Get the Salt Out by C.N.S. Ph.D. Ann Louise Gittleman Read Free Book Online

found in commercial vinegars. Spectrum’s herbed oils (called World Cuisine Oils) also are a boon for anyone trying to reduce sodium without reducing flavor. They come in five varieties that range from aromatic garlic-herb Mediterranean Oil to an Asian Oil that is a combination of fragrant sesame oil and fiery ginger and hot pepper. Just a few drops of either anherbed oil or an herbed vinegar gives surprising punch to otherwise bland food.
One Salt Shaker.

THE PROBLEMS WITH MSG

    47When you’re looking for flavor without the salt, you might be tempted to want to use a flavor enhancer such as monosodium glutamate (MSG). MSG can fool our taste buds into thinking foods have greater flavor than they actually do, but at an unsuspected but increasingly serious price to our health, as this section will explain.
    48MSG excites not only the taste buds, it also excites nerve cells, eventually damaging and killing them. Recent scientific evidence suggests that the long-term ingestion of so-called excitotoxins like MSG contributes to the development of diseases of both the brain and nervous system. As Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., says in his book
Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
(Health Press, 1994), “The distribution of cellular damage caused by large concentrations of MSG is very similar to that seen in human cases of Alzheimer’s disease.”
    49A large and growing segment of the population— more than 25 percent, according to MSG researcher George R. Schwartz, M.D.—reacts to the amounts of MSG that are commonly added to most processed foods today. Reactions range from mild to severe and include everything from headaches to asthma and nausea to depression. Among the most disturbing symptoms MSG can cause are chest tightness and pain, heart palpitations, and other heart irregularities. Because of serious effects like these, all of us, but especially those who have heart disease, should avoid this common but hazardous food additive.
    50Like salt, MSG has the ability to mask inferior food quality and disguise food spoilage. This makes MSG a nightmare for health-conscious food consumers. Restaurants and food manufacturers can use the substance to disguise unappetizing, nutrient-poor processed foods that our sense of taste would normally tell us to avoid.
    51Naturally occurring MSG isn’t the problem that synthetic MSG is. A compound of sodium and the amino acid glutamic acid, MSG is actually found in many natural foods such as mushrooms, tomatoes, peas, and cheese. Naturally occurring MSG does not appear to cause health problems in small amounts, but isolated synthetic MSG, which is commonly added in large amounts to processed foods, clearly does.
    52Don’t forget that synthetic MSG is a source of unhealthy sodium, and its consumption has doubled every decade since the late 1940s. Although common table salt is the number-one source of unhealthy sodium in our diet, MSG is an increasingly common—and perhaps more harmful—source. To steer clear of harmful synthetic MSG, eat as many natural foods as possible. For more tips, see the Supermarket Savvy section in this chapter and Getting What You Want and Menu Savvy in chapter 9 .

HEALTHIER SALTS AND S ALTERNATIVES

    53Commercial sea salt is better to use than common table salt because it doesn’t contain the aluminum, and sugar that table salt normally contains. It does, however, have many drawbacks. Like table salt, commercial sea salt is heated at hightemperatures and refined to remove all naturally occurring minerals besides sodium and chloride. It also is treated with anti-caking agents, but the anticaking agents used are generally less toxic than those used in table salt. When buying prepared foods, choose those that contain sea salt over those that contain salt or, better yet, buy unsalted products and season them yourself with the healthier salts listed below.
    54Unrefined sea salt is a naturally occurring salt made from evaporated seawater. To distinguish unrefined sea