FDA Considers New Crackdown On Salt

"New" crackdown? Are they just recycling the same news story over and over again, or are they really going to start making salt the next thing to be illegal in certain foods while regulating quantities? They're seizing butter in Norway right now, who knows what's coming in our future of "legal" food choices.

I want the freedom to choose to salt my stick of butter before and after frying it up!

ABC News just did a piece on this story.


Now here's basically the same news from 4 years ago...

FDA considering crackdown on sodium in processed food
articles.latimes.com...
www.highbeam.com...

November 29, 2007|Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar | Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON —

Best known for deciding whether medications are safe and effective, the Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to crack down on plain old salt, which doctors say is harmful in the quantities most Americans consume.

From April 2010 -
News Wrap: FDA May Require Food Companies to Cut Sodium
www.pbs.org...

U.S. food companies went on notice today they may be forced to go easy on the salt. The Institute of Medicine recommended the Food and Drug Administration regulate sodium content in food.

Just leave us alone already. If people want to make themselves sick because of poor diet choices, that's great news for the medical industry, no?

We need salt, our bodies need it. The regular table salt they make available is the nasty stuff we should be staying away from. I enjoy my sea salt on everything and my health is above average. Does anyone know where I can get me some of that Himalayan salt?

Well Bloomy took it out of restaurants in NYC, so who knows what the hell they are doing now.

So now I will have to sit in some FEMA camp eating crap food with no salt....just gets better and better.

reply to post by timetothink


There's no salt in NYC restaurants? Really?
Can people bring their own salt into restaurants?

I think this has more to do with the amount of salt they add to processed foods or any food for that matter. These giant food processing companies need to put excessive salt in their products to make them taste "good" even though they're far from good for you. Just like high fructose corn sugar in bread, cereal, ketchup, salad dressings, soups and many many other foods. The stuff is just unnecessary and its only put there to make you crave the food so you will buy more of it.

In result people are getting super fat and developing serious health problems at young ages. Hopefully the FDA wakes up to this madness and puts an end to it, because people telling people something is bad for you means nothing nowadays. It takes a huge corporation like the FDA to make the people listen.

Seriously though people, stop eating foods with 1000+ MG sodium in just one serving and please stop ingesting high fructose corn sugar/corn sugar aka the health problem inducer. I know it sucks to read labels on everything and it really sucks because the stuff is in pretty much everything, but its worth it if you seek to live a long healthy life.

Trust me, reduced sodium contents in processed foods is long overdue and very much needed..

reply to post by ThrowCatsAtCacti


Well, sure.. if it is not needed, then salt should not be used. But it is not the government's job to protect people from themselves.

Ah, but here I stumble across an area I have not fully reconciled with myself. I like the idea of federal mandates on product labelling to make it easier to see what is in the stuff I am buying.. That being said, it is a challenge to balance that with the idea of not having too much government intervention.

People shouldn't be ingesting so much salt anyways. I think the FDA will lower the recommended daily allowance of sodium, because the current amount is really too much.

Processed foods.... that's the problem stuff. They have to be over salted if they are going to maintain a long shelf life. The FDA knows damn well what's good and bad for us, the revolving door deregulation dance has been going on for decades and people's health is only getting worse over time.

The fructose, the sugars, MSG, Aspartame, fluoride dosage, all doing enormous damage to our organs, bones, and nervous system, but there's not even a possible move in sight to remove those things from the food supply. Instead they are going to blame salt as one of the main causes for the massive health crises? Pffftttt

reply to post by JibbyJedi


I haven't been there since this happened, I think you have to ask for it, it is not out there where anyone can just get it and go crazy. And the smoking police all over too.

The body requires sodium to survive. Salt helps maintain the fluid in our blood cells and is used to transmit information in our nerves and muscles. It is also used in the uptake of certain nutrients from our small intestines. The body cannot make salt and so we are reliant on food to ensure that we get the required intake.

Just another way to depopulate the useless eaters under the auspices of "salt is harmful".

Great now the food will be more bland.

Mebby they are trying to cut our intake of iodine, most table salts are iodized.
Iodine is a critical trace mineral.

Originally posted by Pegasus2000
Great now the food will be more bland.

Mebby they are trying to cut our intake of iodine, most table salts are iodized.
Iodine is a critical trace mineral.

