Salt, or sodium chloride, is an essential supplement that is needed to help the human body work effectively. It is also used as a seasoning, and to preserve food. If it is so essential, why would it be a good idea to replace it with herbs instead?
The problem with salt is that too much is bad for you, and can cause health problems. With the modern diet, especially processed foods, it is unnecessary to add salt to most dishes. As well as occurring naturally in some foods, it is also added to most processed foods. As a result of this, even before adding any during cooking, let alone at the table, we are normally getting more than our daily allowance of salt.
Herbs are plants in which the leafy green parts are used in cooking (if another part of the plant is used, it's a spice). This may sound similar to vegetables, but with herbs only a small amount is used as flavouring. Herbs can be used either fresh or dried, and are often very easy to grow in limited space, such as on a windowsill, due to the amount that is needed.
Some herbs are annuals; some are perennials. Even amongst a particular plant that is used as a herb, there can be a wide variation of flavours. There are many different types of mint, for example; as well as the most common mints there are also spearmint and peppermint to name but two.
Herbs are an easy, and often cheap, way of adding flavour to dishes. You can buy jars of dried herbs, bundles of fresh herbs or even plants from many supermarkets. Plants tend to cost a similar amount to fresh herbs, and are therefore better value for money. If you have too great an amount of fresh herbs to use at once, you can always dry them yourself, which can be done in the microwave.
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