The amount of salt present in today's diet is nothing short of insane. You can't go anywhere today without being confronted with a ton of salt.
I don't see anything wrong with cooking on the lighter side with less salt and letting people add more if they want to. The manufacturers are incredibly stubborn about this, and make it very difficult for people to reduce their sodium consumption if they really want to.
The same with sugar content — and, yet, whenever they leave out salt and/or sugar, the price goes up along with blood pressure readings
There's a myriad of factors involved with the economics of food production. The most obvious of which is demand. Creating a new product, such as Reduced Fat Oreos, will necessarily cannibalize existing product lines. Hence, a higher margin is needed to make the production profitable.
I wonder what proportion of excess sodium in peoples' diets is derived from the excess calories they consume -
It is simple: never eat processed or restaurant food. Never add salt. Don't have it in the house. I don't. My sodium intake is about 200 mg/day (from the trace amounts present in vegetables and fish). I get to taste the real flavors of food, spices and herbs.
Trying to cut partway is too complicated. Just cut it out entirely.
