Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands of deaths from hypertension and heart disease. The initiative, to be launched this year, would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food products.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041905049.html
Posts
Apparently the FDA is NOT yet regulating sodium content in processed foods, as indicated by a prepared statement they issued yesterday in response to the WP's report: "A story in today’s Washington Post leaves a mistaken impression that the FDA has begun the process of regulating the amount of sodium in foods. The FDA is not currently working on regulations nor has it made a decision to regulate sodium content in foods at this time. Over the coming weeks, the FDA will more thoroughly review the recommendations 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."
ReplyDeleteRegardless, as individuals, we can best reduce our sodium intake by eliminating fast food and other processed foods, which (as shown in the chart above) have frightening amounts of salt in them.