(Huffington Post) — It was a slightly curious gesture: last week, Boston Market, the national chain of rotisserie chicken restaurants, removed the salt shakers from its tables, replacing them with small placards — tucked next to the pepper shakers — promoting the company’s interest in reducing sodium.
As a marketing strategy, it was clever, earning the 476-restaurant franchise business more publicity than its popular macaroni and cheese ever could. As a health measure, however, it was unlikely to do more than to make customers shrug and to fire up the longstanding debate over whether people who do not have high blood pressure truly need to limit their salt intake.
“We are removing the temptation to put salt on food right away without even tasting it,” said George Michel, chief executive of Boston Market, in a telephone interview. “As part of our social responsibility and promise to deliver wholesome food, we wanted to take a bold step like this.”
Sodium reduction has lately become a culinary cause célèbre. Subway, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Burger King and Taco Bell, as well as food manufacturers like Campbell Soup and PepsiCo, have all publicly vowed to produce lower-sodium products. (To a degree: last year, Campbell decided to add sodium back into some of its soups after sales began to slide.)
Critics say the precautions are getting ahead of the science. Unlike tobacco, alcohol and other long-corroborated health risks, sodium remains a topic of sometimes angry debate among researchers. There is no evidence that average people — those without hypertension — need less sodium, critics say, and too little of the essential nutrient could be as dangerous as too much.
“The science does not support an effort to reduce sodium in people who eat around three and a half grams of sodium a day, and that’s most Americans,” said Michael H. Alderman, editor of the American Journal of Hypertension. “Yet here we are doing silly things that are P.R. Salt shakers only account for about 10 percent of your salt intake. I don’t think it’s ethically justified.”
On the other side are public health advocates — most notably the United States Department of Agriculture, with a strong assist from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration in New York.
“There is conclusive evidence that high-salt diets lead to hypertension,” said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a leading antisalt flag bearer, “and there is conclusive evidence that hypertension increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.”
It is that leap from hypertension to heart outcomes like heart attacks and strokes that critics are unwilling to make.
Two years ago, the Institute of Medicine called on the Food and Drug Administration to set limits on the amount of sodium that restaurants and other food purveyors could use. While these standards did not materialize, the matter led to much saber-rattling in conservative political circles, with Fox News commentators ridiculing the proposal as a violation of personal liberties and Rush Limbaugh declaring, “They’re going to take away our salt shakers!”
Some Boston Market patrons seemed put off by the situation.
“It’s like we’re being slapped on the hand,” said Sandra Otero, who was eating at a Boston Market in Manhattan last week. “I myself don’t eat salt, because I understand the health benefits. But I still feel like I should have the autonomy to make that choice for myself.”
According to the National Restaurant Association, Boston Market may indeed be the first chain in the country to take salt shakers off the table (though they are available at counters that hold extra condiments). The only places where such a practice seems common are Buenos Aires, where a 2011 health law requires restaurant patrons who want a salt shaker to ask their server for one, and at super-high-end restaurants, where chefs are firmly convinced that the dishes emerging from their kitchen are perfectly seasoned.
In the United States, there appears to be little appetite for removing salt shakers from restaurant tables. A proposal from the Ohio Department of Aging this summer to remove salt shakers from senior centers was shot down. The reaction to Boston Market’s move, which is part of an effort to reduce sodium in its food by 15 percent by 2015, has not been particularly laudatory.
“We don’t think that would be a positive guest experience,” said Cheryl Dolven, director of health for Darden Restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden, Red Lobster and other restaurants. Joy Dubost, director of nutrition and healthy living for the National Restaurant Association, said she was unaware of any other American restaurant that was considering such a move.
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The more significant problem is the salt added at the kitchen. If table salt accounts for 20%, then salt added at the kitchen accounts for 80%. It is hard to regulate but disclosure could be the only solution.
I have no problem with a salt shaker being on the table for those who want it–give them the free choice. However, my problem is that you can’t eat out without finding prepared food high in salt I don’t see any reason for restaurants to put any salt, or very little, in their foods. Just supply the shaker for those who want it!
My doctor recorded an elevated BP reading and wants me to keep a log at home. I never checked my blood pressure at home but will start now. He also said to watch the salt. I’m pretty clueless about HBP so I apologize. If I get good readings at home does that mean I don’t really have HBP?