I don't rely on fortified salt for my iodine intake.. I use sea salt and eat fish on a semi-regular basis for that. We shouldn't have to rely on "fortified" foods to be healthy.

reply to post by JibbyJedi


no worries if you are eating store bought it has more than enough

however if you are growing/producing your own food you may want to lay up a few barrels
sea salt has iodine in it as well if you live by the sea you can produce your own
lifehacker.com...

ps did you get my u2u re mercury poisoning?

reply to post by rogerstigers


Question,are you really sure that you're getting the accurate
information on the food labels?

Originally posted by DerepentLEstranger
reply to post by JibbyJedi

 

ps did you get my u2u re mercury poisoning?

I did, thank you for that! I was pleasantly surprised to find that in my inbox.

reply to post by rogerstigers



You can't function without salt. You can't digest food without salt. Your heart can't function. Your adrenal glands can't function. Your liver can't function. Your kidneys can't function.

The chemical requirements of the human body demand that the salt levels in the blood be kept consistent. Without salt, there is no longer any exchange between the sodium on the outside of the cell, and the potassium on the inside, which means you die!

But, alas isnt that what TPTB want you to do anyway?

Originally posted by Merci
reply to post by rogerstigers

 

You can't function without salt. You can't digest food without salt. Your heart can't function. Your adrenal glands can't function. Your liver can't function. Your kidneys can't function.

The chemical requirements of the human body demand that the salt levels in the blood be kept consistent. Without salt, there is no longer any exchange between the sodium on the outside of the cell, and the potassium on the inside, which means you die!

But, alas isnt that what TPTB want you to do anyway?

Um, yeah, I know all of that. That doesn't mean we need to oversalt our food. Too much salt is just as bad as too little.

reply to post by rogerstigers



agreed, too much of anything is not a good thing, even water.

reply to post by rogerstigers

They can still set healthy regulations, even tho they dont do it for a lot of stuff they seem to do it for foods a lot. I know what your saying but the only reason its legal to pile dangerous amounts of sodium in almost all foods is because it is a high cost cutter and because it increases mortality rates..

This war on Salt is really unwarranted. I wrote a thread on it recently...

A Salty Controversy

Although recommendations haven't changed much since the first dietary guidelines were issued, The McGovern Report, in the late 1970's, one deafening mantra has steadily and adamantly been force fed to us from researchers and doctors to caring brothers and sisters: Eat less salt and you'll lower hypertension and decrease your risk for developing heart disease and dying of a heart attack.

Most quality studies on salt restriction show a modest decrease in blood pressure and an even smaller decrease in preventing Cardiovascular death when subjects reduce their salt intake by half. It's also clear that genetic influences can cause hypersensitivity to salt consumption. For those, salt reduction would be extremely beneficial; however, blanket recommendations to the general public to lower salt intake is simply irresponsible.

Reduced Dietary Salt for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials (Cochrane Review)

Background: Although meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of salt reduction report a reduction in the level of blood pressure (BP), the effect of reduced dietary salt on cardiovascular disease (CVD) events remains unclear.

Methods: We searched for RCTs with follow-up of at least 6 months that compared dietary salt reduction (restricted salt dietary intervention or advice to reduce salt intake) to control/no intervention in adults, and reported mortality or CVD morbidity data. Outcomes were pooled at end of trial or longest follow-up point.

Results: Seven studies were identified: three in normotensives, two in hypertensives, one in a mixed population of normo- and hypertensives and one in heart failure. Salt reduction was associated with reductions in urinary salt excretion of between 27 and 39 mmol/24 h and reductions in systolic BP between 1 and 4 mm Hg. Relative risks (RRs) for all-cause mortality in normotensives and hypertensives showed no strong evidence of any effect of salt reduction CVD morbidity in people with normal BP and raised BP at baseline also showed no strong evidence of benefit. Salt restriction increased the risk of all-cause mortality in those with heart failure.

Our finding of a lack of strong evidence of an effect of dietary sodium reduction on mortality and CVD outcomes is in contrast to those of Strazzullo and colleagues, who systematically reviewed prospective observational studies that examined the relationship between dietary sodium and all-cause mortality and CVD mortality

Truth is, Salt became the new fat.

Much like dietary cholesterol has little effect on serum cholesterol, dietary sodium, in most people, has little effect on sodium levels in the body.

Does sodium cause hypertension? Sure. But it's not the intake of sodium that's the problem; it's sodium retention, and sodium retention/excretion is regulated by hormones (mainly insulin).