Salt Awareness Week at Tossed

It’s Salt Awareness Week from Monday 11 to Sunday 17 March, and the campaign, now in its sixth successful year, will be asking for ‘less salt, please’. The aim is to show that everybody, including chefs, can use less salt and still enjoy the full flavour of their food.

Whilst this is a yearly wake-up call for many, it’s an everyday way of being at Tossed, the 10-strong group of healthier eating places in London and the South East. Other high street retailers might wake up now, but less salt, sometimes even no salt, is what Tossed has being doing since it first started in 2005.

With a sound nutritional background, chefs at Tossed go the extra mile to reduce salt to a minimum, aware that 80% of salt comes from processed foods, and only 20% percent comes from a salt shaker. But nothing is processed at Tossed, dishes are prepared daily, from fresh, prime ingredients which are also low in saturated fat and high in protein, or contain slow releasing GI carbs. Less salt and an abundance of fresh herbs and spices such as coriander, chilli, lemongrass, parsley, lime juice, lemon, seeds, organic stock and pepper are used for flavour.

It’s these spicier, tasty options which are the best sellers at Tossed. With 6,000 sold in one month alone (January 2013), the Mighty Mexican Tossed Pot, freshly made to order, is a creative mix of chicken, avocado, spring onions, coriander and cheese on low GI brown rice with a warm tomato dressing. The spicy beans mix it also contains is made in-house to ensure that salt is controlled. For the Big Protein Chicken Pot, grilled onions are first marinated in fruit tea extract and carrots are roasted with orange zest to concentrate the flavours naturally. The Sweet Chilli Chicken Salad is another best-seller, with jalapenos, red onion and low fat sweet chilli dressing for maximum flavour. Along with the create-your-own salads and wraps, all big on taste, high on protein and low in fat, a full breakfast offering, low GI Rice Pots, its famous 100 calorie Malaysian Chicken and Tomato & Basil soups, Tossed proves that ‘healthy eating does not have to be boring’. Extra chilli and herbs are always offered, and guests are asked if they want to add salt and pepper to their foods.

‘I am the first to support ‘Less Salt, Please!’ says Vincent Mckevitt, founder of Tossed. ‘At Tossed, we help people make positive changes to their diets without trying that hard. Whilst the body needs a certain amount of salt to get rid of toxins for example, the salt naturally found in foods such as prawns and cheese is more than enough. And these are a good source of protein, when eaten in moderation’. He continues: ‘A balanced diet is what healthy eating is all about. Eating five-a-day is paramount, that’s why we have always shown the portions of fruit and vegetable in all our dishes, along with saturated fat, protein and calorie content. Take our Berry Punch smoothie for example, it contains 3.2 of your daily fruit with 0.1 g of saturated fat, and with our Greek Salad with 2.4 of your daily veg, you see how easy eating five-a-day can be’.