Adding salt to the water when cooking vegetables is highly beneficial. In cooking, the cell walls of the vegetables soften, and the natural minerals in the vegetables migrate through the cell walls into the water. Unless you're making soup with the vegetable stock, these minerals are lost. Adding the right amount of salt to the water creates a mineral balance between the water and the vegetable cells, and the natural minerals are retained in the vegetables. Add too much salt to the water and you have another mineral imbalance, where the salt migrates into the vegetable cells, giving salty tasting veg. I do wish this information was spread more widely, instead of everyone being given the impression that all salt is bad for us.