These efforts include reducing the sodium content of our Campbell’s condensed kids soups not just once, but twice in the past few years by up to 45 percent and cutting the sodium in our top-selling Campbell’s Tomato soup by 32 percent this year.

I’d like to clarify that our condensed soups contain 480 mg of sodium per one-cup serving prepared (half cup of condensed soup reconstituted with the same amount of water). In addition, we have 90 soups that meet FDA/USDA criteria for healthy foods and also are low in fat, saturated fat, no trans fat.

Sodium reduction remains Campbell’s number one strategic priority. Our goal is not just to lower sodium, but make sure we offer the great-taste people expect from us. That’s one of the biggest challenges in sodium reduction – but we work every day to meet that challenge head-on.

Full disclosure: I love salt, but I also use a wide range of other seasonings, because I love variety. I find I can use less salt by playing with spices and herbs and other aromatics. And, yes, I cook nearly everything we eat at our house.

And kudos to Emily for her comment about real cooking. Ditto.

(For the record, though, I love salt. But I also do cook almost everything we eat, so my love of salt is really nothing like Nabisco’s. Proof: I often have to cheat a little before I give blood by jogging around so my PB will be high enough.)

Cooking from scratch is more about knowledge than money. Once you feel at ease with a pot, some kale, and a dash of curry powder, you know you can make anything from whatever is in your fridge. And it is interesting that soup is one of the products that people will not buy in a low sodium version due to taste, or lack of it. I find soup to the easiest dish to make and people who are soup addicts find the fresh taste of homemade soup better than anything in a can. It is quick and you can practically use any ingredients you have laying around. Buying the right tools, like an immersion blender, will make your cooking process even easier.

Salt has just become a safety blanket. We are all capable of eating fresh and healthy, no matter what budget we are on. But as with most monumental changes, we must supplement the sodium reduction with an education on how to make it feasible and delicious.

I’ve noticed some products using sea salt to reduce sodium content and that seems to help some too. It seems to take less sea salt to achieve the “desired saltiness”. Some of Campbell’s soups are doing this and my admittedly salt loving mother even likes them.

The idea, though, that the food makers would gladly give up all the extra salt in food if the poor consumer just wanted it is really… well, silly. After all, the food makers are the ones who trained people to find all that extra salt acceptable in the first place!