My Worst Addiction...Finally, Redeemed

This work of art may help
my addiction to salt.....

I have a problem, an addiction of sorts.  Most people who know me (or have shared a meal with me) know about it.

That addiction is salt. Forget smoking, booze or gambling - none of those can touch salt for me.

Sodium is the one habit I can't break. I literally can put it on everything, watermelon, apples, pizza, naturally-salty-clams, sodium-infused soups...etc. In fact, I'll often take Frank's RedHot and pour salt directly into the bottle, then furiously shake it to create a salty-spice slurry to slather over food. My apologies, my mouth is watering even as I'm typing....

As I said, I've got a problem and EVERYBODY tells me how wrong I am and how unhealthy it is to eat so much sodium. Yet, despite those warnings, I still manage to knowingly nod my head in shame as I reach for the salt shaker to pour some of that white crystalline mineral on a raw lemon wedge or stalk of rhubarb.

But I am no longer ashamed and science is on my side, thanks to a recent online article I came across from Scientific American, titled It's Time to End the War on Salt by science writer Melinda Wenner Moyer.

If your are a salty zealot like me, or an anti-salt fanatic like most, I would encourage you to read this enlightening article regarding dozens of studies that have found virtually NO correlation or causation between high sodium intake and an increased risk of a variety of conditions including: heart disease, high blood pressure and strokes.

Despite the decades of studies involving hundreds of thousands of patients, costing millions of dollars in research using ever-improving technology - the salt-health issue seems to be more politically driven than anything else. It's one of those non-offending, easy, feel-like-we're-doing-something non-issues that politicians love to focus attention on.

So until we get clear proof that salt is actually a risk factor for health (or until I collapse in a sodium-induced coma) I will continue to consume and champion the cause of salt in its very forms be they flake, sea, Fleur de Del, Kosher, coarse, finishing, Kala Namak or plain ole' table salt.

And while we're waiting, I've gone ahead and ordered a salt lick for my office. Don't worry it won't be an obvious square foot cube of compressed sodium that would easily offend anti-saltists whom I may work with. It'll be discreet. I'm having it sculpted into a desktop likeness of Michelangelo's Pieta [see photo insert], which will be sweet!!! Check that, the edible sculpture will be salty!!

Question: Are you a salt enthusiast or Fascist anti-salt freak?