I've been feeling slightly off for most of today- a little shaky and highly strung. I was putting it down to some odd dietary deficiency, but now I think it might be the complete opposite. I think I may have eaten too much salt.
The food here is very nice, but there's salt in everything. Salty seaweed, salty soy sauce, salty salmon (okay, I'll drop the sibilance), pickled vegetables and salty miso jump out at you from every bento box and snack stand. I've eaten so much I feel like a walking salt mill. Even my saliva has started tasting of salt, which cannot be a good sign! For the last few hours, as a temporary remedy, I've been filling myself full of water but the stuff doesn't seem to be washing out. I can honestly see no way round the problem. If you want to eat, there is no escape.
With such a high salt intake, it surprises me that the people here don't die of heart failure in their 30s. Could generations of salinated Udon have led to natural selection? Maybe eating enough sodium pickles you. That, at least, would explain why Japanese people have the highest life expectancy in the world!
Anyway, I certainly shan't be drinking any miso for dinner. A cardiac arrest at 19 might be unlikely, but the risk isn't worth it.
Update: Dinner was the saltiest curry I've ever eaten. Quite soon I'll start to crystallize.
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7 comments:
I am a bit distressed to hear you have been a-salted. I had a similar reaction to our miso-fest at Yo Sushi. Like you, I can't think of much to do except drinking water. How salty is the plain rice? Would that be a viable alternative to the rest, as least in the short term?
The quest for fresh fruit is getting more urgent. Some bananas and apples would go a long way towards remedying the situation. Just find them and eat them - hang the cost. Grapes and berries aside, fruit is often 30p or more a piece in England so the difference in price may not be as much as you think.
I'm not sure we can put all your highly-strungness down to NaCl, though, there is a strong hereditary element there - as you know!
Love Highly Strung Anonymous
I felt just like I did after Yo-Sushi too.
Today I cracked and bought a pack of three apples, the cheapest in the shop, for 1.75.
Bananas are a good idea, as I don't think the price is too bad. The ones I've seen so far look a bit brown though....
What about whole melons? They are big and juicy (and possibly expensive).
One melon can set you back fifty pounds. I'm not lying, I have photographic evidence.
I didn't mean the cubic watermelons! Spheres are perfectly acceptable.
As you can see I have now revealed who I really am (or at least what I really have).
I am Anonymous no more!
"I think I may have eaten too much salt" elicited a camp low-quality children's tv style "dun dun dun..!" from my brain, which, quite frankly, was annoying.
gl,hf finding some fruit or other low-salt content to satiate your hunger. Eating ice would not only fill your stomach up but also help with the high salt levels - not recommended if you have sensitive teeth.
p.s. I showed my mum this blog and she's been enjoying it.
Kon-nichiwa Duncan from Moruya - we are enjoying reading about your adventures in Japan, but are a bit worried about the salt problem - keep eating the fruit and drinking the water (boring, boring..I know!).
I don't know about kangaroos loose in the top paddock - we have them in ALL the paddocks - nice to see, but not when they are eating your cows' grass ....maybe we should give them some salt-licks???
Keep up the good work,
Sayounara, and much love from The Country Bumpkins.
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