In article <D%JDa.4438$%
[email protected]>, one of infinite monkeys at the
keyboard of "Hatchet" <
[email protected]_OUT_THE_TRASH_blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> On a related note, UK conventional wisdom tells us that salt can lead to heart disease. Yet the
>> Italian diet includes massive amounts of salt, often to the point of drowning out the taste of
>> other ingredients, while Italians have less heart disease than the Brits. An explanation offered
>> for that is that the salt replaces what we lose in sweat.
>>
> <SNIP> Sorry can't let that one go. I've worked and travelled in Italy for many years and I can
> categorically state that I've NEVER had a meal where you cannot taste the other ingredients
> through the overuse of salt.
You haven't tried quick takeaway-pizza in Rome. Or various other places. I lived just outside Rome
from '92 to '98, and experienced a lot of extremely salty food. At worst there was so much you could
actually see a pile of the white stuff as thick as the pizza crust itself.
But having lived in Italy, you'll know they have a lot more regional variation than we do. There was
IIRC somewhat less salt in the north than in Rome, while culinary-tourist-regions such as Tuscany
have some altogether superior cuisine.
Oh, and living in Italy as a non-meat-eater brings it home to you that the first syllable of our
word "salad" is etymologically derived from "Salt".
--
Axis of Evil: Whose economy needs ever more wars? Arms Exports $bn: USA 14.2, UK 5.1, vs France 1.5,
Germany 0.8 (The Economist, July 2002)