I love watching cooking shows and I make it a point to watch the shows of celebrity chefs when I have the time. I was reading about some celebrity chefs earlier when I ran across a blog post on how Jamie Oliver, one of the most popular celebrity chefs today, has launched a line of pasta sauces that contain too much salt. Apparently, parents and other concerned citizens in the UK are all in an uproar about this. But is salt really bad?
I did some reading on salt and its effects on our health and this is what I found. An entry in the Guardian blog states:
We’re used to the flavour, but our bodies only need about a single gram of salt a day. The UK’s average consumption is nearly ten times that, prompting a government health campaign - though its rather arbitrary 6g limit would bring relatively few benefits to the nation’s blood pressure.
I am assuming that high salt intake increases our blood pressure. I have heard this from lots of people before. Oh, don’t put too much salt in your food. You don’t want to increase your risk of high blood pressure. Then again, I have always liked to use salt liberally and I have not had a single episode of high blood pressure. I would like to think that it is a matter of more than our salt intake. Perhaps we should take a look at the overall picture – having a balanced diet and taking salt in moderation.
Photo courtesy of parl
译文:
盐真的对你有害吗？
我喜欢看烹饪美食节目，而且只要我一有时间，我就特别留意去看那些明星大厨们的节目。我以前曾经读过一些关于明星大厨们早期事迹的文章，那时我偶然看到一篇博客文章是介绍杰米·奥利佛是怎样推出一款含盐量很高的面食酱，杰米·奥利佛是现在最著名的明星大厨之一。很显然，英国的父母和其他相关的市民对此都引起了一片哗然。然而，盐真的不好吗？
我读过一些关于盐以及盐对我们健康作用的文章，以下就是我的发现。在《卫报》的博客中有这样的段文字：
我们习惯于调味，但我们的身体每天只需要极少量的盐。英国平均耗盐量几乎是这个数值的十倍，从而激励了政府的健康运动——尽管它有点专制地限制食盐量为6克，也只会给国民的血压带来微乎其微的好处。
我承认高摄盐量会增加我们的血压。我以前曾从很多人那里听说过此事。哦，别在你的食物中加入太多的盐。你不想增加患高血压的风险吧。然而，我已经习惯了大方地加盐，可我却从来也没有发做过一次高血压。我到情愿认为这正是因为我们摄盐量超过所需的缘故。或许我们应该从全局上来看事情——要有一个平衡的饮食，适中地食盐。
图片由parl 提供