Sodium: Can America Overcome Its Love of Salt?

Salt As a Global Commodity

Salt is the oldest food preservative known to man. In fact, historians claim that the use of salt, as a food preservative, predates written language. This claim is mainly validated through the contents of Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu, a Chinese book estimated to have been written around 2700 B.C, which lists salt as the main food preservative used by this ancient civilization.

Because of its power to preserve the food supply of entire nations through harsh summers and even harsher winters the salt trade has been one of the most  lucrative businesses of all time. In fact, salt, as a commodity, has been so lucrative that it has literally financed the rise and fall of empires, including that of South Africa in the early 1200s. In fact, during this time in history, salt was so highly valued in Africa that countries such as Timbuktu traded it ounce for ounce with gold.

Salt As a Food Preservative

Despite all of our technological advances, salt is still the most widely used  food preservative in the world. And it should not come as a surprise to you that today salt is one of the most profitable commodities on Wall Street because the United States, the world’s leading consumer of processed foods, is also the world’s leading consumer of salt. Unfortunately, despite the fact that for centuries salt has preserved the lives of entire civilizations, through its antibacterial properties, today this age-old food preservative is claiming more lives in the United States than it is saving.

The Function of Sodium Within the Human Body

1. Helps our kidneys maintain the right balance of fluids in the body.
2. Helps our nervous system transmit nerve impulses.
3. Influences the contractions and relaxation of our muscles.

So, as you can see, the consumption of a small amount of dietary sodium is perfectly safe. However, the fact that today the majority of Americans consume far more than their recommended daily value of salt is alarming.

It is generally recommended, by the Department of Health and Human Services, that adults limit their daily salt intake to less than 2.3 grams or 2,300 mg. However, according to recent government surveys a typical American adult consumes anywhere between 2,933 mg to 4,178 mg of sodium a day. The main sources of sodium in the average American diet are:

1. Home-prepared meals: 5%
2. Salt shakers: 6%
3. Natural sources: 12%
4. Fast Food/Processed Foods: 77%

The Health Consequences of The American High Sodium Diet

In fact, the high sodium diet most Americans consume is so devastating that according to a new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the number of heart attacks in the United States will decline by as much as 13% if American adults reduce their daily salt intake by 1.2 grams or 1,200 mg. The study goes on to conclude that this amount of daily reduction in sodium consumption can also help lower the occurrence of new cases of heart disease by as much as 11% and reduce the number of strokes by as much as 8%. Such findings are groundbreaking, especially if we consider the Institute of Medicine’s latest statistics which state that, “Once Americans reach their 50s, the risk of developing high blood pressure over the remainder of their lives is estimated to be 90%, even for those with healthy blood pressures [before then].”

Therefore, it is not surprising that another recent study, conducted by the Institute of Medicine, has concluded that if Americans reduce their daily salt intake by just 10%, our nation can end up saving as much as $32 billion in the cost of medical health insurance. This sounds like an overly exaggerated number, at first. But, as we break down the components of  the research we see that in fact, this number is in many ways underestimated. For instance, as we all know, high sodium diets lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attack and stroke. Currently, the treatment of high blood pressure related diseases costs U.S. health insurance plans over $70 billion, annually. Likewise, the hospitalization of people with high blood pressure and heart disease costs U.S. health insurance plans over $14 billion, annually. By reducing the amount of sodium in the typical American diet we can improve the overall health of our nation and reduce the amount of money spent remedying the health effects of this preservative.

Findings such as these have led health experts at the Institute of Medicine to take action by urging the FDA to set new federal standards regarding the amount of salt food manufacturers, fast food restaurants and food service companies are allowed to add to their products.

FDA’s Role in Regulating Food Additives

Currently, the FDA is authorized to regulate salt as a food additive. However, despite the FDA’s ability to regulate this portion of the food industry’s practice, Dr. Jane E. Henney, chair of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake and a professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati, said at a news conference, “If you look at salt intake over a number of decades, it has not gone down despite a number of efforts and it is still at a very high level.” At yet another news conference, held by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C. based watchdog organization, Representative Rosa DeLauro defended the Institute of Medicine’s efforts by saying, “This is not something Americans can fix by throwing out their salt shakers,” and went on to predict that Americans,”will embrace regulations reducing salt intake, much as they did the food label information on calories and other nutrition facts”.

Despite the overwhelming research behind them, the Institute of Medicine’s new recommendations to the FDA were not met with standing ovations from the food industry. In fact, Lori Roman, president of the Salt Institute, an industry group based in Alexandria, Virginia went so far as to say,”The recommendation is overkill. We would prefer voluntary effort”. She defended this claim by criticizing The Institute of Medicine’s research for, “focusing too much on the effect of lowering blood pressure and not on the ”big picture.”

Needless to say, this debate is ongoing. According to their latest news release, the FDA plans to, “more thoroughly review the recommendation of the IOM report and build plans for how the FDA can continue to work with other federal agencies, public health and consumer groups, and the food industry to support the reduction of sodium levels in the food supply.” Meanwhile, health professionals such as Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo, PhD, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and a dietitian in Sacramento, Calif., predict that the battle to reduce the sodium levels in the American diet will be as ”hot” as the effort to reduce unhealthy trans fats from foods.

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