This is not a sudden influx....happens every year!....and I agree on hospital and nursing home food. I haven't eaten there in a while and I hear the new cook is lots better, but a local retirement center/nursing home's food is so salty I can scarcely eat it! When my Mother in law was a resident, I complained and was told they added no salt to anything...guessing the vegetables they bought and the soup bases were to blame

It's the same the world over, sadly.

I never eat in cafeterias, but the last time I was in a hospital, I got good food. I think it depends on where you are. I always had good food everywhere I went in southern Louisiana, but I cannot say the same for other states. I've also found the food in the eastern half of the U.S. to be saltier than in the west, with some exceptions. For example, food in Jewish delis is very salty no matter where they are. TV chefs like Martha Stewart, Lidia Bastianich, the cast of ATK, etc. also use way too much salt for my taste. If I use any of their recipes, I cut the salt in half or else omit it. I never add salt to ice cream to candy, and they taste so much better without it. My mother would put salt on fruit, and I never liked that. Some people are addicted to salt and have to have it with everything, especially Martha Stewart, whom I consider to be the worst offender. Otherwise, I like her recipes.

County hospital here used to attract people from the community with a nice weekly buffet. Then there was a change in management...

Since then a local hospital chain has been - so to speak - gobbling up medical facilities in the area. They do have a history of trying to provide good food, were supposed to bring the cafeteria at the former county hospital up to their standards after they took it over.

Prepared foods routinely have too much of something, this can be watched for by reading the labels. And there are alternative brands on the shelves of green groceries in particular, beans and other canned plant based foods with "No Salt Added" for instance.

Yes, many, including people paid to cook for others are completely out of step with modern thinking about health and nutrition (so that cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity are epidemic at this time). And are making no attempt to prepare, present or consume healthier meals. When I am channel surfing and come across a cooking show being presented by a quite apparently overweight person I think "Yeah, you're going to tell us how to eat". Butter cut off of bricks, salt or sugar doled out by the scoop appear to be typical additions.

Tendencies have arisen in the medical community during later years to promote vegetarian diets, vitamins, exercise and minimization of inflammatory agents such as gluten and sugar. To see all major age related diseases as inflammatory disease, induced by lifestyle choices (such as how and what we eat), rather than a normal fate.

One reason for all the salt in the prepared foods is the original reason--preservation. Also, unlike in Roman days, salt is cheap, and makes people think there's a lot of flavor in an otherwise bland dish. Herbs and spices are much more expensive, as is the labor of using more different ingredients, browning without overcooking, etc., and they have to keep the prices at what the masses are willing to pay for--especially as paying more for less food has a disconnect which is hard to overcome if it isn't being made fresh by a top chef.

One reason for more salt a the old folks' home is that the ability to taste diminishes among the elderly. I don't know if it's because of this, or general aging or something else, but they also often have diminished appetites and may not have the urge to eat as much as they need to. Salt can also stimulate appetite, and overall tastiness makes eating more easier.

I agree with Lars that there seems to be way more salt used in the East, though I haven't spent enough time there to really say that it's not just luck of the draw as to what I've experienced. Still, chefs from the East who think they're right dandy cooks come to work in California and are shocked that there are so many complaints from the customers that there's too much salt and not enough vegetables. :)

The Jewish deli thing, however, comes from the traditional Jewish cuisine in which meats that are not roasted on a spit or grill (so they can drip) must have the blood removed by pounding salt into them. The process leaves behind a certain amount of saltiness, and the rest of the food may be salty so as not to be bland by comparison. Nowadays, the salting is usually done by the meatpacker or butcher, so you have no choice about the added salt in kosher meat.

All of a sudden, I am seeing this influx of all of these diets
-Nutrisystem - Weight Watchers-Jenny Craig (for men and women) all
touting their eating programs. What I am finding out is, the total
disregard to people who have to watch their sodium.

The point here is that this not an example of a "food industry" or "nutritional program". It is diet-to-lose-weight industry, which happens to advertise after the New Year, just like politicians advertise before the election and H&R Block advertises before April 15.

