Pledge shakes salt from packaged and restaurant foods

Submitted by Kimberly Lord S... on Fri, 2010-04-30 09:00

 

Pass the ketchup but hold the salt.

On April 26, 2010 Heinz and 15 other companies joined a national campaign started by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cut sodium levels in their products. Bloomberg's National Salt Reduction Initiative aims to reduce salt in restaurant and packaged foods by 25 percent over five years.

Will this be enough to make a dent in how much sodium we consume? The numbers speak for themselves. If Heinz lowers sodium levels in its ketchup, Starbucks shakes the salt from its breakfast sandwiches, and Boar’s Head crops the sodium from its deli-meat products, the reduction could be significant. For instance, let’s add up the sodium levels for three products from these companies: 1 Tablespoon Heinz ketchup 190 mg , Starbucks low-fat turkey breakfast sandwich 820 mg, and two ounces of Boar’s Head Tavern Ham 520 mg, this adds up to 1530 mg. sodium, or one’s daily recommended consumption for people with heart-disease risk. Cut this by one quarter and that equals 383 mg less sodium.

Is this enough of a sodium reduction to improve health? Heart specialists believe that if Americans cut their salt intake by just 10 percent, it could prevent hundreds of thousands of heart attacks and stroke over the next few decades and it could reduce healthcare costs by $32 billion. Not a bad return for 383 fewer mgs of sodium. 

Other companies that also pledged to reduce sodium content are Au Bon Pain, FreshDirect, Goya, Hain Celestial Group, Kraft, LiDestri, Mars Food US, McCain Foods, Red Gold,Inc., Subway, Unilever, Uno Chicago Grill and White Rose.

Kimberly Stewart can be reached at eatingbetweenthelines@gmail.com

To download an excerpt from Eating Between the Lines, click here.

Kimberly Stewart can be reached at eatingbetweenthelines@gmail.com

Read Kimberly Stewart's next blog, Should Bisphenol A be Banned?, here, and the rest of her blogs here.

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#1 I Love Salt!

Submitted by functionmed on Sun, 2010-05-02 13:03.

An extract from:http://www.health-report.co.uk/sodium_chloride_salt_myths1.html

Health-Report comments:

It is a very misinformed doctor or nutritionist that would suggest eliminating salt from the diet has any bearing on lowering blood pressure or reducing the risk of heart attack in this day and age. Yet almost with monotonous regularity we are exhorted to reduce salt consumption by perhaps well meaning government sponsored doctors and nutritionists who haven't even bothered to read the in-depth research on this subject.

It is typical of the dogma that surrounds the medical fraternity. If they are determined to "prove" a point they will selectively gather data so they are shown to be right and to hell with the real results. As long as their position is vindicated then they have justified their existence.

Of course most studies are funded by vested interests with a financial interest in the results. So what scientist is going shoot themselves in both feet at once by coming up with a finding completely opposite to what he is being paid to find?

It's too easy to put a pair of blinkers on and focus on just one aspect of a particular problem without looking at the whole! Holistic healers look at the person as a whole - never seeking to isolate a single symptom and treat it with allopathic drugs and chemicals. High blood pressure is invariably caused by many other factors other than salt!

Personally one consumes only sea salt ground from rock-salt, and having a long standing mineralocorticosteroid imbalance (potassium/sodium pump) one needs and consumes lots of salt. Blood pressure? Resting average 115/60 pulse rate 64.

Functionmed

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