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The FDA is asking food makers and eating establishments to voluntarily reduce salt levels in their products to help reduce Americans' high salt intake.
The draft guidelines target these sources of salt with the goal of reducing Americans' average daily salt intake from 3,400 milligrams (mg) a day to 2,300 mg a day.
[...] Currently, 90 percent of American adults consume more salt than recommended, the FDA pointed out.
[...] The public has until the fall to comment on the FDA's voluntary salt guidelines for food manufacturers and restaurants.
The FDA claims that people can always add more salt to their food, which is true, but they ignore that salt changes how food is cooked and adding salt to the surface of food affects taste differently than when it is evenly distributed.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=197193
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_salt
(Score: 5, Informative) by Francis on Tuesday July 26 2016, @11:44PM
Did you bother to read my post? There is zero evidence to support the targets being set in the absence of elevated blood pressure. But they're handing out these irresponsible guidelines for everybody. And even in those cases you can't assume that it's excessive sodium when there's a balance that has to be kept between the electrolytes.
What's more, intake is a shitty way of monitoring it. Some people retain more than others and some folks retain less, barring specific test results showing that a person has excessive sodium it's malpractice to suggest lowering it. I know that when I'm stressed I retain less of it than I normally do.
People should be given the amount of sodium in their food, but unlike excessive sodium, insufficient sodium kills quickly and with little warning.
It's both irresponsible and dangerous to make these blanket recommendations based upon questionable science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @12:40AM
One of the biggest problems with the FDA is that they make blanket recommendations and impose blanket requirements. Or they make it prohibitively expensive to overcome their blanket requirements by requiring a prescription every time you need something or they outright ban something for everyone for no good reason.
I recently briefly commented about it here regarding red yeast rice and Lovastatin.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160725/09460835061/internet-things-is-security-privacy-dumpster-fire-check-is-about-to-come-due.shtml#c154 [techdirt.com]
I think it's a combination of both irresponsibility and corruption. I do not need the government managing my health for me. It's not like they can manage anything else well so why should I believe they can manage my health.
"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."
~Thomas Jefferson
(Score: 1) by driven on Wednesday July 27 2016, @06:27AM
Fact: Too much of any one thing is bad for you. In my opinion, the risk of having too _little_ sodium in your body these days (for the average person) is small and probably means they aren't eating many modern foods. There is a lot of salt in so many things: soup, bread, prepared meat, snack foods, restaurant food, milk and cheese, to name a few.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday July 27 2016, @06:11PM
I tend to agree, and by example I point to all the years of constant wall to wall ranting about the cholesterol content in food. Suddenly its all turned around and the cholesterol intake limits are deprecated, and such intake cholesterol was found to never reach the blood stream.
But while cholesterol was on the FDA shitlist every doctor, health blogger, and Mom was parroting the nonsense, and it was settled science.
Even with high blood pressure, most people are NOT sensitive to salt. There are a small minority of high blood pressure patients who are, And these are easily spotted.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.