Hm, now that I've read through some of these recipes, I actually think this might be a perception thing; we've had a lifetime of being conditioned to think that food needs that extra bit of salt or that extra bit of oil or it's "too bland."

Not to say that some of these recipes won't turn out bland (can't say I know much about how to make a good clam chowder), but one of the things I noticed right away when I started cutting back on excess sugars and salts is that food I used to think was bland became quite flavourful, and dishes that were too high in salt started to taste way too intense.

So perhaps the idea with these recipes is to keep it safe, reduce salt and sugars bad-fats, and people will inevitably alter recipes to taste. After all, it would be kind of hard to justify writing a new food guide that discourages excessive salt consumption and then publish recipes with normal amounts of salt in them.