I stopped adding salt to my food when I was 18. I got Hepatitis A/Jaundice.
In xUSSR they used quarantine you for 18-21-28 days. I didn't realised I was sick until I was half-way through the worst of the illness, so I was quarantined for 18 days. During this period of time you can eat only hospital food. It is a special diet in which salt, anything fried, any spices, any fatty food, any alcohol do not exist. After the initial 18 days, they let you go but warn you that because you are older than 12 years, the illness will have a lasting effect for the rest of your life, by weakening your liver. In order to counteract this effect you must follow a strict died for the next 6 months and a less strict diet for another 6 months. Strict died means all the same restrictions as in quarantine in hospital.
Many changes in my life followed this illness. It was time when a big influx of western literature has been translated to Russian. I read quite a few books about food and diet and our body. Including Paul Bragg's "The Miracle of Fasting"
Before the illness, I didn't know anything about cholesterol, fat, proteins, carbohydrates etc.
I never returned to eating salty food. Since then, I can eat anything without salt.
Ironically, when I moved to Israel on my 8th month of diet, my brother and his wife who are doctors told me to forget about everything they told me in the soviet hospital. Hepatitis A/Jaundice has no lasting effects. It doesn't damage liver. That in Israel, it is no worse than a flew. That I can eat anything I want
Again, ironically, because of the illness I educated myself about food and how it affect our body. What is good and what is bad (on amateurish level of course, but apparently I know a lot more than an average Joe).
However, giving up on red meat....my weekly rib-eye steaks rare? Oh my. Heaven
me.