Salt levels in processed food and restaurants are still at dangerously high levels, according to new research by Northwestern Medicine and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published in JAMA Internal Medicine. These dangerously high levels continue despite numerous efforts from several public and private health agencies to reduce the amount of salt in such foods.
By the same token, overall sodium amounts in processed foods did go down from 2005 to 2011, but only by 3.5 percent. And the amount of salt in restaurants actually went up by 2.6 percent during that same time period, which indicates a lack of meaningful progress by food manufacturers to reduce sodium levels during those six years.
Accordingly, the researchers of the study are recommending that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) step in and require the reduction of sodium levels in restaurant and processed foods, which the researchers say can realistically be achieved slowly over a period of 10 years.
Worse yet, it’s not just sodium that remains at high levels in foods. It’s also calories, according to another report that has also been published in JAMA Internal Medicine this week. The report found that foods served at small and independent restaurants are exceptionally high in calories and fat, with meals containing up to three times the number of calories the average person should be eating in just one meal.
“The strategy of relying on the food industry to voluntarily reduce sodium has proven to be a public health disaster. Inaction on the part of industry and the federal government is condemning too many Americans to entirely preventable heart attacks, strokes, and deaths each year,” said study author Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of CSPI.
The study reviewed the sodium content of 402 processed foods sold at supermarkets, and 78 fast foods sold at chain restaurants. Some of the saltiest foods reviewed were smoked bacon (1,803 mg of sodium per 100-gram serving), Caesar salad dressing (1,079 mg) and hot dogs (927 mg), and a typical fast food meal of chicken strips and french fries averaged a whopping 1,239 mg of salt.
So why is too much sodium bad for your health? Because it is a major contributor to high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke and heart disease. Therefore, the more sodium an individual consumes, the greater their risk of high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease.
“The current high levels of sodium in packaged and restaurant foods, if not reduced, will likely cause at least one million deaths and $100 billion in health-care costs in the coming decade. Action by the FDA requiring the food industry to lower sodium in our food supply is long overdue and should begin without further delay. The Obama administration should take action forthwith,” said the study’s co-author, Stephen Havas of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
