An Assault On Salt?

On Thursday for the first time ever the Food and Drug administration will hold a public meeting to discuss whether to place limits on the amount of sodium in processed foods, which, as CBS News consumer safety correspondent Nancy Cordes reports, contain a lot more sodium than you might think.

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It's not a shake of salt here and there that doctors are worried about. It's the staggering levels of sodium in the processed food everyone eats.

"See how much?" one woman said. "It's 980. That's too much sodium."

A full day's worth of sodium is in one Swanson's Hungry Man turkey dinner.

Nearly a day's worth in one can of soup.

Even a Kid Cuisine macaroni and cheese contains nearly half a day's worth of salt.

"Salt trumps fat," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Public health advocates at the CSPI have been petitioning, and suing, the FDA since 1978 to impose sodium limits on processed foods.

"The ones making the higher sodium products can easily lower the amount of salt or other sodium ingredients, get down to those lower levels, perfectly marketable," Jacobson said.

American companies have already been pushed to reduce salt content overseas. One box of Special K contains 60 percent more sodium than the same box in Britain.

McDonald's Chicken McNuggets contain twice as much sodium in the United States as they do in the U.K.

It's estimated by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute that cutting sodium levels of processed and restaurant foods in half would save 130,000 lives in the United States per year by preventing high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.

"If you're eating at home most of the time and preparing your own food, you can control that," said Dr. Patricia Davidson, a cardiologist at Washington Hospital Center. "If you're eating out or buying food in a package, you're unable to control that."

Back in the 1980s, the FDA urged the food industry to voluntarily cut back on salt.

But Americans are consuming even more sodium now than they did then.

[msatin]

The AMA and the consumer organizations here are basing their positions on desk-bound pontifications, not scientific evidence. The problem is a medical establishment that no longer adheres to strict science. That''s why you get disasters like the hormone replacement therapy fiasco. The medical community are acting like the Marx brothers on lab coats - that''s the problem. Lets resolve this issue with one real, national scientifically-based study. Everything up until now is observational and useless. Lives are at stake here.

Finland did reduce salt by 40% over the last 30 years and improved their heart disease death rates. USA didn%u2019t reduce salt intake, but improved their heart disease death rates to a much greater extent that Finland. Check it our at the Global Cardiovascular Infobase %u2013 a WHO Collaborative Center.

Instead of listening to the talking heads of the AMA and CSPI, CBS might get a real breaking story by employing their investigative journalists to find out what%u2019s really going on here. Not only will you get a explosive breaking story about the arrogance and incompetence of our medical establishment, but you will save a great many lives at the same time.

[michellem99-2009]

I HAVE PRICED THEM LOWER SALT DINNERS AND THEY ARE HIGHER PRICED THAN THE SALTY ONES COSE LESS. They don''t need to go heavy on the salt. I hate salted frys. I asked for salt free frys. THEY WOULD NOT DO IT. With health problems it should be done.

[rf35]

I wouldn''t mind a mandatory sodium limit in prepared and restaurant foods. I can''t always make my own meals and need to eat prepackaged food or eat out when my job takes me away from home. If people want more salt taste, that can be added after they get the food. I''m just saying it would be nice to have the option of less sodium.

[snkass]

The salt controversy continues. What the CSPI is recommending simply isn''t supported by science. A good place to begin is Gary Taubes''s excellent article in the journal Science: "The (Political) Science of Salt." (http://www.nasw.org/awards/1999/99Taubesarticle1.htm)

[snkass]

The salt controversy continues. What the CSPI is recommending simply isn''t supported by science. A good place to begin is Gary Taubes''s excellent article in the journal Science: "The (Political) Science of Salt." (http://www.nasw.org/awards/1999/99Taubesarticle1.htm)

[michellem99-2009]

I have to eat TV dinners and mic them. I would like this issud of salt dealt with. I never salt my food. For health reasons I have felt they put too much salt in the food.

[beehive21-2009]

Campbells chicken noodle soup 32 % salt or sodium, add can of water ,16 % sodium ,same soup, low sodium $$ x 2,why are they charging more for less ? we can understand a Bikini, not soup ?

[limestoneman]

You didn''t know that? Wow.