I see that the salt bansturbators, those health Nazis over at CASH – a fake charity designed to enforce its own agenda on our lives is now wading into our daily bread. I would also point out that this “consensus” does not involve me – as far as I am concerned, having a basic understanding of biology and chemistry – is that a low salt diet is bloody dangerous. We need salt. Our bodies excrete the excess as they are designed to do. Too little will result in cellular degradation and death. Oh, and I recognise junk science when I see it.
What is interesting is that following years of subservience, of merely trotting out the lies peddled by these charlatans, the MSM is starting to sound a sceptical note. Both Andrew Brown and Rose Prince commenting in the Telegraph make the valid point that salt is an essential ingredient in bread making. However, Prince does let herself down later in the article – having spent some words making the valid point that wholemeal bread should be taken as a nutritious whole and not just measured by its salt content.
I am one, and pledge to CASH that I will make my loaves with less salt in future, as long as they do not trash the reputation of real bread.
How wrong can you be? You never, never, appease monsters like CASH as they will only come back for more. The only way to deal with these nasty little bansturbators is to robustly rebut each and every affront to our liberty. What we eat and how much we eat is no one’s business but our own. I will pledge this to Professor G.A. MacGregor and his fellow blackguards at CASH – I will eat as much salt as I desire and you can stuff your bans where the sun don’t shine. My body, my health, my concern, not yours, so butt out and leave me alone. And, yes, I do know exactly what my daily recommended limit is. It’s whatever I decide it is.
Cash chairman Prof Graham MacGregor, of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, said: “It is frankly outrageous that bread still contains so much salt.”
Oh, don’t be such a drama queen. It is not outrageous at all. In fact, it’s none of your damned business. If you want to eat a low salt diet, go ahead. No one is stopping you. Do not presume to enforce your single issue obsessiveness on the rest of us. I repeat; my body, my health, my concern, not yours.
As an aside, I managed to miss salt awareness week. That’s a shame, I’d have like to have added some extra salt to my food in celebration of the event. I must watch out for it next year 😈
CASH – Consensus Action on Salt and Health. Consensus? Not with me, and not with you either by the sound of it.
Everything they have reduced the salt content in now tastes like cotton wool. Provided they put the salt content on the ingredients list we can make our own minds up but I for one don’t want to cut down.
Trouble is, the MP’s will love using another way to control our lives.
Get a bread maker – put as much fcuking salt in as you like – job done.
You never, never, appease monsters like CASH as they will only come back for more.
Spot on! As the Department of Health has it, “We look forward to seeing further reductions as more companies meet the targets.” The goalposts are, it seems, infinitely mobile.
Had the PC brigade not eliminated him from the curriculum, Kipling could have shown that this would happen:
‘…we’ve proved it again and again
That, if once you have paid him the Danegeld,
You never get rid of the Dane.’
Precisely
1500g dry-weight bread (4 loaves) between 20 and 30 g salt …
And that’s my home-made.
Who are these lying idiots?
I raise my hat to you. I am the brand director of PAUL the French bakers who apparently have the most salt in our bread; the little know fact is they got their figures wrong!
We are outraged. Partly our fault as our French counterparts whole built our UK website used the word sodium instead of salt on our website; CASH pulled their analysis for some of our breads from our website!
We have had to adjust our recipes inlight of the enormous press coverage we received in London but I must stress a little reduction not a lot! Our new point of sale campaign clearly states we add sea salt to our bread!!! With pride.
I have to meet this Prof chap next week; I really wish I had you by my side to aide a animated conversation!
Your message has made my weekend.
Iain,
Apart from the question as to why you have to meet this unelected health nazi, may I suggest you do a little research which will demonstrate that there certainly is no consensus on this matter (even if this was relevant in a matter of personal choice).
A good starting point would be here:
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4995
Note the responses of Robert A. Da Prato, Physician and Niels A. Graudal, Senior consultant Gesche Jyrgens.
The latter response has a number of references.
You might also care to read this:
http://www.health-report.co.uk/sodium_chloride_salt_myths1.html
Paul J. Rosch, M.D., M.A., F.A.C.P has a pretty impressive CV:
http://www.stress.org/about.htm
And this:
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/salt-and-hypertension.html
It would be good to take your own expert along with you, but I suggest that the bread industry in particular, and the food industry in general, needs to start fighting back on this and on other issues. As Macheath notes above, appeasement never works with these people, rollover once and they’ll keep coming back for more.
There are two aspects to this particular situation:
The one is that the science just does not support the policy.
The second is that even if one were not true, it is still a matter of personal choice.
This is one of my favourite quotes, from C S Lewis:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Good luck.
a low salt diet is bloody dangerous. We need salt.
We certainly do. For goodness sake, in the war, they gave salt tablets to soldiers.
I make a reasonable Ciabatta like bread with 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 of yeast. Dry sift and stir all ingredients then mix in one and a half to two cups of water until the dough is slightly sticky. Dump into baking pan or in bun sizes onto baking sheet, cover or leave in cool oven for twelve hours. Remove from oven. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit (200 Celsius) bung risen dough into oven for 20-25 minutes, remove, cool and serve. Pack unused portion in airtight bag. Good for 2-4 days in these conditions.
No additives, no kneading, dead easy. Who needs to buy the stuff? Health Nazi’s circumvented. Job done. 😉
I’m just adding more salt to everything now, just in case it’s had any removed. Heck I put extra salt on some bacon the other day!
Z.
The more they moan the more I will drink, smoke, eat salt, whatever, fuck them.