Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024

Should Salt Have a Place at the Table?
Salt shakers were once as much a part of a restaurant table setting as knives and forks. Now many restaurants are doing without them. Sometimes they’re absent for health reasons, but more often chefs feel the customer doesn’t need to season the food. Should dining tables always have salt shakers, or is it time to do without them?
* salt shaker = 식탁용 소금 그릇/ as much A as B = B만큼 A하다/ do wihtout ~ = ~없이 견디다(지내다)/ season = (양념을) 넣다(치다)

 소금이 식탁에서 자리를 차지해야 하나요?

1. The Chef Knows Best
Salt added at the table doesn't season the food the same as when salt is added during the cooking process. It can just make food taste salty.

2. At Restaurants, Customers Should Have Control
Even though the restaurant reflects my ethos and style, it's not always about pushing my wishes onto the customer.

3. Of Two Minds at Dinner
My husband is a salt junkie who wants shakers readily available. I rarely add salt but think chefs should be easygoing.

4. A Matter of Flavor, Not Health
There's no need to fear salt but it no more belongs on a table than do cloves or cinnamon or, for that matter, pepper.

5. Salt Is a Problem; Salt Shakers Aren’t
So much sodium enters our diet in restaurant kitchens or food processing factories that the salt we add makes little difference.

6. Season Well, but Think of Others’ Tastes
Chefs should rely on their own sense of taste. But if they know their food is mildly seasoned, they should have salt on the table, in a small dish.

Sample Essay

Salt Is a Problem; Salt Shakers Aren’t

The salt shaker is not the culprit. Only about 10 percent of the sodium in our diet comes from salt we add to food while cooking or eating. Most of the salt we consume is already in food when we buy it. In fact, foods that don’t even taste salty, like bread, are among the top sources of sodium in our diets.

People need a small amount of sodium to survive, but the levels of sodium in the American diet are by no means small. On average, Americans consume nearly 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day, over 1,000 milligrams more than the limit recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Ninety percent of Americans take in more sodium than is recommended. Researchers have estimated that if Americans on average reduced their sodium intake by 1,200 milligrams per day it would prevent up to 92,000 deaths and save up to $24 billion in health care costs annually. Because so much of this sodium enters our diet in restaurant kitchens or food processing factories, though, we’ll never get there by losing the salt shaker. It will take food companies preparing food with less sodium.

Some of the nation’s food industry leaders are doing just that. Through the National Salt Reduction Initiative, a nationwide partnership of more than 90 city and state health authorities and organizations, companies voluntarily reduce sodium levels in their products to meet agreed-upon targets. The initiative’s goal is to reduce sodium in packaged and restaurant foods by 25 percent, which would reduce the nation’s sodium intake by 20 percent and ultimately prevent tens of thousands of deaths from heart disease or stroke per year.

The best ways for individuals to cut their salt intake are to eat more fresh, unprocessed foods, and when eating packaged foods, to compare sodium levels on nutrition labels and choose those with less sodium. This is not only healthy, but also supports the food manufacturers that are the most responsible. But even more important, we need to encourage all food manufacturers and restaurants to lower sodium in packaged and prepared foods, giving all of us more control over the amount of salt in our diets. And those of us who want to sprinkle salt on our food can without guilt.