Anti-salt campaigns coming to a town near you
First it was trans fats, then carbs and calories. Now, salt has become the latest dietary no-no from New York to Baltimore.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants manufacturers and restaurants to curb the amount of salt they use -- not only in the city, but nationwide. We're talking everything from potato chips and soups to pies and that famous New Yawk pizza. The goal: reduce the amount of salt in restaurants and packaged foods by 25 percent by 2014.
The CDC said in a report last year that Americans consume double the recommended amount of sodium. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure and place you on the nasty road toward stroke and heart disease.
Our colleague Meredith Cohn wrote about salt as the new health boogeyman earlier this year. And the Baltimore health department launched a campaign against the mineral a year earlier.
The Baltimore Salt Reduction Task Force stopped short of forcing restaurants and manufacturers to limit their salt, but came out with a seven recommendations to get the public to decrease its salt intake. They include: education campaigns, an award to city restaurants who disclose the nutritional information of their food and a pledge to work with agencies outside of the city on reducing sodium.
In Baltimore, 2,000 people die each year from cardiovascular disease. It's the city's and the nation's No. 1 killer. When it comes to the haves and the have nots, the impact of heart disease is alarming, according to the task force report last September. It's a key reason for the 20-year range in life expectancy between Baltimore's wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, the report found. Yikes.
So, will a war on salt make us healthier?
Absolutely, say many public health advocates, inclduing the CDC's Thomas Frieden and former New York health department.
Although, the Times story mentiones that some researchers have questioned the effort, saying there isn't enough research on possible side effects. Reducing salt intake could lead to physiological changes connected to heart problems, they said. Who knew?
So far though, manufacturers appear on board. Some already have reduced salt in their products voluntarily, including Campbell's Soup and Kellogg's cereals (yes, there's salt in your Rice Krispies!), says this story in the Wall Street Journal. The piece also explains how difficult this proposition is. Salt's cheap. It enhances flavor and helps packaged foods stay fresher longer. Oh and did we mention it's cheap? Using less salt could mean manufacturers being forced to reformulate their products entirely, the story says.
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Comments
All of the salt in foods today is not really necessary, I KNOW that it is there to supposedly help 'preserve the food' but I have bought packaged meals that are 'no salt' and they taste just as good, if not better, than the heavily salted meals.
The FDA needs to step in and say "NO MORE SALT! NO MORE SALT-BASED PRESERVATIVES! PERIOD!"
Posted by: Abresh | January 12, 2010 9:13 AM
Sure, tell Marylanders that they can't have salt in their crab seasoning. Hey Govt' worry about the economy, I'll worry about what I put in my body!
Posted by: Crabber | January 12, 2010 12:42 PM