"Cindy Fuller" > wrote in message
...
> In article
> >,
> Ranée at Arabian Knits > wrote:
>
>> In article >,
>> George > wrote:
>>
>> > It sure seems lots of folks no longer like or care about any
>> > flavors/tastes except sugar and salt.
>>
>> The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it is deliberate. If you add
>> enough sugar and salt to food, it is all that people will want. It
>> takes a slow acclimatizing to it, though, as the quantities added to
>> packaged foods now are jarring to people who aren't accustomed to it.
>
> It's not a flavor per se, but I would also add fat to the mix. Witness
> some of the recent culinary abominations of the fast food joints.
> Mercifully, some of them have gone the way of Space Food Sticks, but
> many remain to wreak havoc.
>
> I'm sure I've told this story here before, but during my clinical
> rotations I saw a patient in the hospital for raging high blood
> pressure. He'd been to the Parkland (Dallas) ER several times before
> for this condition, but nobody had bothered to ask about his normal
> consumption of food and drink before I walked into his room. This man
> drove a gravel truck around the county. He would stop and get a Big
> Gulp at 7-11, drink the soda, THEN shake salt liberally into the
> remaining ice and drink the resulting brine. He'd also dip fruit and
> veggie slices into salt and eat them, plus add lots of salt at the
> table. My back-of-the-envelope calculation estimated that he was
> getting at least 7 grams of SODIUM (roughly 1 tablespoon of SALT) per
> day. Even if his truck wasn't air-conditioned, nobody needs to
> replenish that much sodium per day under normal conditions.
>
> This salt-o-holic phenomenon is not limited to folks at lower income or
> education levels, alas. My work partner in crime, a PhD nurse
> practitioner, has a salt tooth. When I give her the hairy eyeball about
> her salt consumption, her reply is "It's a Southern thing." (Girl lived
> in Georgia and Texas for many years.) Is it any wonder that there is a
> "Stroke Belt" that encompasses most Southern states?
>
> Cindy, jumping off the soapbox

Scary stuff
--
--
https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

Stu wrote:

> I agree, people use way too much salt in their diets. I watched the
> food network this morning, and never once saw even one of the cooks
> check what they were cooking before salting/peppering the hell out the
> dish.
> The FDA and Canadian Food inspection agency have been checking
> labeling to find if is said to be in the food is actually in the food.
> They have found many manufacturers' labels are for the most part wrong
> concerning sodium and other ingredient levels, this is why I cut out
> using sodium many years ago.
> Then there's southern cooking and the excess use of butter, but we'll
> leave that for another days discussion.
>
>
> Stu, jumping off the soapbox

Other than Paula Deen on the boobtube, I've not heard or experienced an
excess use of butter in the South. Have you? In what usage or context?
If anything I would have thunk it would be more likely traditionally to
be pork drippings.

In article >,
Ranée at Arabian Knits > wrote:
>In article >,
> George > wrote:
>
>> It sure seems lots of folks no longer like or care about any
>> flavors/tastes except sugar and salt.
>
> The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it is deliberate. If you add
>enough sugar and salt to food, it is all that people will want. It
>takes a slow acclimatizing to it, though, as the quantities added to
>packaged foods now are jarring to people who aren't accustomed to it.

You've got some highly respected scientific backup for that theory. Dr.
David Kessler, a pediatrician and the former head of the FDA under Bush (41)
and Clinton, researched the issue when he was wondering "why the obesity
epidemic?". He adds "fat" to your "sugar and salt" and suggests that
many restaurant/pre-prep foods are layered with sugar-and-fat/
salt-and-fat to get and keep people hooked.

He's definitely not a woo-woo and he's not trying to sell some magic
bullet supplement or treatment. His book is "The End of Overeating".

