Why do Can foods and Health dinners contain so much salt?

Question

I would just like to say that so many people choose to eat healthy. In doing so many select healthy foods such as can good foods, Health dinners as Lean Cuisine etc. But if you take a look on the back of the package the sodium level is very high. I was told companies put so much salt in the food to preserve the food is that true?

Answer 1

While salt is helpful for preservation in canned foods, it's not for preservation in pre-packed, processed food; they've already got preservatives.

The American palette has become so used to salted foods that when they aren't salted we consider them to be "tasteless." The salt is only added as a flavoring.

Answer 2

Yes. Salt is a natural preservative. That is why so much is used in foods that need to last a long time. (The ancient Egyptians even used salt when preserving corpses, which resulting in the extraordinarily well preserved mummies, if my memory serves me right.)
In the case of stuff like "lean cuisine" and the like, it also makes it a little more palatable when they've taken out the fat.

Answer 3

The salt is in there to preserve the food. In case you wanna know, 2400mg of salt is one teaspoon and that's about the daily limit for each person. One thing you can do to help is to switch to seasalt. Seasalt has about 70 percent less sodium. It costs more but it is soooooo much better for you. Another thing you can do is empty canned vegetables into a collandar and thouroughly rinse the vegetables to remove all the salt. Hope these tips help you!

Answer 4

The salt in prepared foods is not so much for preservation of the food as it is for flavoring. If you look, these prepackaged foods already contain other preservatives and hardly need salt to function as that. Instead, the salt content of these foods is to make the food taste more "flavorful" to the average person. Consequently they will be more likely to buy it, leading to increased quarterly earning reports , which leads to an increase in the stock prices.

Answer 5

It is a concern for taste not health and stupidity. America is the fattest country and one of the sickest. See site below under anti-water to see how this makes everyone fatter. American Medical Assoc. has asked FDA to make salt a regulated ingredient so they can force everyone to reduce the amount by half. It is not a food but is a rock. 25% of Americans have high blood pressure.

http://phifoundation.org

Answer 6

To preserve the food.

Answer 7

That was always my belief as well. Salt has been used in many cultures for hundreds and hundreds of years as the only preservation tool.

Answer 8

Because the food is stored it has to be preserved therefore they use salt.

Answer 9

IT is to preserve the food.

Answer 10

Just about everything has too much salt! No wonder we are all dying!