Believe it or not, we do not need any added salt in our food at all. We do not even need any monosodium glutamate (MSG) added. We have heard that salt and MSG are flavour enhancers, in fact I would agree they do. They do have an effect of making the food more flavourful, more palatable and have a better mouthfeel. In short, foods taste better.

However, you must know that we can get both sodium and glutamate in natural foods, such as vegetables, fruits and meat. If we can get them from the food we eat, why do we need to add more of them into our diet? Furthermore we know that salt is one of the culprits that causes hypertension. Meanwhile, there has not been extensive scientific research done on the health effects by MSG.

GLUTAMATE

According to data from the seminar I attended yesterday, glutamate is naturally found in many foods such as foods high in protein, mushrooms and scallops.

We can get 140 mg of glutamate in per 100 g of fish, tomatoes and mushrooms. Surprisingly, walnuts has as high as 658 mg of glutamate per 100 g and Parmesan cheese - 1200 mg per 100g!

SODIUM

As for sodium, the most common is the table salt that we use for cooking. Processed foods has an abundant of it, while fresh foods has much lesser. Sodium is usually found in a bound form, where Na+ attaches itself to other elements or molecules.

Even baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has sodium, so it means all bakery products already has lots of sodium even though there are no added salt. No wonder cornflakes are no longer really healthy even though we are made to believe so.

The preservative sodium benzoate used for preserving meat products such as sausages also has bound sodium. With more salt added to enhance flavour, you can figure how much sodium you get from just one sausage.

According to the data I get from the talk, one teaspoon of soy sauce has 340 mg of sodium; one teaspoon of MSG has 615 mg of sodium and even one tablespoon of chilli sauce has 200 mg of sodium!

Do you ever think you can escape from salt? No way. Anyway, our body needs salt, but research has shown that we only need 100 mg per day to function.

When we eat more salt, our poor body has to regulate the excess salt and can tolerate up to 2000 mg without adverse effects. But, why put our body through such abuse? We are killing ourselves softly, isn’t it?

Went to a seminar on food senses on saturday with my classmates. I was hoping I could learn something from there. However, the first talk was rather disappointing because it sounded more like an advertisement. The whole talk is just on marketing that product by the company who sponsored the talk, even though the professor did it subtly. Yah, to think that the speaker was a professor. Was feeling rather cheated by the end of the first talk.

So during the second talk, I wasn’t really paying attention already. It was a cooking demonstration actually. Though the recipes sounds nice and smelled nice, but was rather put off by another advertising talk by the chef who was demonstrating.

Come to think of it, maybe because the ideas they are presenting is against what I believe in, and it was contrary to what I’ve learnt before this.

We get to taste the food that was cooked, but then it was cold by the time we get it, so it doesn’t taste nice anymore. On my way out to get more fruits, I met another two of my classmates. Was so happy then, because haven’t seen them for some time.

We stayed on, despite some other people leaving during the break. Luckily we did, because I felt I learnt far more from the last two talks. Instead of being contrary to my belief, it strengthen my belief of not needing any added salt in our food.

From the answer I get from the questions I asked the professor and one of the nutrition consultant, they further confirmed my belief that we do not need to add salt into our cooking and food.

Will update more on the significant things I’ve learnt from the seminar in the next post.

My good friends treated me to dinner at Thai Express, savouring super hot tom yam soup and fragrant green curry. The kangkung we had was also very nicely fried.

I was surprised the creamy and milky looking bowl of soup which looked more like a dessert with coconut milk, tasted exactly like tom yam soup, except that it is creamier. At first we even thought the waitress gave us the wrong order. However, it turned out to be really nice.

Never had that before and this was my first time tasting this. Of course it is a new discovery for me.

Some of you may think it is rather stupid, but to me, I am delighted to discover new things everyday. By consciously being aware of the new things that I’ve discovered everyday, I realised that I become more observant and sharpen my senses.

To my dear friends who treated me to the special dinner, was very touched and thanks so much!