potassium

秋田県は県民の塩分の摂取量が多い県として知られていますが、今回は減塩に向けての食に関するお話です。

Low-salt menu offers ‘taste of youth’

The Yomiuri Shimbun
AKITA — Low-salt dishes devised by a high school student will be served at a branch of a restaurant chain in Akita. Akita Prefecture has had Japan’s highest death rate from cancer for 19 consecutive years and has the one of the top levels of salt intake in the country.

Akita Tanita Shokudo, a branch restaurant of Tokyo-based Tanita Shokudo, will serve the low-salt recipes created by Mizuha Ito, 19. This is the first time for dishes created by a non-professional to be added to the menu of the restaurant chain, which is known for serving healthy food with plenty of vegetables and seasoned with only about three grams of salt.

The prefecture has long urged its residents to improve their diet, and Ito’s dishes are expected to help them do so.

The food will be served for one week each in September and October. The salt used in the set of four dishes — including rice steamed with mushrooms and bean croquettes — has been reduced to 2.11 grams, as they are flavored with dashi stock and lemon.

The dishes were devised last year by Ito when she was a third-year student at a prefectural high school and won the top prize in a low-salt recipe contest organized by the prefecture. Tanita’s managerial dietitian was a judge at the contest and proposed including Ito’s dishes on Tanita’s menu. Ito graduated from high school in March.

中略

Ito’s recipes use less salt and foods rich in potassium, which transports salt out of the body.

“I’m so happy that my recipes are used at the famous Tanita Shokudo. I hope my recipes contribute to the health of those who eat my dishes,” she said.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003007701

今回取り上げるのはpotassiumです。『ライトハウス英和辞典』（第5版　研究社）で調べてみますと、「（化学）カリウム、カリ」とありました。カリウムの元素記号はKですから、なぜKから始まる単語ではないのかと疑問に思いました。しかし、その下に載っていた解説でこの疑問は解決されました。「カリウムはドイツ語のKaliumから」と載っておりました。LDOCEには “a common soft silver-white metal that usually exists in combination with other substances, used for example in farming. It is a chemical” とありました。

塩分は気づかないうちに取りすぎているということがあると思いますので、私も気を付けようと思いました。(aqua)