So, if we knew that the AMA was going to tell us to reduce sodium intakes at the conclusion of their meeting, why did they have to meet in the first place? Is sodium bad for you? Why not just totally dump it from the food supply?
OK, that last question was just crazy talk.
In fact, IMHO, the AMA giving a shout out to the FDA to revoke salt's GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status is also crazy talk. What makes me crazy (or crazier) is that this year's recommendation is in sharp contrast to one from a few years ago, suggesting that reducing sodium intake isn't necessary in people with normal blood pressure. Now people are going to run around saying that the "so-called experts" can't make a decision abot sodium, and "those experts" don't know what they're talking about.
OK, now to defend those "so-called experts" (of which, I have to say, I am one). Science isn't always perfect. And implementing science is difficult.
Table salt, or NaCl, or sodium chloride is a tricky wicket. Some sodium is critical to survival, a lot of sodium can kill you. Somewhere in between lies the answer.
Salt, as you may remember from grade school, is a special nutritional entity. First, it's a rock. The only rock we eat. It's so important to our physiology that we have taste receptors for it and an inborn drive to seek it out. Salt plays a crucial role in maintaining water balance and blood pressure. Sodium cations and calcium anions are important in cellular and neural communication.
However, no one denies that too much salt is, indeed, toxic. On a short-term basis, large amounts of salt can upset the body's water balance (which is why drinking seawater will kill you). In the long-term, diets consistently high in salt can lead to hypertension, which can lead to heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure. Of course, you need to do more than just reduce salt to cut hypertension.
In cooking, salt makes foods taste better, and also acts as a preservative. Economically, salt is cheap. The practical upshot is that the typical American diet relys heavily on cheap, tasty, processed, shelf-stable food. Restaurant foods, and here I'm talking fast-food, fast-casual, and chains, are created in large industrial complexes and shipped out for eventual serving. Foods are processed to 1. taste consistent across chains and 2. maximize bang for the buck. See where this is heading?
We eat too much salt (and fat and sugar, but that's another rant). The AMA wants the FDA to change regs so that restaurants and food manufacturers must reduce the salt content in our food supply.
Will that solve the problem? Sadly, no.
1. We, the people, are ruggedly against the guv-n-ment telling us what to eat.
2. We, the consumers, don't want to pay one dang cent more than we have to.
and
3. We, the nation of big kids that we are, don't really want to have to work at being healthy. We really don't.
Add to those reasons the fact that sodium-reduced foods are GRANT (generally recognized as nasty-tasting) and you've got some tough hurdles in the salt wars.
Here's what you can do today
Adding salt to your food isn't the big culprit (**Unless there's a medically defined reason**). Making pre-packaged, overly processed, dehydrated-then-rehydrated foods (think condensed soups, for example) a big part of your diet is the problem.
Cut back on highly processed foods where possible. Try making a big batch of soup from scratch and freezing portions, make more fresh foods, and include more fruits and vegetables in your diet. Make a marinade for meat, fish, or poultry from scratch rather than buying a bottle of ready-made marinade. You're already here on the Internet, search for recipies online--some of these things take a little planning, but not hoards of time.
Take responsibility for your health. It feels pretty good.
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-- Posted by: Gxzkizf at December 13, 2007 6:45 AM