The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the American Medical Association are urging the Food and Drug Administration to require food makers to reduce the salt in their products. A hearing is scheduled next week and they are expected to say intervention is needed to fight heart disease.
Nearly one-third of American adults — and one billion people worldwide — have high blood pressure, a leading cause of heart disease, strokes and liver failure. While salt is not the only contributing factor to hypertension it is a leading one.
Federal guidelines say 2,300 mg of sodium per day is the safe upper limit, although some experts say the body only needs 1,500 mg daily. The average American consumes between 3,300 and 4,000 mg a day.
In an article on msnbc.com, the CSPI says there’s growing scientific consensus that the current level of sodium is one of the greatest threats to public health. The AMA says it’s truly urgent and that cutting the salt in processed and restaurant foods within 10 years could save up to 150,000 lives each year.
The article also says the food industry, which has begun to reduce sodium, is afraid of a consumer backlash if salt content is cut deeply.
Oh, please.
As the article points out, scientific studies have shown people get used to less salt and before long, many foods taste too salty. That’s certainly been my experience.
When a palate is trained by ingesting fast foods, salty snacks and cream of mushroom soup — staples in the daily diets of many Americans — it’s no surprise someone would expect food to taste like a salt lick. A can of that creamed soup has nearly 2,200 mg; literally thousands of recipes I’ve seen online use two or more cans of various cream soups to serve four or six.
The article also looks at the potential for excess sodium during Thanksgving dinner:
Stuffing can harbor up to 600 mg of sodium a serving, plus 300 for gravy. If you bought the salt-added turkey, plan on 490 mg. Pumpkin pie doesn’t seem salty, but one popular brand has 300 mg a slice.
Cooking from scratch can slash those numbers — homemade cornbread for stuffing, for example, has little salt — and there are even reduced-sodium broths to make gravy.
It’s not too late to make cornbread or gravy and pumpkin pie takes no time at all. The recipe on every can of Libby’s pumpkin puree is my all-time favorite and uses just 1/2 teaspoon of salt. The pumpkin has none.
Related: Update – Federal Sodium Limits (March, 2008)
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
So I’m sitting here eating the hamburger pattie I just fried up, in its own juices, for lunch and thinking does meat have salt naturally? I know I sprinkled salt, pepper and a dash of garlic salt on it but I don’t know how to find out how much sodium that might be? Meanwhile, I have been thinking about sodium again since your post about soup the other day and I went through our cabinet and looked at the content on all the stuff we eat at home. (We rarely eat fast food and mostly order a meal we can share when we eat out.) And it seems that most of the canned veggies and soup are high on the sodium end. Still we usually split a can of soup and normally eat small portions so it doesn’t really feel dangerous to me. Are you sure this isn’t another one of the strategies that the govt. seems to use to get us to be in a continuous state of fear about something or other?
I think that salt should be almost eradicated from today’s food – there is way too much in it.
Crisps (chips) in Canada are smothered in the stuff!
@Will Rhodes – Not only is there too much of it, it’s often in places we’d never think of. For example, who’d guess a croissant has almost 3x the sodium of a piece of whole wheat bread? That info is from a piece at WebMD I’ve had on my Useful Links page since day one of this blog. It’s called Beware the Salt Shockers and it’s here if you’re interested:
http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/120/113890.htm?pagenumber=1
@rhbee – Hi! Sorry I sent you on a look-see in the pantry. (nah, maybe I’m not) In reverse order, it’s not the government trying to alarm us. It’s a respected advocacy group and the AMA trying to get the government to act. I am not an alarmist and would not have interrupted a very busy day to post this if I didn’t feel strongly about its import.
Beef – According to Nutrition Data, a site also on my Useful Links page, beef does have sodium in varying amounts depending on the cut and its state. Here’s a link to the very long list for beef:
http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-beef000000000000000000000.html
You’re absolutely right about sodium in canned veggies and soups. Ramen noodle soup in packets is appalling – that seasoning pack is almost pure salt. Someday look at the ingredients on a container of lemon pepper.
Some companies, not just those who make ramen soups, very quietly changed their labeling a few years back to make it appear there is less sodium. They did that by changing (reducing) the serving sizes so they could list more servings per same package or can. Who divvies up that small package of ramen soup? When a can of soup has 2.5 servings, who gets the .5?
This is such an easily-dealt-with situation and my greatest annoyance is the number of children developing a palate for salt from an early age.
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