What a lovely story. As a traveler in Thailand, I encountered many signs prohibiting smoking, dogs, and durian fruit in elevators and hotels. Also, as someone who did not grow up eating the fruit, my encounter with durian ice cream while there is still distinctive in my mouth as the worst thing I have ever tasted - there are some pleasures in life that are clearly not meant for me.

Matthew, I don’t think that anyone is saying salt is completely evil. She even noted that 80% of salt in the diet comes from processed food. I recently read this NYTimes article - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/health/30salt.html - that talks about how overused salt is in processed food - I don’t think salt should be a substitute for real foods or their textures and flavors. Food writes should focus on food (like Culinate does) , not food-like alternatives pasted together with salt and chemicals!