​​Why We Put Salt on Everything We Eat?

Salted food slowly became more common since it was always around and ready to eat, and eventually salted foods became so common that their taste was not just accepted, but expected. And why not? Salt makes food taste good.

Whatever you’re eating (hopefully) was or came from something that was alive at some point in time. Living things, so long as they come from this Earth, are largely made of water, which dilutes the taste of anything that you eat. It’s been proposed that adding salt to food enhances other flavours by trying down water molecules. Basically, salt might stop water molecules from diluting all the other flavors in your food.

So it’s the way that salt brings out other flavors that makes salty foods so satisfying, and it’s probably why your craving-fueled daydreams don’t have you downing salt straight from the shaker.

Besides concentrating other flavours in food, salt also decreases the bitterness that you’ll naturally find in foods. We’re surrounded by salt every meal of the day, so it’s easy to dismiss it as mundane, but between building early civilizations and boosting the flavors of our food, it’s safe to say that the salt shaker has earned its place at your table.