Doctors tell FDA to regulate salt in food

[TriangleMan]

A group of doctors is demanding less salt in processed food in the US and Canada, citing that it contributes to health problems.

However, there some feel that there is not enough evidence:

But there is little evidence that too much salt is bad for everyone, said Dr. Sandy Logan, a kidney specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. "What is really missing in the piece of the puzzle is a properly done randomized controlled trial," Logan said.

[Van Rijn]

Medical arguments aside, I wasn't awere the FDA could regulate food like this, and I don't think I want them to - a lot of food is "unhealthy" in one fashion or another, but I buy it (in moderation) because I like it. Salt is put in food because people like the taste. If they didn't, there wouldn't be so much salt.

[Doodler]

Ya know, my opinion on doctors trying to legislate my diet remains today what it was when they were telling everyone to go graze on wheat.

[Expletive laced invective declarative], I'll eat what I want and die when I'm ready.

[Lurker]

They can have my salt shaker when they pry it from my cold, lifeless hand!! [-(

Too dramatic?? :-k

[Doodler]

They can have my salt shaker when they pry it from my cold, lifeless hand!! [-(

Too dramatic?? :-k

Nah, "too dramatic" would be flogging them about the head and shoulders with the shaker. 8)

[cyswxman]

I wish I had a pic of the salt creature from Star Trek TOS.

[frogesque]

I do have a problem with all this modern salt hooha. A lot of my ancestors all but lived on salt fish, salt beef and salt ham. It was THE means of preserving before deep freeze and modern food hygene. Now I know my ancencestors died of other things like TB, Dipthyria, Cholera, dysentry, scurvy, small pox, plauge, poverty (some things never change ) and 100 and one otherthings that precluded a long and happy life. Somehow a high salt diet didn't seem to figure.

I take less than I used to but I love salt, perhaps my ancestors had to work harder with manual labour and sweated a lot of salt out and the intake balanced the electrolyte. Maybe we just need more exercise rather than being sedentary and paranoid over every heath scare that catches the headlines.

Anyway - just my groat's worth on the subject.

[Doodler]

wish I had a pic of the salt creature from Star Trek TOS

Merry Christmas

[tmosher]

wish I had a pic of the salt creature from Star Trek TOS

Merry Christmas

Can't see it....but does this work for you?

deleted

[Kesh]

I really, really, really like salt. Mmm. n.n

[CTM VT 2K]

They can have my salt shaker when they pry it from my cold, lifeless hand!! [-(

Too dramatic?? :-k

I don't want to take the Salt Shaker from your hand, nor prevent you from pouring it all over your food. However, as a Sodium Sensitive person, I have to keep my Sodium intake to around 2000mg/day - which is very tough to do with most of the food products that are available. I find I have to get the raw ingredients and prepare it myself in order to get a low-sodium choice much of the time. When possible, I purchase the low-sodum food, but that is not possible for many things (Of course some foods such as ham and bacon are natrually salty). I don't favor this as a way of forcing everyone to eat less salt, but I do favor giving those of us who should be living a low-sodium diet an actual opportunity to do so.

Have you looked at the sodium levels in food? As a poor starving college student, I lived off of Ramen Nudles and Cup-o-soup. Then I saw how much sodium I was getting and what it was doing to my Blood Pressure. It's horrifying how much sodium people are getting - above and beyond the old ways. There is so little flavor in the freeze-dried/heavily processed food that they have to add a ton of salt to get ANY flavor out of it. Then people salt it. [-X You would be surprised at how much of an impact these high-sodium levels are having on society as a whole, even if you personally are not affected.

[Wolverine]

Reading this gave me a Sleeper flashback...

"This morning for breakfast, he requested something called wheat germ, organic honey, and tiger's milk."

"Oh yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life preserving properties."

"You mean there was no deep fat? No steak, or cream pies, or hot fudge?"

"Those were thought to be unhealthy. Precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true."

[captain swoop]

In the UK salt levels in processed food has increased over the last 20 or so years.Chilled 'ready meals' from Supermarkets are very popular and some of them contain massive ammounts of salt listed as sodium on the ingredients.
It's as though they have a quota to fill!

Salt is added to everything you can think of, it's a a way of enhancing flavour without spending anything on decent ingredients.

[Amadeus]

Salt is added to everything you can think of, it's a a way of enhancing flavour without spending anything on decent ingredients.

I try to avoid anyfood that has flavour "enhancers" listed in the ingrediants.
Call me picky but I like to choose the level of salt in my food. Its put there to disguise the fact that the ingrediants are of a low level.

I've stopped eating chicken thats not certfied organic. If you knew what was done to that meat.... Basicly it's pumped full of a gel that increases weight.

I take my food seriously and I know how to cook so I dont see the point in spending more for sub standard ingrediants.

Bottom line is if you want salt you can add it, if you dont you should have the choice.

I could also tell you some horror stories about sausages ( I used to work in a butchers)

[gethen]

I'm not sure about the FDA regulating salt content in food, but I do find that many, many processed foods have too much salt in them for my taste, and I wish they'd back off. You can either buy a can of tomatoes containing 20% of your RDA of sodium or a can with no salt added at all. Nothing in between in most cases.

[Argos]

I think most canned food is overly salty. A little less salt wouldn´t hurt anyone. "In media stat virtu".

[tmosher]

Canned food is grossly oversalted in my opinion.

For example:

New England Calm Chowder - Brand WP - 740 mg per serving (two servings in the can)
Vegetable - Brand C - 900 mg per serving (two servings per can)
Pork and Beans - Brand C - 460 mg per serving (2.5 servings per can)

Now those lunch packs that push on kids - some of those exceed 1800 mg of sodium.

Although I eat canned soups, I sparingly use table salt. The container of salt I have in the cupboard is pushing three years old.