Salty Habits

Salt is an acquired taste, a choice that turns into a habit over a lifetime and sometimes is inherited as a food choice preference over many generations. Salt may also be a cultural preference, again, inherited from a time when it was the only way to preserve food over a long time – such as dried fish. My own parents, one from Italy and the other born in Canada constantly argued about what was the right amount of salt in prepared meals. These social and cultural factors form unconscious opinions of what is healthy and may govern the daily choices we make for adding salt to our food. They may even be hard wired into our mind to equal survival…. when in the present this is far from the case.
 
 Examine your own food choices for excessive salt and fat as well, and consciously create new family patterns for healthy food choices. To strengthen your resolve, read literature from the American or Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundations on the effects of salt. The whole family will benefit for generations to come. 
 
 How have you changed your habit for salt?  Share your tips, tricks and tribulations here.