something I see written about very often on seriouseats, particularly in aht reviews, is salt.

Many reviewers offer something along the lines of: this hamburger/other meat was bad because it suffered from lack of salt (or seasoning).

Now I'm pretty sure we can all agree that when used liberally but not excessively, salt improves the flavor of just about any dish-especially meats. But isn't sodium bad for you?

I don't know the exact science behind it (ahem, Kenji?), but I'm pretty sure increased sodium intake does bad things for cell osmosis and ion concentrations in your interstitial fluids, blood, etc.

In fact, people believe salt to be so detrimental to one's health that many cooks (including my mother) make an effort to remove added sodium from their meals. This belief led my mom to cook chicken cutlets with no salt--now we can all understand why I thought food cooked at home couldn't taste good until I was in my teens.

The question is, how do we confront this conundrum? Any right-minded cook understands the value of a sprinkle of salt for improving taste. But excesses of sodium are just not good for your body.

It would be easy to accept added salt as a food sacrifice (like admitting the fundamental unhealthiness of a hamburger or foie gras) if salt weren't so pervasive in cooking. Not every dish contains fatty ground chuck, but almost every dish contains some salt, especially the tasty ones.

Do we sacrifice salt or flavor? Or, is there some genius alternative? Sure, there are some sodium-free condiments that can boost your average stir-fry - but when making intricate, thoughtful, flavorful dishes, do we just have to bite the salt bullet and hope for the best?

Maybe the food lab has an answer.