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Salt in processed food poses a major health threat, a consumer group says.
(Alan Berner/The Seattle Times)
One of the biggest threats in the U.S. diet these days is not too much fat, sugar or even salmonella and E. coli. It's salt.
The
that salt, which turns up in high quantities in processed food, is probably the single most harmful substance in the food supply. The group estimates that thousands of people die each year from heart attacks, strokes or other health problems caused or exacerbated by excessive sodium.
The center said that if Americans had cut their salt intake in half four years ago, 400,000 lives would have been saved. To drive home the point, the center has a counter on its website.
Reducing sodium consumption by half would save an estimated 150,000 lives per year, the group estimated. That in turn would reduce medical care and other costs by roughly $1.5 trillion over 20 years.
“FDA would probably act in a heartbeat if experts found that an unsafe drug or medical device was responsible for 100,000 deaths a year, but it is tolerating a deadly level of sodium in our food supply,” said Jim O’Hara, health promotion policy director at the center. “While this administration talks about the need for healthy eating, it is failing to pursue a policy that would create a food environment in which Americans could routinely make healthier choices.”
The center said that Americans consume an average of 4,000 milligrams of sodium per day, and more than three-quarters of that from processed and restaurant food. Healthy people should only have about 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, equivalent to 1 teaspoon; those 51 and older and people with high blood pressure, should limit themselves to 1,500 milligrams or two-thirds of a teaspoon, the center said.
It has petitioned the FDA to limit sodium levels and reduce the daily value for sodium on labels from 2,300 mg.
The group also recommends:
- Consumers should choose less-salty foods.
- Food manufacturers and restaurants should use as little salt as possible in their products.
- Government should set gradually declining limits on the salt content of foods that provide the most salt to the average diet; encourage food manufacturers and restaurants to voluntarily use less salt; require chain restaurants to put warning notices on their menus, menu boards and brochures for foods and meals that are extra high in sodium; improve labeling of packaged foods to highlight those that are high in salt.
-- Lynne Terry