Why the FDA Should Regulate Salt in Foods

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While I agree that salt, in high quantities, can be bad for you, I do not agree that it's within the rights of the US government to control it. We have sodium content listed on every food item that we purchase, including every single restaurant that I've been in in the past couple years. We are offered plenty of alternative low sodium versions of foods in the stores, and are inundated with plenty of "salt is bad for you" information for us to make PERSONAL CHOICES. I choose to restrict my salt intake. The government has more important things to do than to worry about controlling the lives of Americans and controlling what we have in the way of salt. Get on with those more important things and stop trying to micro manage my life. I'm tired of the nanny state telling me what I can and cannot do, eat, say, etc.

Sherri of MA 3:24PM November 25, 2011

A recent study confirmed that a restricted salt diet will help 30% of people with high blood pressure. There is no study that shows that the general population will benefit by salt restriction, while is is a fact that humans will die if we do not get enough salt. Any cardiologist will tell you that potassium is just as bad - or worse, than sodium, yet potassium salt is a common substitute for table salt. Junk science is commonly used by statists to increase government power over an ever-widening part of our lives.
Just as the "low-fat" scare resulted in higher consumption of carbohydrates, and is indicated as a cause of our obesity and diabetes epidemics, CDC continues to advance junk science "results" as a cure-all for everybody, but the biggest beneficiary is them, and their government masters.

Mitchell Fleister of WA 6:12PM June 04, 2010

Why is the "focus" on SALT....tobacco kills as many or more, how about liquor and OMG - SUGAR and obesity....and the welfare program promotes coach potatoes...let's get them on an exercise program.....this entire country is so far gone and we have elected people who are choking on peanuts instead of the more serious issues facing us today....
People must be held accountable for THEIR own actions...starting with the elected officials first.

Beth Miller of KS 10:45AM June 03, 2010

Its a no brainer, the customer must be informed because health is the issue. I have completely stopped using salt. I like eggs over light, bacon, and home fried potatoes for breakfast at a restaurant, asking that no extra salt be added. If I can taste the salt it gets sent back. Now and then, my ankles swell up because I am sensitive to too much salt. I only have one piece of bacon to control my salt intake. Its the salt I can not taste that I am worried about. Salt shakers should be used by customers that are not sensitive to salt. We got rid of cigarette smoke now is the time for salt.

Bobb of PA 2:27AM May 31, 2010

We can always CHOOSE to add salt - but we have little choice to avoid it in foods we buy!
Salt is only added to make us want to eat more and buy more. It's not added for nutrition. Food manufacturers would add crack to the food if they could get away with it.

S. L. of MA 3:23PM May 26, 2010

"...countless health organizations have recommended that people consume less sodium" That's all you need to read: recommends. Ever heard of freedom? Thanks for the information, I choose to ignore it, now get government the hell out of my life.

Mark Draper of ID 2:20PM May 26, 2010

I am salt sensitive. I read labels. I buy reduced sodium foods. I do not eat fast food very often. All I want is information, and then I can make my own choice. When I eat out, I know that I am getting more sodium than when I eat at home. I can choose to eat out or eat in. If there was no choice, then you would have a more valid point. However, there are plenty of choices. I prefer to run my own life, and I do control the sodium I take in.

Leslie of WA 12:13PM May 26, 2010

Just look at the emotive language Jacobson uses. The examples
he uses are the stock and trade of professional fearmongers and quacks. The fact is our cardiovascular death rates and incidence have dropped steadily and dratically during the last 30 years - without any salt reduction. Check it out with the CDC. How come he didn't mention that?? The salt reduction program proposed by the Institute of Medicine is a sham that has the potential to cause great harm. It is a massive clinical trial on 300,000,000 Americans without their knowledge or consent. CSPI is no center for science and is not in the public's interest.
If there was convincing scientific evidence, everyone would agree to salt reduction, but there isn't. Fact - the populations that eat the most salt ( such as Italians and Swiss and Japanese and Americans live longest. Those that eat the least salt live the least. Jacobson has the arrogance to want to put us all on the die young group. To Jacobson and the whole crowd of salt reductionists it is not science - it is ideology.

Morton Satin of MD 10:13PM May 25, 2010

Talk about a slippery slope... There is no limit as to where this 'saving us from ourselves' thinking would go: Maximum car speeds of 50 mph, sandpaper floors in all bathrooms, a maximum fat content in our steaks, having music in cars, the list is endless.
If Michael Jacobson wants to live like a timid acrophobic monk, that's his business, but you'll have to tear my hot salted french fries from my cold dead hands.

ImRighter of CA 8:30PM May 25, 2010

That it's been done in Britain, where the docile populace seems content to have the government direct their lives, is hardly an argument for adoption of any policy. While we're at it, let's ban not only salt but the sport of rock climbing and motorcycle riding (with or without helmet), activities many times more risky than overconsumption of salt. And by all means establish an agency, call it the Ministry of Utopian Bliss, with authority to ban any food or other product or any activity that poses any politically incorrect risk (or is otherwise simply annoying to the enlightened few). Think how much happier we will all be when there are no more pickup trucks, cigar smoke, alcohol consumption, . . . oh, wait, we already tried that one.

Bill of TX 7:04PM May 25, 2010