Are we ever going to get back to normally salted food?

[Anonymous]

Everything is so salty. I know processed prepackaged food is probably salted for preservative purposes (right?) but restaurant food food the past few years is almost inedible. Does anyone else find everything way too salty? Will we ever be able to go back to lower salt levels? I have eaten out in other countries and it is not like this.

[Anonymous]

I have noticed this as well. I had a grain bowl with steak at True Food Kitchen the other day and the steak was so salty I could barely eat it. And I am a person who craves salt and tends to over-season food -- so ... it was pretty bad. But I've had something there (the Hawaiian fried rice) in the past month that I thought they forgot to season altogether. So it may just be that there are a lot of folks working in kitchens who don't know what they are doing? (We have had a hard time hiring and retaining at my job since the pandemic and we don't require much experience or any education and we pay better than a restaurant -- and I'm pretty sure we aren't alone with this.)

[Anonymous]

I think you can trace this back to the explosion of "diet food" some 40-years ago. They replaced fat in food with sodium to make it taste good.

[Anonymous]

I think you are on to something. If I got out to eat at pretty much any fast casual restaurant (chipotle, cava, etc) my fingers swell up the next day, I am insanely thirsty, have gained 2 pounds, and feel very unwell, almost like a hangover. 48 hours later I am back to my normal weight and feel fine.

I hate to be that person who's like, "I cook at home for health" but whatever they are putting in the food now, I cannot stomach it.

[Anonymous]

I never have this problem but I don't eat out or get takeaways.

[Anonymous]

Agree OP.

I actually crave salty foods and it's gotten too much for even me. I cannot enjoy salmon, steak or chicken at restaurants anymore. At home it tastes 100 times better. I can actually taste something besides salt.