This is a timely thread; we've recently started being a lot more aware of the sodium content in everyday food, and it really is pretty shocking. My partner and I are vegetarians, and I'm essentially a vegan, so we mostly cook at home and don't use a lot of salt. BUT as soon as you take a look at even the most ordinary (ie, not necessarily or obviously "junk" like chips, etc.) packaged foodstuffs it becomes apparent that you have to be really careful, especially if your health requires you to limit your salt intake...it's in EVERYTHING, as is corn syrup: which is just madness, but extremely lucrative madness for certain unscrupulous people.

My theory is that although people in the western world are generally terribly overfed, we've developed a culture where a lot of that feeding is done in the form of fast food, take-out, and processed convenience items that can be prepared with a minimum of time or effort and eaten in front of the TV...people's taste buds get beaten into submission by the high sodium content in these products, and pretty soon "taste" means either "salty" or "sweet." More subtle flavors just can't stand up to the wallop of 950mg of sodium...lemon grass, what lemon grass?

I do realize that I just made a whole heap of sweeping generalizations in that last sentence, but I think the point is a valid one, especially when it comes to the foods that kids tend to clamor for (with the encouragement of the afore-mentioned TV). One wonders where it will all end...I saw an ad for a sectional sofa that had a built-in cooler between two of the seats; if they could just include a microwave oven and a catheter in the design, we'd never have to get up at all!

~D