Sodium everywhere

Hmm.. Interesting. On a branch about cooking complaints about the ingredients of food that is already cooked for you. OP my kitchen contains salt, sugar, oil, and MSG, it's up to me how much I wish to put in my food.

Although it often is about cooking, I don't think this branch ever claimed to be just about cooking.

Its sub title is "fill up on food talk" and as its on a travel site its mostly about food around the world. I'd hazard a guess that most people eat "out" when travelling as they don't have a place to cook.

But well done for not eating out much and doing a lot of cooking.

#20 -- This isn't a branch about cooking, it is a branch about getting stuffed. How you do that is up to you.

I'm not saying that pre-cooked food is so fantastic. What's good about it is that it's quick and easy at times when you don't have time to cook, and often (e.g. in the case of Ramen noodles) even cheaper than anything you (or I, anyway) could make yourself. If they weren't full of sodium, I'd eat Ramen all the time.

oops, sorry, I see now, get stuffed, not get cooking.

I'm just not used to eating food at restaurants or to go food much. (sometimes Micky Dees for burger and fries but we know that doesn't have much salt ;-))

Lately Walmart carries my Ma Ma tom yung koong style raman from Thailand so I have been eating that. Some of those asian rammens have things in separate packets so you can leave out the salt or the hot peppers or the oil, or all three, but then they are no fun right?

When I was a young guy I heard that salt was somehow bad for you and I just stopped buying or using it. My food tasted the same, (terrible) now that I'm older it gets used.

Don't know what the answer is shilgia. Use drugs I guess, Lisinopril works well.

Thanks, somsai. Well, actually, I don't have a problem with high blood pressure. (More the opposite, actually.) It's just that excess sodium is (I'm told) not very healthy even for people who aren't in cardiovascular risk categories.

I'm a student, which means I don't have time and I don't have money, and so the appeal of ramen etc. is great. But unfortunately it's not healthy to survive on that kind of junk. You're right that it's possible to leave out the condiments packets.

I try to minimize salt, too. The processed foods are loaded with salt because, as already mentioned, it's a preservative (US usage), and second, it's a lot cheaper that real herbs and spices. At least there's salt content on the labels now. Many brands now feature low-salt or reduced-salt versions of some of their most popular items, due to consumer demand. There are low-salt Progresso soups; there's a line called Healthy Choice. Generally you need to read labels like mad.

Head for the salad bars in supermarkets to get unprocessed food. They're great for one person, because you don't have to get a whole bag of everything to rot in your refrigerator.

Hm, so far I've steered clear of the salad bars because they are outrageously expensive. But it's true that I end up picking rotten spinach leaves out of the bag after a few days before eating the rest. Or, after periods of throwing out too much food, go without vegetables for weeks in repentance and fear of having to throw out more. So maybe that's not the best strategy. (I'm sure you think I'm a caveman now.)

Re: the seasoning packets in ramen. Since ramen is one of those foods that, as shilgia points out, are made to order for those lacking time &/or money, we've all eaten it, & will probably eat it again.
It used to be a lifesaver for me when I had to work late. However, I believe I got much less sodium per serving because I added a good deal more water than called for, & ate it as more of a soup than a noodle dish. "Over-watered" ramen with some green onions & a few drops of sesame oil, plus a little hot (spicy) vinegar is actually quite good. You can further trick it out with a few slivered greens, beaten egg, leftover meat, etc.

salt, as mentioned previously is both a taste enhancer and a preservative. In restaurants, they put a lot of salt in food to make you thirsty, too. (maybe not everywhere... I am not generalising here)

both my bf and myself work full time. We're not usually home before 19h Monday to Friday, yet we manage to cook every night and prepare meals in about 30 minutes (max. 45 minutes) with fresh food.

the ice compartment is too small to hold much frozen food and we cannot afford ready-made/take-away, etc each to their own, though.

"we cannot afford ready-made/take-away" -- Many of these ready-made things actually work out cheaper than anything made from scratch with supermarket ingredients. (This probably does not apply if you can buy your ingredients in bulk, or if market food is cheap where you are.)