Do you know what the biggest dilemma is every time I cook?

Is salty bad, is sweet bad, what is actually more harmful to the body?

Living with my husband and raising a son, sometimes making a meal feels less like just filling our stomachs and more like a mission to take care of the family's health.

Especially when I see my 8-year-old son who has recently started eating a lot, his eyes sparkle at anything with sugar, and my husband loves salty food, which makes me wonder whether to reduce the water in the ramen, leaving me standing in the kitchen contemplating sweet and salty.

Everyone knows that salty taste is a problem with salt, and sweet taste is a problem with sugar.

But deciding what to reduce is really difficult. When I hear that salt is bad and can cause high blood pressure, I find myself pondering whether to add the final seasoning when making doenjang jjigae. And when sugar comes up, my desire to buy cookies instead of fruit for dessert disappears. Even if I say I don't eat processed foods these days, just soy sauce, ketchup, and dressings have hidden sugars and sodium, so reducing one thing ultimately leads to another problem.

So I have decided on my answer. Let's be careful with both. To be more precise, "only a little, only when necessary." I use salt just enough to bring out the flavor of the ingredients, and I only use sweetness on special occasions. On a regular basis, I try to rely on the natural flavors as much as possible.

When boiling soup, adding anchovies and kelp gives flavor without needing to add much salt. When stir-frying meat, just sautéing onions and garlic well brings out the natural sweetness, so I don't have to touch sugar. This way, my child says less, "Why is this bland?" and my husband seems to enjoy it, saying, "This tastes like what my mom used to make."

In fact, living in America, big-sized processed foods are usually heavily seasoned and sweetened, and they are also loaded with oil. Even ordering a salad at a family restaurant comes with an enormous amount of sugar in the dressing. So sometimes, I feel like the 'slightly bland rice' I make is the last bastion of health for my family.

Of course, I also want to eat cheeseburgers sometimes. My husband wants pizza, and my child wants ice cream. But I keep those as special meals about once a week, and on regular days, I quietly prepare healthy meals.

In the end, whether salty is bad or sweet is bad, this issue is not a battle of choices but a battle of balance.

Anything in excess is poison, and a little is okay, and the reason we cook every day is not just for food but for health.

As I protect my family's health day by day in the kitchen, I find that whether it's salty or sweet, a ratio that suits me eventually emerges. I think of this as my way of cooking, my way of love.