The first problem in the article is that author brings AB's support of Diamond Crystal salt in to the debate over government regulation of sodium in preprocessed and prepared foods.
Yes, in processed foods the sodium levels are outrageous. However, Alton does not, or never has, advocate for processed foods. He is very much against them and Good Eats is about teaching us how to cook at home there by eliminating the need to consume such unhealthy foods.
The article went wrong in the attempt to connect AB's teaching home more about salt with premade items such as Cheez-Its, Eggos, condensed soups and frozen meals. He does not endorse or advocate for any of those items and frequently bemoans them.
My favorite quote was:
The food industry releases some 10,000 new products a year, the Department of Agriculture has reported, and processed foods, along with restaurant meals, now account for roughly 80 percent of the salt in the American diet. The rest comes from the kitchen salt shaker or occurs naturally in food. In promoting cooking with salt, Cargill and its star chef, Mr. Brown, said they recognized the health concerns and recommended “smarter salting.”
That says it all. Eighty percent of high sodium items comes from processed food and restaurant foods, so why drag Alton in to this debate for supporting salt for the home cook?
There's a big difference in making food at home. Here, we can control the amount of anything, including salt, that goes into the food. The amount of salt consumed in foods made from scratch at home is nothing like what has to be added to processed foods to give them some semblance of taste.
Listen to this great interview with AB but Jeff Houck of Tampa Bay Online: Table Conversations to hear talk about salt, its importance, the government's attempt at regulating it and the difference between salt and sodium intake.
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