Don't confuse the word "diet" in it's many distorted forms. It's not nutrition and it's not real food.

I get more individual flavors and therefore more interest out of foods when the salt is reduced - the salted versions all taste salted. Same with pepper - friends who think food is boring unless it takes the skin off your tongue make everything they season taste the same.

And therefore boring to me.

Yes, the weight loss business is an industry, they exist to make money and seldom provide a program that you can stick to daily for the rest of your life. They are around this time of year because everyone is making resolutions to eat more healthy food and/or lose weight with the new year, after the holiday excesses.

I think nearly every prepared food has too much salt, and like Lars, I dislike salt with candy. You almost can't get a caramel any more without "sea salt" and so my diet is saved, because I won't eat 'em with salt. Fruit doesn't need salt either, and I like salt, a lot.

The only way to ensure healthy food where you know what the ingredients are, is to cook your own. Chain restaurants are horrible offenders in the fat/salt/calorie category and some won't even give nutritional information.

Actually, healthy cooking is relative simple. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains. Not cooked with too much fat, salt or sugar. You just have to change your taste buds.

As for hospital food, well, I think some of them want you to have a heart attack so they get more business! Here we have two large hospital systems. The biggest is Spectrum Health and if you go to their cafeteria at their huge downtown complex, you'll find burgers and fries, pizza and fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, desserts by the dozens, doughnuts and ice cream. As a huge comparison, Metro is the polar opposite. Elery had his hip replaced there last year, his knee this year. Anyone can walk into their cafeteria and get broiled wild caught salmon with green chili rice, numerous fresh vegetable choices, both raw and cooked, nicely seasoned grilled chicken breast on whole grain buns, fresh fruit smoothies, green tea and various flavored waters, like cucumber or watermelon, made with real produce. They do have a Subway, for those who absolutely must, but they also have a farm market that sets up in their parking lot twice weekly during the summer and autumn.

So, I guess it depends on the hospital, but I wouldn't count on getting healthy food there as a regular course of action, they are not restaurants or grocery stores, they are hospitals.

Annie

I think nearly every prepared food has too much salt

I look for low salt items constantly. There are plenty of them on the market now. The canned goods labeled "No Salt Added" I mentioned previously for instance.

Annie, your hospital story reminded me of when I was walking-sick and went into pharmacies in the Midwest a couple of decades ago. The whole point of sale display on the front of the cashwrap, instead of having band-aids and cough drops, was tobacco products. I was shocked. I mean, I get the profit motive, but it was like they wanted to sell them the disease and then sell you the cure. Ugh!

You just have to change your taste buds. (--Annie)

Too true! If you eat a lot of a particular flavoring, whether it's salt, pepper, hot sauce, ketchup or whatnot, two things happen. One is that your ability to sense that favorite seasoning diminishes. Your tasting apparatus knows it and is looking for all the other flavors. That means that a) you need to eat more of the seasoning to get the same sensation and b) that you don't sense it overwhelming the other flavors because you've learned to discount it. Then when other people taste the food, they give the "Whoa!" reaction. :)

That's a big reason, I'd guess, why so many famous chefs say to use way too much salt in their recipes.

I know in nursing homes the reason a lot of food is so salty is I was told as someone mentioned earlier that as you get older your ability to taste decreases. We took care of my Mother in Laws mother after she had a stroke, she was in her 90s and didn't like anything we made because she said it was bland. We spoke to the doctor who told us to add more salt to her food and offer her sweet things. He said when they get older they can't taste a lot of spices but can taste salt and sweet. He said at 90+ years old it was ok to add a little more salt to her food and let her have more sweets. He said it was better that she ate a little salt or sweets than eat nothing at all because she would rather not eat than eat something she didn't like.

Seems like the more salt you eat, the more accustomed you become to it. Hubby used to shake salt over everything w/o even tasting it first, but over time he's gotten away from that & has noticed how salty a lot of things taste to him now - things he used to ADD salt to. Since I don't eat many processed or restaurant foods, I almost always find them too salty for my taste.

I find the same to be true of sugar.

