New York, NY —
Following on the heels of his campaign against tobacco and trans fats Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking aim at salt.
Today, the city formalized the initiative and announced a list of partners. Unlike previous campaigns, this one isn’t starting with a local ban. Health officials are hoping manufacturers and restaurants nationwide will voluntarily decrease the amount of salt in food by 25 percent over five years. They say Americans are consuming twice as much salt as recommended, causing high blood pressure and increasing the risk of heart attacks and stroke.
Los Angeles, Boston and the states of Maine, Oregon, and West Virginia are just a few of the partners joining the city in its anti-sodium crusade.
The city and its partners are currently developing specific sodium targets for food manufacturers and restaurants, which together produce food accounting for an estimated 80 percent of Americans’ salt consumption.
They are accepting comments from the public and various vested interests, and expect to announce the targets in the spring.
Dr. Claire Wang of Columbia University’s Mailman School says there’s good reason to believe decreasing the vast amount of salt Americans consume would reduce hypertension, but government, industry, and restaurants will have to work together. "They can’t just take the salt out. They have to add something back to keep the savory taste. It’s a whole process of product development and market research," Dr. Wang says.
The American Council on Science and Health, a libertarian think tank, issued a statement with a warning: "Hypertension is widely under-diagnosed and under-treated. Using a vast scythe to cut sodium in everyone’s diet will not have a significant impact on this problem. While it’s true that it is standard procedure to advise any patient with high blood pressure to go on a sodium-restricted diet, it’s a very difficult diet to stick to, and most of those patients will have to undergo some other form of treatment anyway on hypertension."
Although the salt reduction plan is voluntary, critics say it still represents government acting intrusively in people’s lives.
For more information on this listen to a discussion with WNYC's Amy Eddings and Mark Kurlansky, author of the book "Salt: A World History" here.