Too Much Salt

Americans need to go easy on the salt.

On average, they’re consuming roughly 4,000 milligrams of the stuff every day, and in the view of the some of the nation’s leading medical authorities and watchdog groups, that’s simply too much.

These groups are calling on the nation’s chief food regulator, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to do something about it.

Among the groups pushing the hardest are the American Medical Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

CSPI even maintains that some 150,000 lives could be saved in the United States annually if the amount of salt in processed foods and restaurant foods were reduced by half. The watchdog group contends that roughly 77 percent of our salt intake comes from processed and restaurant food.

The average U.S. consumption of about 4,000 milligrams of sodium each day is roughly twice what health experts recommend — a factor that contributes to hypertension, stroke, heart attacks, kidney failure and early death.

The American Medical Association is urging FDA to take immediate action by setting strict limits on the amounts of salt in processed foods. The AMA is calling on FDA to work with manufacturers to secure at least a 50 percent reduction of sodium in processed foods, fast foods and restaurant meals during the next decade.

“No one denies that we humans need salt to function,” says Kajuandra Harris-Huntley, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutrition specialist.

In fact, sodium comprises the main component of the body’s extracellular fluids, helping carry nutrients into these cells, she says. Sodium also helps regulate other body functions, such as blood pressure and fluid volume. Moreover, sodium works on the lining of blood vessels to keep this balance normal.

Still, Americans are getting too much of it. The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, based in Washington, D.C., says that a safe daily salt intake is about 500 milligrams, with about 2,400 milligrams comprising the upper limit. But lowering sodium intake to 1,800 milligrams probably would be healthier.

For her part, Huntley offers these tips for lowering salt intake:

• Take stock of the sources of salt in your diet, such as restaurant meals, salt-based condiments, and convenience foods. Some of these are really loaded with salt.

• Read the labels when shopping. Look for lower sodium in cereals, crackers, pasta sauces, canned vegetables, or any foods with low-salt options.

• If you think your meals are high in sodium, balance them by adding high-potassium foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables.

• Ask about salt added to food, especially at restaurants. Most restaurant chefs will omit salt when requested.

Also, go easy on the salt while cooking. If you need to add salt in the course of cooking, wait until the end. The longer the food cooks, the more the salty flavor is muted — the reason why it’s better waiting to add the salt at the end.

For more information about risks associated with excessive intakes of salt, go to this article by Alexandra Greeley, which is posted on the FDA Web site:
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/1997/797_salt.html

Posted by Jim Langcuster at December 6, 2007 02:45 PM