kidney disease and cancer of the stomach.
A recent World Health Organisation report highlights that high blood pressure is responsible for half of all cardiovascular deaths. That means it accounts for about 125,000 UK deaths annually. Professor MacGregor has shown that if all adults halve their salt intake from the current 10-12 grams per day to 5-6g, the number of UK stroke and heart-attack deaths would fall by 35,000 a year.
The figure of 6g per day is the one the Government has set as a target. On 16 June, Melanie Johnson, the public health minister, wrote to food manufacturers and supermarkets urging them to reduce the salt content in their products. There's no doubt that there is a direct link between high blood pressure and the explosion in the manufacture of processed foods, nearly all of which are very high in salt.
Nairn probably consumes 2-3g per day as a result of eating foods in which salt is naturally present, such as meat and fish, and some processed ingredients, like cheese, Parma ham and smoked salmon. He eats no convenience foods. The only time he uses a little salt is when he makes bread.
While Nairn took the decision to cut salt from his diet for health reasons, he quickly discovered another benefit - greatly improved flavour in the food he prepares. "After two to three weeks there was a noticeable difference, for the better. Now I can pick up interesting subtleties of flavour that are generally blunted by too much salt. I can eat mashed potato, with no added salt, and tell what variety of potato has been used. The subtle flavours of different fish are sensational without salt."
Nairn is often asked what he uses in place of salt to prevent his food tasting bland. "My answer is that you don't have to replace it with anything. As long as you use good quality, fresh ingredients, you'll taste the natural flavours of meat, fish and vegetables. But, of course, I understand where people are coming from. During the first couple of weeks of giving up salt, food does taste bland, but once your taste buds adjust, a different world will open up." But he does suggest that a sprinkle of lemon juice will enhance the flavour of ingredients, as will the use of fresh herbs, garlic, ginger and chillies.
When teaching, Nairn explains his thoughts on the health hazards of salt and how cutting it out improves flavour. "However, I can't expect the students to taste my food without adding any salt, if that is what they are used to."
But he is determined to keep his own young family - Daisy, two, and Callum, six weeks - away from salt for as long as possible. "The other day, Daisy was offered crisps. I launched myself across the room to prevent her from having any. My wife Holly tells me I need to chill out, but I'm determined to keep the children away from salt until they are old enough to make up their minds, with all the facts. What they've never had, they won't miss."
Nairn warns that anyone who does cut back on salt will soon find that most food seems to be over-salted. "Eating in restaurants is now a real problem for me. Nearly everything tastes as though it is heavily salted."
Other chefs, though, find it difficult to change the habits of a lifetime. "I have been cooking for 40 years now, and I truly believe that you need to have some salt in food to lift the flavours," says Brian Turner, the chef-patron of Brian Turner Mayfair in London, who also appears alongside Nairn on Ready Steady Cook. "I agree that we need to cut back on salt for health reasons. However, I think the emphasis should be on getting people to cut back on eating processed foods altogether and encouraging them to cook fresh food - albeit with a little bit of salt in."
For Professor MacGregor, salt - in the quantities we now take it - is a long-term toxin that slowly puts up our blood pressure as we age. "We were not designed to eat all this salt, but it was found to have the magic property of preserving food. But with refrigeration, this function of salt is no longer necessary. Our bodies only require about one-quarter of a gram of salt per day, and that can be found naturally in foods without adding any extra."
Professor MacGregor does not add salt to food, and finds eating over-salted food "very unpleasant". He advises anyone who wants to reduce their salt intake to follow a three-pronged approach. First, do not add salt to your food at the table. This also means cutting out, or cutting back on, sauces such as tomato ketchup and soy sauce, which are generally packed with salt.
Second, don't add salt to cooking. This includes water used for vegetables, pasta and rice. Avoid stock cubes and gravy browning; both are very high in salt. Try flavourings such as fresh herbs and spices (although some curry powders contain salt), mustard powder (but avoid prepared mustard), lime and lemon juice, vinegar, wines, onions, garlic, ginger and chillies.
Third, avoid manufactured or processed foods which have added salt. There is a large amount of salt in processed foods: for example, the main source of salt in the British diet comes from bread and some breakfast cereals. Basically, avoid foods that contain more than 0.2g of sodium per 100g of food and choose foods that contain less than 0.1g of sodium per 100g.
That reducing salt can improve one's enjoyment of food is a difficult concept to grasp, but Professor MacGregor suggests that people think of it same way as giving up sugar in tea or coffee. "Once you stop adding sugar to tea, you can actually start to distinguish between different varieties of tea and coffee," he says. "Giving up salt is just the same - it will introduce you to a whole new set of wonderful flavours, as well as improve your health."
The facts
Processed foods are by far the biggest source of salt. Stick to home-cooked foods.
Most food labels list the amount of sodium, not salt. You need to multiply the sodium by 2.5: so, bread with 0.4g of sodium per 100g contains 1g of salt per 100g.
Foods to watch are white bread (0.5g per slice) and baked beans (1g per 100g). A portion of Bird's Eye cod in parsley sauce contains 1g. A 150g serving of Marks & Spencer Rich Onion Gravy gives you 2g of salt. Cereals are among the worst culprits: a 30g serving of cornflakes contains 0.9g salt. Prepared sandwiches often contain more than half the recommended 6g daily serving of salt.
Fresh food is lower in salt. A 100g serving of fresh fish or chicken contains 0.125g of salt, while a 100g serving of fruit or vegetables has just 0.025g.
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