Taking a Grain of Salt

This month it might be old news, but as I write, FDA has reopened discussions on what to do about sodium in foods. Or they should be discussing sodium, although most conversations have focused on sodium chloride.

Not that it’s a bad focus, as I’m certain the preponderance of dietary sodium comes from salt. And, speaking as a probable salt (sodium)-sensitive hypertensive, excess sodium lands fairly high on the “most-wanted” list. However, some have wrapped the issue in shrill hysterics, again casting the food industry as the bogeyman out to slay legions of consumers, when they should be holding a reasoned discussion of the real problem and best solutions.

“The deaths attributed to excess salt consumption represent a huge toll—the equivalent of a jumbo jet with more than 400 passengers crashing every day of the year, year after year,” gravely intones Stephen Havas, AMA’s vice president for science, quality, and public health.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, a group that advocates salt be stricken from the GRAS list, scolds, “Clearly, salt should be considered generally recognized as dangerous, not safe.” (And wouldn’t excess consumption of other—or all—GRAS ingredients lead to imbalances that sap our health?)

Other than the implication that immortality is ours should we drop salt from our diets, turning salt into a controlled substance is a bad idea on a number of fronts. Never mind the disturbing mental images of rival salt gangs fighting over turf, but what about the realistic view? I won’t take sides on the debate about whether the studies are or aren’t flawed. But, we rarely hear that not everyone is sensitive to salt. Most sources seem to settle on the 30% to 35% range for salt-sensitive hypertensives. My husband and son, with blood pressures in the “hardly there” range, might be annoyed if someone put them on a low-salt diet.

Secondly, I’m tired of the “just take it out and no one will notice” crowd. First, there’s taste: My mother’s potato salad tastes much better when I add some salt—like it did before she took the salt. And, not only aren’t people running out in droves to buy low- and no-salt products, they complain about the cost, as if the industry is hoarding a multitude of 4- and 5-cent a pound healthy salt mimetics. Plus, what happens when you take salt out of a product? Does anyone know what 10,000 lbs. of crumbled salt-free crackers looks like? I do.

Why don’t we set up federal regulations governing overtime. Research says people who work long hours are more likely to develop high blood pressure. Those who worked 40 hours per week were 14% more likely to have high blood pressure than people who worked 39 hours or less. The risk of high blood pressure rose steadily with the number of hours worked, even after adjusting factors such as socioeconomic status and body weight.

I’m not advocating ignoring the salt situation. If we can take a sensible approach, all the better. But let’s skip the knee-jerk reactions. Remember what happened when we demonized a particular type of fat—and didn’t the food police hail the emergence of the solution: trans fats?