This morning's Wall Street Journal dropped an interesting bomb into the snack world: Pepsi has decided to lower the salt in its savory snacks by not actually lowering the salt in its savory snacks but by instead adding a special kind of "designer salt" that limits salt absorption by 25%.  The article offers that "the company said it is committed to cutting its products' average sodium per serving by 25% by 2015 and saturated fat and added sugar by 15% and 25%, respectively, this decade."

Great.  Wonderful.  Better living through science.  I'm only too happy that Pepsi's committed to making healthier products for their customers, and how cool is it that scientists have found ways to monkey with the salt molecule?  I hope that this trend grows (and infects Pepsi's major competitor, Coca Cola.  Ever heard of them?).  But may I propose something to the executives at Pepsi?

Instead of adding some designer salt, how about just adding LESS salt?

I have a little boy, under 2, who just craves and adores salty things.  He makes me believe that salt, like fat, offers something that humans are wired to crave.  I don't feed him potato chips, but MAN does he love sea-weed, and can eat it by the fist-full.  That makes me think that savory snack makers simply give people what they're programmed to want.  Can people be re-programmed?

Probably not- salt tastes good, hands down, and if I'm cooking something and it's not quite getting "there", adding a little salt often speeds things along.  "There" apparently is sprinkled with healthy amounts of sodium.  So maybe tweaked salt will solve the world's salt addiction in a way where everybody wins (except Coca-Cola, of course).

But can't somebody, anybody, just try using less salt?

I remember hiking through a jungle in Thailand and stumbling upon some elephants digging through the mud for, uh, something.  My guide told me that they look in mud for salt deposits, because salt's tough for animals (especially vegetarian animals) to come by.  We need it, it's built into our fiber.  And apparently if we couldn't get it, we'd be willing to sift through mud to get it.

But isn't enough enough?  Still, good for you, Pepsi.  Let's hope this gives the people what they want, and yet doesn't make everyone retain water.  Happy Snacking,

Peeled Skinny, father to a salt sucker

Posted by iankusc at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So two years ago I attended Expo West as an exhibitor and was appalled to find that the year's big trend was "green" comfort food, that is, frozen hot dogs and hamburgers and the like with slightly greener ingredients.  The green junk-food trend seemed at the time a flagrant slap in the face of the movement out of which the Natural Products Expo grew, and seemed a distinctly unhealthy trend.

Last year that trend waned tremendously (thankfully), replaced by an EXPLOSION of gluten free products.  Upon reviewing them, I mentioned that many tasted like cardboard, a comment that caused me no end of trouble as it earned the ire of a commenter who crashed my blog server, made me lose scores of blog entries, and from which I'm STILL recovering data.  Let that be a lesson to you- don't mess with the gluten-free lobby!

No particular trend shined out above all the others this year.  Some peculiarities that I noticed included branded Stevia (as in, Sweet & Low for kids, Nutra-Sweet for Senior Citizens, something which I don't get at all), a growth in the use of tapioca to replace corn syrup, and several booths advertising "Non-GMO Soy!" (thank you Food, Inc.).  Gluten Free was represented (but greatly diminished), and if I saw a few more Aloe Vera beverage companies than I saw last year, I only mention it because I'm entertained by the notion of food executives thinking that they've got the "Next Big Thing" in the form of a beverage which, when you drink it, feels like you're swallowing a squid.

I did see one REALLY fun thing at Expo West, sort of a fusion of the use of new marketing tools for old classics (like the "greening" of comfort-food), and the angry passion of the Gluten-Free lobby:  I saw a PROTEST out from of the convention hall featuring about 100 young-ish people marching with signs saying things like "I won't fight for General Mills" and "UN-Natural Expo", chanting things like "Hey!  That's sick!  These brands are not organic!" and "Hey, Ho, what is wrong with Expo?!?". 

They were trying to reclaim Expo West for the revolutionaries who they perceived had sold out.  Now THAT'S a food trend to watch.  When the revolutionaries have to revolt against their own movement, then the revolution is officially over.  But at least that lets us get back to business.

And I'm happy to say that business is good.  Happy Snacking,

Peeled Skinny

Posted by iankusc at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)