It is human nature to continually want to improve things. In a great many cases, when our knowledge was sufficient and the universe unfolded as expected, our efforts led to social, material and medical advances that have stood the test of time. In other cases, rather than delivering the expected benefits, these innovations led to unintended consequences that plagued us for long periods before we discovered the true nature of their effects and dispensed with them. One of the areas of interest that has seen a great many of these dilemmas has been the field of food and nutrition.

The ancient Greeks and Romans discovered that when they coated the interiors of their copper or bronze cooking pots with lead, many of the food and beverages they prepared tasted much better. Nowhere was this more evident than in the preparation of acidic products such as wines. Popular recipes of the day called for the boiling of the must from grapes in lead-lined vessels in order to prepare a liquid additive that would enhance the color, flavor and shelf life of wine. The resultant sweet, syrupy liquid was called “sapa”.

Sure, they could have added natural honey as they had for centuries, but this new development was considered a real advancement. What actually happened when they boiled the must in lead vessels was a reaction between the acetic acid from the grape ferment and the lead of the pot to form a compound called lead acetate. Lead acetate is also called ‘lead sugar’ because it is so sweet and it made wine more tasty.

What they did not know was that lead sugar was toxic - not the acute toxicity that could be detected immediately - but the chronic toxicity which often evades immediate notice. Thus, the unintended consequence of lead poisoning ushered in an epidemic of morbidity and mortality that lasted for more than 1500 years before being discovered . Unbelievably, this new development in taste contributed significantly to the downfall of Rome, because more than two thirds of the leading Roman aristocrats who served between 30 – 220 C.E. including all the Roman Emperors, were most likely victims of lead poisoning .

In the current rush to replace salt (sodium chloride) in our diet with chemicals that mimic its taste, we may be seeing "déjà vu, all over again." Salt replacement is a very complex task because nothing quite duplicates its taste perfectly. For example, not only does potassium chloride have a considerably lower taste intensity, but it has a large bitter component that has to be compensated for. To get over the bitterness, chemicals such as 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid have to be added. But it doesn't stop there because the low-level of salty taste inherent in all the proposed salt replacers require that they be enhanced through the employment of chemical enhancers such as inosine 5-monophosphate, disodium guanylate, glycine monoethyl ester, ornithyl-β-alanine, L-arginine or (N-(1-Carboxethyl)-6-hydroxymethyl-pyridinium-3-ol) commonly known as alapyridaine.

In the past, these industrial chemicals have been approved as additives with the understanding that they would be used in minute amounts within our foods. However, if they are to be used to replace salt throughout our food system we will consume a lot more of them than ever anticipated. Unless long-term chronic toxicity testing of these chemicals is carried out, we may very well be exposing ourselves to the unintended consequences that have befallen humankind in the past. In fact, it is strange that consumer advocacy groups such as CSPI have not questioned their use more closely.

Of course, in more recent history, we have seen the good intentions of trying to eliminate all forms of fat in our diet. Unfortunately, good intentions may not have been enough, because we are now coming to realize that the whole genre of no fat, low fat and reduced fat foods may have contributed significantly to the epidemic of obesity we now see all around us.

Before we go grabbing at another dietary gold ring, it may be prudent to get all our knowledge in place if we want the universal to unfold as it should.