American Fast Food is Saltier

[Chemicalkinetics]

I know many American sacks are quiet salty, but I didn't know the same fast food franchises (say McDonald) provide saltier foods in USA, than in other countries.

"Overall, the researchers found, fast food tended to be saltier in the United States than in the other countries included in the study: Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the UK. What's more, the sodium content of the same menu items at the same chains varied by country, sometimes widely."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/17/health/...

Your thought?

[pdxgastro]

Two thoughts.
1. My Japanese friend said Japanese food is quite salty and Japanese people are seeing a tendency towards hypertension.
2. My friend found a recipe for KFC chicken you can make at home and it had TONS of salt.

[sueatmo]

Whenever I get a fast food burger--not often, I admit--I am surprised at how tasteless it is. I always think it needs something, maybe salt? I almost never eat fries any more, or fried things. Perhaps those things are saltier?

Mr. Sueatmo likes to eat a certain chains. Sometimes I think food in chain franchises is pretty salty. When things are too salty, I suspect the salt is there to disguise poor quality or freshness of ingredients.

[Sooeygun]

US fast foods are saltier, except for the ones that aren't. Depends on the details the media outlet chooses to pull out of the study. When I read about it in a Canadian paper, they were saying Cdn fast food was saltier.

Here is the actual study
http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2012...

[Chemicalkinetics]

Hmm, I looked at the actual study you cited, it does not seem like Canadian food is less saltier than US. I say they are about the same. Maybe US still a bit more.

[scubadoo97]

Just catering to American tastes? Or do some other countries have regulations in regard to sodium in processed foods?
Anyone know?

[Chemicalkinetics]

I know the British is holding tighter against high sodium foods and high sugar foods. For example, it is very difficult to buy Lucky Charm in Britain and one reason is the high sugar content. Another potential reason is the leprauchans.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showt...

For most countries, I think the higher salt content in American fast food is due to "catering to American tastes"