FD Day 3: How Much is Too Much?

Last week NPR featured a piece of news about the possibility of FDA regulating the amount of salt in the food sold and/or served by manufacturers and restaurants alike. The logic behind it is that people are consuming too much salt than they should or are aware of, and it's beyond their control since they bought their food from outside and eat out a lot. It's almost impossible to keep track of how much salt is added into the dish you order if you eat at a restaurant, or even if you buy your bread at the bakery. Besides, who keeps track of all these anyway? Two decades ago, most people probably ate at home more, due to many reasons - from economic, to cultural, to the absence of diversity of convenient food. Today people eat more processed food and ready-made food than ever (i.e. frozen meals, pizzas, fast food, gourmet dining etc.) because they can afford it, but mostly out of convenience and to save time. This led to the heightened concern about the effects of the "invisible" salt people consumed, stating that it is one of the main causes of the myriad of chronic diseases that plagued the Americans, hence the appeal to enforce some kind of regulation.

Now I can see the reasoning behind the idea of advocating the regulation of salt. But I can't help but wonder if this is the solution to the problem. In other words, how effective can this regulation be to decrease the number of people getting heart attacks, high blood pressure, or whatever else they're getting? Seems to me the root cause of chronic diseases as such is our eating habits and our choice of food. We can decrease the amount of salt added in any one unit of food, but if we eat 20 units of that food, there's still over-consumption of salt! So then what? Should the FDA regulate our eating behaviors as well in the future? (Actually, now that I said it, that is probably the best way to keep obesity in control! Let's have a governing body to oversee our eating behavior. The Food Police, woohooo!!! This can an interesting plot: just like how they can arrest people before they commit crime in that movie Minority Report, they can arrest people before they become obese--on the grounds that when they become obese they'd have health problems which they're gonna need care for, which means an avoidable increased spending in healthcare, eating into taxpayers' money, and taxpayers wouldn't like it. Ergo, let's have the government stop them from gorging before it's too late!)

Few years ago, they wanted to regulate the amount of trans-fat served in restaurants, and they did. Now it's salt. What's next, potassium? How about telling me what to eat, how much I'm allowed to eat? How about just giving me a superfood pill that has all the appropriate amount of nutrients and get it over and done with? On the other hand, of course, there's always a simpler, less crazy option. Try this- how about just telling people to eat everything in moderation instead of controlling the amount of salt sugar and what-have-you! People should be reminded that too much of anything is bad. And you just can't go around regulating everything. It just doesn't work that way. The way I see it, those people who consume too much salt should be held accountable for their own behavior. So when they fall sick, don't blame it on the people who prepared their food; blame it on themselves for eating too much of it.

Oh crap. My food diary has turned into another rant. Here's what I ate yesterday:
- coffee & a packet of instant oatmeal, apple cinnamon flavor (at work, 12am)
- 4 almond nuts from my colleague's M&M's dispenser :P  (if i were her, I'd put M&M's in it hehehe)
- black coffee, apple (3am)
- lunch: tofu with kimchi (2-ish pm)
- sinful indulgence: humongous choc chip cookie & English Breakfast tea (4pm)
- huge dinner: lamb bryani rice, 2 slices of pizza (because I had a terrible day, I decided that I deserved it hehehe) & coffee to keep me awake for the night (10pm)

can't see the mutton, but it's delicious. :) 

found this Malaysian place near my workplace. :)) hidden treasure, heh.