Charlotte
--

On Sun, 5 Sep 2010 23:40:46 +0000 (UTC), Charlotte L. Blackmer wrote:

> In article >,
> Ranée at Arabian Knits > wrote:
>>In article >,
>> George > wrote:
>>
>>> It sure seems lots of folks no longer like or care about any
>>> flavors/tastes except sugar and salt.
>>
>> The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it is deliberate. If you add
>>enough sugar and salt to food, it is all that people will want. It
>>takes a slow acclimatizing to it, though, as the quantities added to
>>packaged foods now are jarring to people who aren't accustomed to it.
>
> You've got some highly respected scientific backup for that theory. Dr.
> David Kessler, a pediatrician and the former head of the FDA under Bush (41)
> and Clinton, researched the issue when he was wondering "why the obesity
> epidemic?". He adds "fat" to your "sugar and salt" and suggests that
> many restaurant/pre-prep foods are layered with sugar-and-fat/
> salt-and-fat to get and keep people hooked.
>
> He's definitely not a woo-woo and he's not trying to sell some magic
> bullet supplement or treatment. His book is "The End of Overeating".
>
> Charlotte

kessler might not be fully woo-woo, but he certainly is a fanatic. he also
thinks the tobacco industry manipulated nicotine levels to increase
addiction. why would they do that? nicotine is plenty addictive without
any manipulation.

he's also a former yo-yo dieter, which i think gives him some emotional,
rather than scientific, investment in the subject.

you can explain sugar, fat, and salt additions to food without delving into
sinister conspiracies. they are cheap ways to make food taste better
without using better (read: more costly) ingredients. it's economics, not
evil.

frankly, he sounds like a crusading nutter to me.

your pal,
blake

On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:36:47 -0700, Ranée at Arabian Knits wrote:

> In article >,
> (Charlotte L. Blackmer) wrote:
>
>> In article >,
>> Ranée at Arabian Knits > wrote:
>>>In article >,
>>> George > wrote:
>>>
>>>> It sure seems lots of folks no longer like or care about any
>>>> flavors/tastes except sugar and salt.
>>>
>>> The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it is deliberate. If you add
>>>enough sugar and salt to food, it is all that people will want. It
>>>takes a slow acclimatizing to it, though, as the quantities added to
>>>packaged foods now are jarring to people who aren't accustomed to it.
>>
>> You've got some highly respected scientific backup for that theory. Dr.
>> David Kessler, a pediatrician and the former head of the FDA under Bush (41)
>> and Clinton, researched the issue when he was wondering "why the obesity
>> epidemic?". He adds "fat" to your "sugar and salt" and suggests that
>> many restaurant/pre-prep foods are layered with sugar-and-fat/
>> salt-and-fat to get and keep people hooked.
>>
>> He's definitely not a woo-woo and he's not trying to sell some magic
>> bullet supplement or treatment. His book is "The End of Overeating".
>
> I get that, but I don't understand how people became accustomed to
> the flavor. When I read the South Beach Diet book, the salad dressing
> recipes had splenda in them. I was trying to figure out why anyone
> would put any sugar in dressing.

sugar (or sugar substitutes) is quite common in reduced-calorie or low-fat
foods instead of fat in an effort to give the damned stuff some flavor.

your pal,
blake

On Sep 6, 1:36*pm, Ranée at Arabian Knits >
wrote:
> In article >,
> (Charlotte L. Blackmer) wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > In article >,
> > Ranée at Arabian Knits > wrote:
> > >In article >,
> > > George > wrote:
>
> > >> It sure seems lots of folks no longer like or care about any
> > >> flavors/tastes *except sugar and salt.
>
> > > * The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it is deliberate. *If you add
> > >enough sugar and salt to food, it is all that people will want. *It
> > >takes a slow acclimatizing to it, though, as the quantities added to
> > >packaged foods now are jarring to people who aren't accustomed to it.
>
> > You've got some highly respected scientific backup for that theory. *Dr.
> > David Kessler, a pediatrician and the former head of the FDA under Bush (41)
> > and Clinton, researched the issue when he was wondering "why the obesity
> > epidemic?". *He adds "fat" to your "sugar and salt" and suggests that
> > many restaurant/pre-prep foods are layered with sugar-and-fat/
> > salt-and-fat to get and keep people hooked.
>
> > He's definitely not a woo-woo and he's not trying to sell some magic
> > bullet supplement or treatment. *His book is "The End of Overeating".
>
> * *I get that, but I don't understand how people became accustomed to
> the flavor. *When I read the South Beach Diet book, the salad dressing
> recipes had splenda in them. *I was trying to figure out why anyone
> would put any sugar in dressing.

So it'll taste more like bottled dressing, which is all those poor,
stupid slobs are used to.

Cindy Hamilton

>*Like the whole sugar in tomato sauce
> deal. *I never do that. *I wouldn't need a sugar substitute in most of
> those things.