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Adding salt to your woes
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Health It’s time to overlook junk food and fill your palate with fresh and healthy stuff
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Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Food habits Watch your platter before eating
Pythagoras rightfully said bygone era’s ago-“Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea!” This era of liberation, modernization, cross-cultural exchange through media and travel has brought about a sea change in life
styles and behaviour. An increased dependence on packaged and canned foods and readymade mixes is a direct offshoot of the exercise of double income families racing against time. But in all this a healthy body has been given a toss. Instant foods with instant sauce have replaced the age-old method of slow fire cooking and ground chutneys. Any packaged or preserved food is high in sodium content and a long-term effect shows on the health of the consumer.
Sound advice
“Salt cellars on dining table are a big no-no these days. Sprinkling it on salads or yoghurt is being discouraged by the medical fraternity,” says Kranti, a health conscious homemaker.
According to a research, reducing the amount of salt that children eat could help them from growing into obese adults. Adults have already been through their life by eating more salt but now as responsible parents they should see that they reduce their salt intake and discourage their kids too from indulging in high salt snacks like chips and crispies to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and obesity, along with other serious repercussions like the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Nambiar, a city-based physician, insists that low-salt foods should become a way of life rather than a choice. “An adult should not consume more than two or three grams of salt a day. It also depends on climatic conditions and the type of work one is into, as it accounts for the loss of salt through sweat.”
Avoid spice
Salt in the body is as important as air or water. It helps maintain the correct balance of water in and around the cells and tissues, function of the nerve fibres and digestion of food.
“Low sodium diet is good but one should never go overboard and opt for a ‘no sodium diet’ as it could lead to de-hydration and the patient could collapse,” says Manisha, a home science graduate.
Salt is a natural preservative and it inhibits the growth of bacteria and molds. We Indians just can’t do without the home made hot and spicy pickles and appadams. The adage ‘all things in moderation’ holds true for salt consumption. Sea salt is often sold for use as a condiment but the usage has trickled down from food to the production of bath salts and cosmetics.
Standing at a roadside chaat kiosk, amidst mouthfuls of paapdi, Sunipa, a perky collegian gushes: “Chaat is almost a staple died for me and my friends. This is the age when one can afford to be a foodie. I have left the rest into the hands of the destiny and my doctors.”
That’s precisely what a fix of salt and chatpati chaat does to the youth of today.
HARJEET KAUR ALLAGH
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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