I like salt. I have both a sweet tooth and a salty tooth. I prefer tortilla chips that are extra-salty. I sprinkle extra salt on my fries. Etc.
So when I read articles like this, about the growing effort by the Health Experts to impose restrictions on salt in food — it makes my blood pressure rise (leading to adverse health effects, so watch it, guys).
Do I eat too much salt? Well, my blood pressure is generally pretty good, all things considered. So why should the AMA be trying to get the FDA to make salt into, essentially, a harmful additive that needs to be regulated “for my own good”?
And, as Luddite as it sounds, I just don’t trust the Health Experts. Look at what’s gone around and around over the past decades as to what kind of “fats” are good for you, bad for you, possibly good for you, maybe bad for you, oh wait good for you again, or not bad for you, or … I mean, if someone tomorrow posted a study that shows low-sodium diets caused the development of cancerous third eyeballs and so we should all eat more salt, I would not in the least be shocked.
Educate people, dammit. Let them make their own decisions. Play guilt trips on them, if you want (“Think of your loved ones …and consider the burden on national insurance rates …”). But don’t play Big Mommy on me and lock away the salt shaker “for my own good.” I think that’s something I can be informed and judge for myself.
(via Les, who has some choice comments of his own)