Seaweed as an effective salt replacement we hope is becoming increasingly well-known!
In previous blogs we have discussed the importance of reducing salt where I hope many of the ‘WHYs’ have been answered
This post will focus more on the ‘WHEN’
In other words, we will explore when people decided that replacing salt is ‘a must-do’ and the specifics of replacing salt with seaweed, which not only reduces salt in products but benefits also with seaweed nutrition.
It may be surprising, but the ‘salt’ issue first appeared in the mainstream mind-set in 1994 when the Government published its ‘Food and Nutrition Policy’ and expressed the worries about the connection between salt intake level and cardiovascular diseases. Two years later an organisation called CASH (Consensus Action on Salt & Health) was set up to act (initially) as a so-called ‘pressure group’ to control Government’s policy and actions on the ’salt’ matter.
Later on, ‘World Action on Salt and Health’ was established in order to collaborate with researches from different countries. The main goals of these organisations were to educate the public and to make the Government reconsider their policy (i.e. to drop the ‘official recommendations’ from 6g per day to 3g while people consumed more than 8g of salt back then)
In 2003 a massive campaign was launched to change people’s perception of salt and raise awareness of alternatives.
Press, radio, TV and online media have repeatedly stated that salt is far not the best element of your daily diet.
The first National Salt Awareness week took place in 2009 and since then CASH has achieved many positive outcomes.
In 2011 Salt Reduction was one of the topics discussed during the United Nations summit. And finally in 2013 the UK Health Department has agreed to review their salt reduction targets and by the end of the same year a new salt strategy was officially announced.
Several receptions were already held in the House of Commons where MPs, food manufacturers, Food Standard Agency representatives discussed the strategies and outlined the achievements.
So where does Seaweed Nutrition and Salt Replacement fit in?
Moving from the story behind salt reduction to one of the salt alternatives, I would like to remind that seaweed is a good way to reduce your salt intake, and all seaweed nutrition can be good, but it is really important to know where it comes from and that some is better for a variety of reasons. The source, harvesting, processing and quality control can impact on safety, sustainability and seaweed nutrition.
In order to identify if seaweed supply is sustainable, of sufficient quality and safety, you should be able to trace it right from the place it was harvested to the company you bought it from.
So how does seaweed taste, and how can a sustainable seaweed supply replace salt?
Using seaweed really is simple.
We baked some scones for Venture Fest last year and encouraged everybody to help themselves and try this scone packed full of seaweed nutrition.
Some of the many positive responses we got were:
- “Tastes great, and I don’t taste anything unusual!”
- “Tastes really good, and I don’t smell seaweed, but I guess… I should…no?”
- “But it tastes….normal!”
When using the right seaweed in the right way and with the right products, added to food instead of salt it tastes the same as or better than a salt equivalent – and is packed with seaweed nutrition.
We can keep talking for ages, but you won’t believe it until you will try yourself.
Here’s a recipe to try:
Happy World Salt Awareness Week!