I'll confess. I don't like salt.

I don't salt at the table nor when I cook nor do I buy salty foods, in general. I always find that salt covers up the natural flavours of a food rather than "accentuate" them.

Nevertheless, I know several people who love salt who battle with hypertension and they're told to cut back on salt intake. From what I've read, they should be having more potassium also. The main salt substitute that I've seen out there is potassium chloride (KCl) and many prepared foods use KCl in place or along side of NaCl to give lower sodium counts.

Is KCl really such a great product for people (low sodium, high potassium) or is it so chemically similar to NaCl that it's not really helpful or even harmful (like a fake sodium count)? Is there something else I can suggest to try other than spicing? Keep in mind that some of these people also like to liberally salt fast food, like McDonalds or Jack In The Box.

I don't get the obsession with salt, but I'm sure that many of you know of someone (or many someones!) that have to deal with this. Any thoughts?