Healthier salt to spice our dish
By Charles E. Buban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:44:00 01/02/2009
Filed Under: Lifestyle & Leisure, Food, Health
SALT, or sodium chloride, is not only a flavor enhancer and a food preservative, it is also an essential nutrient needed by our body.
The sodium present in salt is important in maintaining blood volume and blood pressure, in the regulation of water balance, transmission of nerve impulses and other vital functions.
But in our quest for a more flavorful diet and preference for processed foods (that may contain large amounts of sodium), the 5 grams of salt that is the required maximum daily intake per day is always never followed.
By consuming more than the required daily amount, salt has been identified as one of the major culprits in developing high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, stomach cancer, osteoporosis and kidney disease, among others.
In fact, the Philippine Renal Disease Registry Annual Report 2008 found that 22 percent of the population has hypertension.
For years, health authorities have been clamoring for further reductions of salt in processed foods as well as better labeling of salt on food products so more people could make changes to their own diet and reduce their salt intake.
Salt alternative
While this is being discussed, there are also those who look for ways to develop a healthier salt alternative.
In the 1970s, Finnish professor Heikki Karppanen was able to develop a mineral salt product containing a reduced amount of sodium. Instead he added potassium and magnesium to provide the salty taste.
Karppanen became involved in the study of salt and its harmful effects after he learned about the high incidence of heart attacks that lead to deaths among families in his hometown.
He later discovered that it was the high sodium and low mineral content in the soil in their area affecting their food chain that brought about these heart problems and deaths.
He paved the way for the development of Pansalt, a salt alternative that cuts sodium chloride intake down to about half (43 percent) while at the same time, promises to have the best taste profile among the low-sodium salts available in the market today.
Pansalt is composed of 57 percent sodium chloride. Providing the salty taste (since sodium chloride is reduced), Pansalt included 28 percent potassium chloride and 12 percent magnesium sulphate. It also included 2 percent lysine hydrochloride that further enhances the salty taste of the two components while masking their bitter taste.
Since iodine is now a required salt additive, Pansalt also contains trace amount (0.0036 percent) of this element, which is based on the official recommendation of the National Food Agency of Finland.
Approved ingredient
With its reduced mineral salt content, Pansalt has been an approved ingredient in organic food products by the National Food Agency of Finland, the European Commission and the Philippines’ Bureau of Food and Drugs.
Available in supermarkets and drugstores, Pansalt is for general use in the kitchen. It is also being used in more than a thousand food items (including bread, biscuits, sauces, sausages, margarines) in Europe and Japan, and even by major fast-foods outlets in Finland, including McDonald’s.
Just like in artificial sweeteners, Pansalt’s distributor here (Accord International Inc.) has included a sachet packaging of the product so one could just carry one to sprinkle in his favorite restaurant dish that has been requested to contain no salt.
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