Pass the Potato Chips
Geek link of the day: free programming books (via Weblog Tools Collection)
I firmly believe that the best things in life are sugar, salt, and fat. Sugar is the gas that makes your body run, salt is an essential mineral without which you’d keel over, and fat…well, fat just tastes good. Salt gets a bad rap, though. We wince in horror when Emeril tosses a handful of it into his latest recipe, we scold people who eat it straight from the shaker (take my word for it on this one), and we feel potato chip guilt—because we know the lowly potato chip is nothing more than a vehicle for the administration of the forbidden mineral.
But I’ll never turn down a potato chip again, because salt is actually completely harmless for the majority of munchers. Earlier this year, JunkScience reported on the Federal government’s ongoing and groundless
Salt Assault. I just spotted the news in their 2004 Junk Science Awards, where the salt assault placed at #9. Here’s the blurb, in their own words:
In early 2004, a panel of the National Academy of Science‚Äôs Institute of Medicine urged that the recommended daily allowance of sodium be drastically reduced by almost 40% and that the average American‚Äôs actual sodium consumption be slashed by more than 60% — even though 10 major studies conducted since 1995 have all concluded that lower sodium diets don‚Äôt produce health benefits and may pose risks for some. Why the extreme recommendation? Political correctness run amok. Read more…
I think I’ll break out the chips to celebrate.
[Update: I posted a longer version of this entry at GNXP, with a bonus link to Emeril’s malassadas recipe.]