The month was August. I was spending the summer in the beautiful university town of Aix-en-Provence and had some time on my hands, so I signed up for cooking lessons with the chef of a local restaurant. The dish our chef prepared that day was ratatouille. Ingredients were seasonal – freshly harvested bell peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, plus garlic, basil, parsley, and olive oil from Provence-Alpes-Cote-D’Azur, the region that produces most French olive oil.
Our chef instructor chopped up the vegetables and tossed them into a pot one handful at a time. Each batch got copious additions of olive oil and salt along with some garlic, parsley, and basil. The aroma of the vegetables as they roasted gently filled the air of that small kitchen and additions of freshly picked basil leaves and garlic sweetened and intensified those aromas. The deliciousness of my first bite has stayed with me to this day.
How much salt did that chef use? I don’t know. He probably didn’t know. But it was the right amount. Just enough to accent the flavors of the vegetable but not so much that it dominated other flavors.
Salt to taste is not popular among my dietitian colleagues. But it’s how I use salt to this day. Now that I’m a dietitian and have become proficient with nutrition stats, however, I go back and calculate the amount of salt I use. I’ve done this over time so I know I use a moderate amount. Not low. And not high. But somewhere in between towards the lower end of the in between range.
Pictured above is the label I ran for the ratatouille I made last August. The serving size is small because I used 1/2 cup (85g), the FDA reference amount for labeling vegetables.
If I use the FDA 1994 threshold for “healthy”, it’s the Kiss of Death ☠️ for my ratatouille.
If I use the proposed FDA update for “healthy” and if my ratatouille were a product, I could use the word “healthy” 😇 on the label.
If I use the 5% / 20% FDA general guidance – 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low / 20% DV or more per serving is considered high – the amount of salt is in between HIGH and LOW.
Unlike my chef instructor in the south of France, I do know how salt I actually used. For each pound of vegetables, I count use about 3 grams salt. That 3 grams of salt in common measure is equivalent to about 1/2 teaspoon table salt or 1 teaspoon flake salt like Diamond Chrystal or Maldon Sea Salt.
THE VIEW FROM MY KITCHEN WINDOW
Which group does NOVA put salt in?
Salt belongs in NOVA Group 2. That’s the group of processed culinary ingredients. Other members are ingredients like cane or beet sugar, vinegar, oil, and animal fats like lard, suet, or schmaltz. All are ingredients traditionally used by chefs and home cooks.
Most of my RDN colleagues have dismissed NOVA as unscientific, unworthy of serious attention, and based on limited evidence. I hear their objections and don’t disagree. What my colleagues miss however is the social context.
NOVA grew out of the cultural matrix of Brazil during the later part of the 20th century. The Brazilian middle class at that time enjoyed freshly prepared meals based on a food culture inspired by mixture of indigenous inhabitants, Portuguese adventurers, and subsequent generations European immigrants. NOVA was triggered by the sudden arrival of our American food culture – industrial formulations of packaged food products which were convenient, tasty, and affordable.
NOVA makes sense to me because it reflects how I learned to cook growing up in my beautiful California and later polishing my culinary skills as a private chef for a couple of years in a suburb just outside of Paris. Using salt is normal when you’re used to cooking every day. And experienced cooks know that what’s needed is the right amount. That’s why experienced cooks salt to taste.
Fast forward to today. Most Americans no longer expect freshly prepared meals every day. And too much sodium has become a major concern. It’s no wonder my colleagues find NOVA to be unreliable. Because NOVA doesn’t use a nutrient focused lens, it provides no insight on sodium reduction.
Who does gets NOVA? It’s home cooks and traditionally minded chefs who love to cook and have been salting to taste since the day they set foot in the kitchen.