(MarketWatch Health Watch) The processed food you buy soon may get an overhaul as public-health experts look for ways to lower Americans’ salt intake. On Tuesday, experts from the Institute of Medicine called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate sodium levels in food, saying widespread salt reduction could prevent 100,000 deaths a year.
Sodium is a common ingredient in food but too much of it can lead to high blood pressure, which raises the risk of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and kidney failure.
About one in three American adults has high blood pressure. After age 50 even people with healthy blood pressure face long odds of maintaining it as they age.
“Clearly, salt is essential. It is a good thing. We need it,” Jane E. Henney, professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati and chair of the IOM’s committee on strategies to reduce sodium intake, said during a conference call with reporters. “But at the levels we’re taking it in right now it’s far beyond the maximal level we need….Too much of a good thing really puts us at risk.”
Read the full Institute Of Medicine Report »
(5 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)
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For years people have been complaining to Campbell’s that their soup is too salty and eventually they put out a “low sodium” soup that is still way too salty…and more expensive. We all quit buying canned soups, they’re all too salty. We also quit buying “Healthy Choice” frozen dinners for the same reason. Is legislation the only way to make packaged food makers quit this unhealthy practice? The food tastes way too salty, and it’s not as if someone who wanted more salt couldn’t just add their own!
I have pretty high blood pressure and both my husband and I have been trying to cut back on our salt intake. That is not an easy chore when almost everything you buy has way to much salt in it. Neither of us even use the salt shaker.
My dad had the same problem as I when he was he alive and my mom had to make all his soups from scratch !! It wasn’t because she loved to make soup either !
I agree also that the lower salt products are also way to salty for us and most people. It is way past time to make the manufacturers put alot less salt in their processed foods.
It certainly is easy enough for someone really wanting alot of salt to just put their own in as someoene else just mentioned.
Thank you !
My Dad worked for The Campbell Soup / Sales Company for 42 years and was constantly accosted by customers about the “saltiness” of the soups. He was a salesman back in the fifties through early eighties that used to “call on” the store managers for orders and actually helped build displays and stock the shelves.
Yes, as the newly worn out expression is ” back in the day ” when salesmen were in stores. That is exactly when he was constantly questioned as to the big ” WHY ” of the high NaCl content of soups and in fact all canned products. The Camden Headquarters technical answer that he was to convey to all customers asking – that all canned products had much higher degrees of salt due to the canning processes.
As the above article also shows, check all processed foods nutritional labels. As most people that bother to do so have found, the ” Healthy ” versions of food may have reduced the fat & saturated fat contents, but the salt levels are still way too high. Thats also the fast food mystic. Add that salt and appeal to the taste buds. Men have been guilty of that, especially with beef dishes for all my years on the planet.
Follow the home cooking smarts and use the many other spices & condiments that do not increase the NaCl levels. Examples; garlic & onion powders rather than garlic or onion salts. Potassium and Calcium are great alternatives to achieve flavor too ( in measured amounts of course ). Spices make the taste buds happy too !
Happy healthy eating.
Manufacturers put too much salt in canned and packaged foods so that the foods will have a longer shelf life. look at a canned good and notice that sometimes they can sit on a shelf a year or more! The expiration date may say 2011! The soups are rediculously loaded with salt. I have high blood pressure and I read the sodium information on all prepatred products. Hot dogs sausages, seasoned rice etc. Some Zatarain rice mixtures are more than 40% salt and Uncle Ben’s too. You have to be extremely careful when shopping for food.Look at salt content in sauces, salad dressings etc. They are high salt too.