If you’ve ever tried to reduce the amount of salt in your diet, you know it’s not an easy task. Even after you’ve put your own personal salt shaker away, it can seem impossible to get away from the high levels in canned, frozen, fast and restaurant food.
New York City wants to help.
"Salt is a huge problem in our diets," Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Control Program at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told CNN. "The majority of us consume too much salt, which increases blood pressure and puts us at risk for heart attack and stroke."
The city health department is taking the lead in a national effort announced Monday to help Americans lower the amount of salt in their diets. By partnering with cities, states and health departments across the country, they hope to cut the salt in packaged and restaurant foods by 25 percent over 5 years.
That would help the average American, who needs only about 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day but who instead consumes between 3,400-3,500 milligrams. Angel said that 80 percent of the average person’s salt intake comes from packaged and restaurant foods.
From the story:
“During the past year, city officials have met with industry leaders, company representatives, restaurant owners and health experts to come up with a plan. The result of their meetings is a list of proposed benchmarks for 61 categories of packaged foods and 25 classes of restaurant food to help companies and restaurants nationwide gradually reduce sodium.
“Subway, one of the companies that advised the health department, says that it is ready to commit to reducing salt in all Subway locations across the country.
"We have been looking at ways to reduce sodium in all of our products," said Kevin Kane, a spokesman for Subway. "This seemed like an extension of what we were doing already."
“The company's most popular product, the 6-inch turkey sandwich, already meets the recommended sodium criteria for the five-year mark. But Kane acknowledged that the chain needs to work on getting some of its other offerings to make the grade without affecting the sandwiches' taste.
“Finding that balance between low salt and good taste is not as easy as it sounds.
Campbell Soup Company, which has quadrupled the number of its lower-sodium products in the past five years, is not favorable about the initiative simply because of the quick turnaround.
"We feel really strongly that we share the same goal in reducing sodium," said Campbell spokeswoman Julie Mandel Sloves. "However, we think the targets and time frame recommended are quite aggressive."
The New York Times interviewed experts about what the effort to cut salt in food would mean overall:
“We all consume way too much salt, and most of the salt we consume is in the food when we buy it,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, the city health commissioner, whose department is leading the effort. Dr. Farley said reducing salt from those sources would save lives.
More from the Times:
“Since taking office, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who just began his third term, has gained a reputation as an advocate for healthy living, initiating prominent campaigns against smoking and harmful trans fats. To combat obesity, he has campaigned for calorie labeling on restaurant menus and warned consumers about sugary soft drinks.
“The city’s salt campaign is in some ways more ambitious and less certain of success than the ones it waged against smoking and obesity. For one thing, the changes it prescribes require cooperation on a national scale, city officials said, because major food companies cannot be expected to alter their products for just the New York market.
“And removing salt from many products can be complicated. Salt plays many roles in food, enhancing flavor, preventing spoilage and improving shelf life.”
From Reuters:
High blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke kill 23,000 New Yorkers and 800,000 Americans per year, costing untold billions in healthcare expenses, the Health Department said. Salt intake has been increasing steadily since the 1970s, with Americans consuming about twice the recommended limit of salt each day.
"Consumers can always add salt to food, but they can't take it out," Farley said.
The CNN story and video:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/11/new.york.salt/index.html
The New York Times story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/business/11salt.html
The Reuters story:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1117092320100111