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Claire

Master Chef
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
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7,967
Location
Galena, IL
Is it me? I'm a salty-crunch type of person when it comes to junk food (as opposed to sweet, creamy). But the last two times I bought potato chips (Pringles and Ruffles), brands I've bought before, they were so darned salty my lips hurt. Maybe, just maybe, I'm starting to get used to cooking and eating less salty. I'm a self-confessed salt-a-holic, but I swear these had no flavor except salt. I do read labels most of the time, but haven't for salt content. Are these chips getting more salty, or am I just getting senthisized to it?

I've bought salt free, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't think I should waste my money. But the regular are driving me nutso with the excess of salt. is there an in-between?
 
I too can't stand the amount of salt in chips. When will they wise up and start offering low salt? I miss my munchies.
 
i've been off salt for so long now (except for an occasional binge with fast food french fries, or sipping soy sauce after sushi) that i can taste salt in everything, and yes, chips/crisps, cocktail nuts, and such seem to be getting really salty. like you said, claire, to the point of burning my tongue.

i really like utz brand no salt added potato chips. they taste like potatoes first, with some salt. they're great as an accompaniment to a salty deli meat sandwich.
 
Processed foods have so many artificial ingredients in the, it's like the food is screaming flavors at you. I think when you start eating less processed food, you notice the fact that most packaged food is over-seasoned. I call it food in technicolor.
 
maybe a correlation in salt content of processed foods with economic recession? don't know why, but I wouldn't be surprised. industrial conspiracies, etc.
 
The theory about salty chips is that they are probably the saltiest things you will ever eat. And eating salty prompts you to want more salty, which can mean more chips. And since there is a natural animal urge to seek salt, being the quintessential salty food is an advantage. You have to look a bit to find chips with low salt or no salt without having had so much else changed that they're no longer the chips you expect. If you're so health crazed that you won't eat a conventional potato chip, even without salt, forget chips altogether.

Kettle brand often has less salt than the mainstream brands. Seasons makes a how salt kettle cooked chip. If you just can't find any locally and can't harass your local grocer into carrying some, check Amazon for them in quantity.

Amazon.com: low salt chips Snacks

With foods you cook, I suggest you try forgoing most of the salt and getting some finishing salt. Good finishing salt has very large, delicate crystals. You dribble it on food after you serve your plate. It provides salt and a distinctly satisfying crunch with far less actual salt than otherwise.

I don't like overly salter chips, either, but I have a pair of properly working kidneys and so have no fear of salt. But proper seasoning is important, meaning tastes good, not designed to create an addiction.
 
One interesting thing I didn't know about salty snack food is that only about 50% of the salt gets tasted, the other 50% you swallow down without tasting. That percentage of salt you swallow but don't taste may be even higher than I stated, I forget the exact number.
 
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Most purchased foods have way too much salt for me now. My favorite quick gravy mix will have to be sidelined.
 
taxlady said:
Kale chips!

Yes! Also, microwave potato chips. Labor intensive, but so good. I heavily dose them with Kernal Seasons sour cream and onion sprinkle, they ALMOST taste like Lay's.
 
Yes! Also, microwave potato chips. Labor intensive, but so good. I heavily dose them with Kernal Seasons sour cream and onion sprinkle, they ALMOST taste like Lay's.

That's one of the things I like about the kale chips - so much less work than homemade potato chips.
 
taxlady said:
That's one of the things I like about the kale chips - so much less work than homemade potato chips.

We can't find kale around here! Upping the search. I've been wanting to do these for so long, may have to grow them.
 
I don't buy or eat chips very often, but I kind of like these. They're made of beets and sweet potatoes and are fairly low sodium.

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This is what just kills me. If I, I think these things are too salty, what else is there. Yes, I can buy the Terra brand if I go out of my way to go to a gourmet store, which I really don't mind doing. I will say it cuts down on impulse buying. Right now I have three partial bags of various kinds of chips that will probably meet the garbage man next week. It just seems weird that if I think it's too salty, what are people raising their kids on? I do not remember them being that salty when I was younger.
 
Gotta say I've never understood the salt "thing." From the time I was a teenager or before, I just didn't do salt. My Daddy, who was a general physician, always said I would never need to go on a salt-reduced diet because I already ate that way.

Then, because of the times, I wasn't exposed to chips, etc. and fast food. I grew up in the '50s and those things just weren't readily available, especially in rural areas where I lived. As a result I didn't acquire a taste for them.

Now...salt isn't part of my cooking repertoire. That's not to say I don't cook with salt. Usually, I use half the salt as recommended by a recipe and go on from there.

For those who sit a our table, we have a salt shaker they can use to add additional salt, if necessary. So far, after many years, the table shaker is rarely used. Perhaps our guests are exceptionally well-mannered or they are satisfied with the way our foods are salted.

No matter. It's just how things are at our table. We wouldn't be offended if someone turned the salt shaker on its end and went to town.
 
Gotta say I've never understood the salt "thing." From the time I was a teenager or before, I just didn't do salt. My Daddy, who was a general physician, always said I would never need to go on a salt-reduced diet because I already ate that way.

A credible study indicates the affinity for salty taste is formed in infancy. It is not innate, as the taste for sugar. The key foods were crackers, bread, and breakfast cereal, foods with considerable added salt. By six months, infants for whom those foods were heavily represented in their diets preferred 1% salt solutions in water (salty as chicken noodle soup) and 2% solutions (very salty to adults) to water with no added salt. Infants who did not use those foods were either disinterested in the salt solutions or rejected them. While the effect persisted as they aged (understandable, since diet likely didn't change), it was not permanent. People change their preferences in time on a low salt diet.
 
I guess what I'm getting at is that I thought I was a salt-o-holic. One time I made Thanksgiving dinner, one of the few times a year when I throw caution to the wind. I really thought I'd probably used too much salt, yet two of my guests salted, and I mean really salted, everything. I wasn't insulted, just wondered. You've got to be kidding. (they are in poor health now, have no idea if that has anything to do with it, but they're much younger than I). It's just that, if I, who loves salt, thinks this is way too salty, well, what? I'm 57, and was raised with all the stuff we're talking about; jarred baby food, etc. It's just disgusting that I have to go to a gourmet store to get potato chips. I don't want them salt-less, just not so salty that it is the only flavor.
 
I don't want them salt-less, just not so salty that it is the only flavor.

That is why, in order to for snack lovers to get a salty taste as they munch and crunch, a lot of salt must be used in order for you to get that salty crunch when you bite down. A lot of untasted salt goes down to your stomach. It's how it has to be in the world of snack chips.
 
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