Embothrium, I live in rural Northern Michigan. Grocery stores are limited, and small, so don't stock a lot of variety. Even the local Walmart and Meijer are small and their only competition is Aldi and Save A Lot, both of which advertise their "smallness". That's what I have within 25 or 30 miles. So, unless you buy fresh produce, salt free or low sodium options are few. Those in larger metropolitan areas or closer to them have more options, of course. Our small local hospital doesn't even have a cafeteria. They have one of those machines where you can get a cold sandwich or a cup of yogurt, and a soft drink machine. I think there's a coffee machine too.

Annie

What's worse is that not nearly enough potassium is consumed for a better balance.

I work at a children's hospital and there's been a big push the last few years to make everything - inpatient and cafeteria food better for you. They ditched the deep fryers totally - they said it wasn't easy. Deep frying is used in food service because it's fast and people like fried foods. Now things take more time to prep and cook, but they are healthier. They've been taking a lot of strides to remove unhealthy options and replace them with better. They started doing things like making scratch made soups, using veggies from a garden right on the grounds when they can, removing all sugar sweetened drinks and providing healthier foods on the food bar - like the roasted veggie bar that they do once a week. This has all been helped along by the kitchen expansion that has happened. Inpatient and cafeteria no longer share the same kitchen. I think they are trying pretty hard and it shows. The food is not bad at all and it's not hard to get things that are healthy. I usually make myself a nice salad.

I live in rural Northern Michigan

You did not qualify your statements as applying to a particular, less well served area only.

Out here even a little tourist town on the Red side of the mountains - where they probably still don't even have household recycling - had a hippie grocery last time I was there.

Barb, i am seeing more than the usual post NewYear commercials for diet plans. It is a big moneymaker and now is the time to reel in the overweight. Big competition. More than ever it seems. And more commercials about everything than i remember. Seems more airtime than the programing.

Cooking from cans, cartons, frozen boxes, bottled dressings and sauces/salsas, boxed mixes, bagged rice and bean mixes, processed foods, are full of hidden sugars and salt. Even listed as low sodium.

Fresh fruits and veggies and non-inhanced proteins have their own salts and sugars and fats. Cooking from scratch will train the palate when any extra salt or sugar or fat is needed. Since you actually see it and decide if it is needed at all. At the Beginning or end of the process or at the table. Much better to have that control yourself/oneself.

I'm more surprised at added amounts of sugars in recipes than salts. Celebrity Chefs or any cooking show using salt does not bother me much. Most are using good fresh ingredients. Good salts, ... many are not as 'salty' as others.

They don't have dead taste buds. In fact quite elevated. And sensitive.

A caterer, a cafeteria cook, Diner, or any chef using large bulk cheap cans full of additives and chemical enhancers might have a numb palate from all of that, citric acids, etc.

Bottom line?...eat whole fresh foods.

If you need to read a label on a can, carton, bottle, you are not eating fresh whole foods.

I'm busy enough reading the one label where my fresh veg and fruits are coming from.

I laugh at some of the high level cooking competitions on TV where the over 50 fancy chef tells the under 30 up and comer that the food needs more salt, and the young one looks shocked and they cut to a direct to camera of the young one saying, adamantly, "I seasoned that, and tasted it!"

I don't say that celebrity chefs have numb taste buds, just that their salt perception is askew. I do think they've been immersed in restaurant heavy salting for long enough that they really don't realize how salty their food is. I've been in very fine restaurants with name chefs where the food was too salty to eat.

I heard that the WW frozen meals in the grocery store are way more salty than the ones you get when you join!

Several years ago I had a severe throat infection that fried my taste buds and EVERYTHING tasted salty for over a year!

We might have a container of salt somewhere for a guest, if they need it!

I crack up watching these cooking show where they're throwing handfulls of salt into everything!

We use Mrs. Dash and/or fresh herbs! Nancy

Most of those "celebrity chefs" aren't really great cooks to begin with. Really great quality food never needs a lot of salt; it can easily overbalance a dish.

Salt is useful and necessary. But too many people overuse it. Poor quality food needs it.