Many thanks to whichever colleague took the trouble to arrange this as my secret Santa gift.
Gourmet salts favoured by celebrity chefs are expensive and have no health benefits, according to a report published today.
Gourmet salts contain almost 100 per cent sodium chloride, just like average table salt, meaning that they are likely to have exactly the same effect on your blood pressure and health.
Claims that rock and sea salts are “natural” and “contain minerals” are misleading and should be ignored, according to the report, which has been published by scientists leading a campaign to reduce the amount of salt consumed in the UK, backed by Which?, the consumers’ association.
A survey of Which? members suggested that almost 50 per cent of consumers thought that it was worth paying more for gourmet salt. About 25 per cent thought gourmet salts were healthier, while 39 per cent believed they were more natural.
Sue Davies, chief policy adviser at Which?, said: “Many of us are trying to reduce the amount of salt in our diet but our research shows people are needlessly spending more money on ‘premium’ salt because they often believe it is healthier than traditional table salt.”
Gourmet salts contain almost 100 per cent sodium chloride, just like average table salt, meaning that they are likely to have exactly the same effect on your blood pressure and health. One leading campaigner said that the large crystals favoured by gourmet salt manufacturers were possibly more damaging because they took longer to dissolve, and taste less salty as a result.
“It is disgraceful that chefs still encourage people to use so much sea and rock salt,” said a spkesman at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine. He added that measures had been taken to warn of the dangers of salt and health, with consumption in Britain falling by 10 per cent from 2005 to 2008. There has also been an increase in demand for LoSalt, which has 66 per cent less sodium.
Nutritionalists and healthcare professionals are angry at claims made on packaging to encourage consumers to pay high prices. “They should not be allowed to get away with it!”
Among the offenders identified by the report was the Cornish Sea Salt Co. It claims to retain “over 60 naturally occurring trace elements and minerals essential for wellbeing”. It typically costs 75p per 100g, compared with just 8p for Saxa table salt. The most expensive salt in the study was fine Himalayan Crystal Salt, with a 1kg bag costing £13.46, or £1.35 per 100g. It claims to be “a salt that’s good for you . . . that even your doctor will like”.
Your GP is much more likely to be happier if you were to invest the money saved by not buying gourmet salt on a good quality blood pressure monitor which you can use regularly at home to keep a record on your blood pressure – one of the leading causes of heart disease and stroke.
A nutritionist specialising in studying the effects of salt and health said: “Most of the salt we eat, about 75 per cent, is hidden in food we buy.”
Cornish Sea Salt Co declined to issue a statement but pointed to articles that highlighted the health benefits of unrefined sea salt over table salt.
The rising price of lamb is causing a spate of crimes — in the latest, a 1,500-strong flock was spirited away in Lincolnshire
They were the sheep that passed in the night. A 1,500-strong flock has been spirited away in the dark from fields in Lincolnshire in what is believed to be the biggest case of rustling in Britain in modern times.
The theft at Stenigot near Louth, which fleeced the farmer of an estimated £100,000, is the latest in a spate of crimes driven by the rising price of lamb.
The level of organisation needed to carry out last weekend’s operation has surprised insurers and police.
“It would have involved sheepdogs, up to five articulated lorries and three men with each truck,” said a spokesman for NFU Mutual, the insurance company. “There would have been a lot of whistling and calling to the dogs. It is a remarkable achievement.”
He added that even in broad daylight experienced shepherds would find it hard to move so many animals in less than three hours.
The company estimates the cost of sheep rustling has risen more than fivefold in the past year. It says thefts of 100 to 200 animals have now become common and has received 142 claims for rustling in the first six months of this year, compared with 156 for the whole of 2010.
There is money to be made from lamb. The cost of 1kg (2.2lb) of British chops has gone up almost 40% in three years, from an average of 1,039p in July 2008 to 1,424p in July this year.
The price rises date originally from the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001 when the number of sheep decreased sharply. More recently, falling farm profits and two harsh winters, leading to poor pastures, have reduced numbers further, while the weak pound has encouraged farmers to sell them abroad.
Recent thefts, reminiscent of those encountered by Wallace and Gromit in A Close Shave, include 300 sheep taken from a farm near Hungerford, Berkshire, 200 from a flock on Dartmoor in Devon and a similar number from Cockburnspath, Berwickshire — as well as 271 at Ramsbottom, Lancashire.
Previously, the biggest livestock theft in recent years was in 2009 when 500 piglets were taken from a farm in Staffordshire. Ducks and bees have also been singled out.
Sheep rustling has attracted skilled criminals in the past. The 18th-century highwayman Dick Turpin began his career stealing them for his butcher’s shop in Essex.
Modern thieves, as well as being well organised with fleets of transporters and a network of helpers to process the animals, are adept at pulling the wool over the eyes of police and other investigators.
Farmers are required to tag and document each animal, suggesting thieves may be falsifying records or be in league with slaughterhouses willing to kill the animals illicitly. Some may also end up in the fields of dishonest farmers who “launder” their identities.
Organised rural crime is a growing menace, although it is more common with machinery than livestock. “We’ve just recovered a Land Rover that was stolen from a farmer in Warwickshire as he went to unlock a gate,” said Chris Ruff, a detective with the vehicle crime intelligence service of the Association of Chief Police Officers. “It ended up in South Africa.” The service also recovered nine tractors from Poland.
There were 507,906 crimes in the countryside between January and June, compared with 195,907 over the previous six months, according to research commissioned by NFU Mutual.
It believes the spike in rural crime is in part driven by rising prices for sheep meat and materials such as scrap metals and diesel fuel — and peaks each April.
