©iStockphoto.com/Gepjunior

From Josh Ozersky's latest column in Time magazine:

The food marketplace is under constant pressure to make everything tastier, more explosive, more exciting, and salt is everyone's go-to flavor enhancer because it opens up the taste buds. It's basically cocaine for the palate -- a white powder that makes everything your mouth encounters seem vivid and fun. That's why restaurant cooks in particular use it in quantities that would make most customers' jaws drop. They grab fistfuls of it to cover steaks and roasts. They put a big pinch in a salad. It's everywhere.