Even if salt isn't that big a deal, knowledge is still power.

I've spoken a little about salt here before, and my conclusions were mild at best: studies have shown again and again super-low and no salt diets not only do NOT cure high blood pressure caused by non-food issues, but are actually very harmful. And if your high blood pressure is caused by salt...

Yes, salt raises blood pressure....temporarily. If your system takes in too much salt, enough to mess with the chemical balance of your blood, the body literally starts a pleasant combination of holding water (bloating) and/or flushing it out (pee) to dilute or get rid of the salt to bring you back into balance. These fluctuations in the amount of liquid sloshing around the pipes of your veins literally raises the pressure within. However, once it's gone, it comes back into balance - permanently - until you eat too much salt again.

If you stop eating too much salt, you're blood pressure will literally normalize in the time it takes to pee it out. The problem lies in the constant flow of salt in our diets, and it's not from the salt shaker on the restaurant table or the little pot of salt you use to season your homecoooking.

It comes from over processed food. As I was taught in culinary school, salt is added towards the end of a recipe and you keep tasting until you have just enough to make it delicious. Once it's delicious, there is a window -- you can keep adding it get a diminising return, but soon enough it'll go from delicious to disgustingly salty, and you have to throw it out and start again. There is only so much salt a food will take, unless...

Pretzels with salt on the outside taste super salty because pure rocks of salt hit your tongue first thing. However, if you dissolve that same ratio of salt and bake it into a muffin or process it into a breakfast cereal, it won't be noticed. Why process the salt as such? There is a flavor benefit, but also by adding more and more salt, the shelf-life the the food-stuff is extended, meaning a more efficient industrial food chain, meaning more profit at the expense of your blood pressure.

It's the same thing with sugar, which also has a preservative effect when processed into food. Coca Cola adds caffeine to their product for various reasons, but the main one is flavor -- not because caffeine is delicious; caffeine is one of the most bitter substances we consume. Without caffeine, Coca Cola's sugar makes it way too sweet for human consumption -- caffeinating it lowers the sweetness profile to trick you into finishing a whole can, or bottle, or whatever.

So it's good news that there is a plan afoot to label high-sodium foods on menus in NYC, just as NYC was the leader in calorie labeling on menus of chains with more than 15 outlets, now a national law. It's not even about the exact amount of salt, only when the amount is totally bonkers:

Some will surely use the study to conclude that the “war on salt,” as Scientific American called the political protest around it several years ago, is unjustified. But the city’s measure to place symbolic saltshakers next to individual menu items with at least 2,300 milligrams of sodium — again, the full, recommended daily allotment — is far from a call to arms. Beyond that there is an inequality argument to be made in the name of such labeling.

The OTHER NRA (National Restaurant Association) is of course against it, as they represent food profit at all cost, just as the the NRA represent gun sales at all cost. The fact is crappy food with tons of preservative salt fall on the the diets of those who can afford the impact of bad health the least. If society is measured by how we protect the weakest among us -- children, elderly, the physically handicapped and mentally ill, prisoners, minorities and the poor -- then this law (as well as restrictions on hyooooj soda portions) is good governance and the moral thing to do. Of course, if you just want to sell sell sell it's to your advantage for the buyer beware, and more specifically, the buyer unaware, because what we are talking about here is not a restriction, but the arming of the populace with information against those who see them as nothing but profit centers.

WEEKLY AVERAGE:2496
Trending in the right direction. Bike season ramping up.
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BIKE CREDIT: 1530
MONDAY COUNT: 1943
SLEPT: 9:30pm - 6am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea, 150mg caffeine

BREAKFAST 1 : 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BIKE SNACK: 10:30am, homemade granola bar, 330 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11:45am, gatorade, Fritos, 770 cal

BIKE SNACK: 2pm, donuts. 620 cal

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, momma salad, cashews, 350 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, chocolate milk, 500 cal

DINNER: 7pm, stouffer's french bread pizzas, poppa salad, 1040 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2600

SLEPT: 9pm-12am, 1am-6am,  8 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, steel cut oatmeal,  450 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, beef patty, chicken soup, momma salad, pickles, 600 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 7pm, lemon sole, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, nutella, 490 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 9pm-10:30pm, 1:30am-6am, 6 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

AM SNACK: 8:30am, 3 turkey sausage patties, +/- 250 cal

BREAKFAST 1: 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12:15pm, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 4:15pm,  grilled pork tenderloin,  poppa salad with dressing,  600 calcal

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, and cashews, 350 cal

DINNER: 7:45pm, burrito, diet coke, 920 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 1020 cal
THURSDAY COUNT: 2330

SLEPT: 10:30pm-1am,  11:45am-1pm, 3.75hr

AM SNACK: 3am, iced green tea, 150 mg caffeine

BIKE SNACK: 5:30am, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:30am,  Fage with honey, almonds and vanilla, kind var, 650 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, good grilled cheese, momma salad, +/- 900 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, skyline-style chili with cheddar over buttermilk waffles, pop salad, chocolate creme brûlée, +/- 1500 cal
Homecooked, not resto.
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2880

SLEPT: 9pm-5:30am, 8.5hrs

AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, fishball noodle soup, pork and vegetable dumplings, tea, +/- 1000 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, popcorn popped in bacon fat, momma salad, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & cashews, +/- 600 cal

EVEING SNORT: 9:30pm, whiskey, +/- 200 cal