Listening to a National Public Radio (NPR) health program on my way to work this morning, discussing salt and high blood pressure. A recent U.S. survey found that half of all Americans over the age of 45 have blood pressure higher than the ideal blood pressure (120/80 mmHg), which is largely related to excessive sodium intake in the diet, mainly from the high salt content of fast food and restaurant food, leading to a recommendation that the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) set an upper limit on the amount of salt in food. Representatives of the restaurant and fast food industry complained that salt is necessary to maintain “delicious”, otherwise “gourmet” will become “wax food”. As a result, the other side immediately presented evidence that McDonald’s food in the UK contains only half the salt of McDonald’s food in the US, but still tastes great. Tang Yida, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Fu Wai Hospital, Beijing
In fact, the taste of white people is already very light. This year, I had shabu-shabu with two American doctors in Beijing, and at the end of the day, I finished two plates of sesame sauce, but they only used half a plate each, and said that the lamb was salty enough after the soup. I don’t know how it would be if they were to eat Chinese pickles and sauces. However, it is true that different races have different sensitivities to different flavors. A researcher did the following study to compare the sensitivity of yellow and white people to sugar and salt. It was found that, compared to yellow people, Caucasians are relatively insensitive to sugar and sensitive to salt, so we can’t stand eating plain American ice cream and desserts, and they find Chinese food really salty enough. I still remember the first month’s salary after graduating from college in 95, and colleagues went to the McDonald’s across the street from the hospital to buy a cup of milk West, only a bite of Hou’s I was not interested. We all know that we can not lack of salt, lack of salt is not strong; ancient times for salt also broke out in war, or even some people say that the demise of certain landlocked countries and the lack of salt related. Is too much salt really that bad? The relationship between salt and blood pressure has been studied in the health field for more than a century, and it has been found that high salt intake raises blood pressure and low salt intake lowers it. The incidence of hypertension in people who eat large amounts of salt is 10%; in people who eat moderate amounts of salt, the incidence of hypertension is 7%; and in people who eat very little salt, the incidence of hypertension is less than 1%. Eskimos have a low salt intake and their blood pressure is low, mostly below 140/90mmHg. Then look at the Japanese, we all know that Japan has a lot of long-lived elderly, why? In addition, the blood pressure of the Japanese population has been declining since World War II, so why? After World War II, with the improvement of living standards, the original long winter staple of salted fish and dried salted vegetables disappeared, replaced by fresh raw fish, sushi and vegetables, the average salt intake from 29 grams per person per day down to 10 grams. Salt, again, salt. Well, after reading the others, look at yourself. Now we do not have any winter storage cabbage, big roti, but the diet is still salty. Take breakfast, doughnuts and soy milk small pickles; steamed buns and tofu brains with curd; how pleasant it is. A piece of red curd contains 5 grams of salt, a small plate of squash or pickles (50 grams) contains 4 grams of salt, and the World Health Organization and Chinese guidelines for the prevention and treatment of hypertension recommend that each person’s daily salt intake should be controlled to within 6 grams. The salt intake of this simple breakfast meal is almost the standard for the day. Also don’t overlook that MSG, chicken essence, fish essence, soy sauce and most seasonings also contain salt, if people are used to putting these seasonings when stir-frying.