By Tim Shoemaker
In the latest example of the nanny state gone wild, the FDA in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wants to regulate the levels of sodium in processed food in an effort to prevent “thousands of deaths from hypertension and heart disease.”
From The Washington Post:
The government intends to work with the food industry and health experts to reduce sodium gradually over a period of years to adjust the American palate to a less salty diet, according to FDA sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the initiative had not been formally announced.
Officials have not determined the salt limits. In a complicated undertaking, the FDA would analyze the salt in spaghetti sauces, breads and thousands of other products that make up the $600 billion food and beverage market, sources said. Working with food manufacturers, the government would set limits for salt in these categories, designed to gradually ratchet down sodium consumption. The changes would be calibrated so that consumers barely notice the modification.
The legal limits would be open to public comment, but administration officials do not think they need additional authority from Congress.[emphasis added]
Not everyone agrees with the FDA that salt intake leads to health problems…
Morton Satin, director for technical and regulatory affairs at the Salt Institute, which represents salt producers, said regulation “would be a disaster for the public.” He said that the science regarding sodium is unclear and that consumption does not necessarily lead to health problems.
“If you consume a lot of salt, you also get rid of a lot of salt — it doesn’t mean it’s an excess,” he said. “I want to make sure they’re basing this on everything that is in the scientific literature, so we don’t end up being guinea pigs because someone thinks they’re doing something good.”
Now personally, I quit using additional salt on my food in college because I realized that most food had enough already and I wanted to enjoy the flavor of food (that wasn’t pre-salted) for what it inherently has. Nevertheless, humans have an innate taste for salt and it actually is a necessary intake for your body to operate.
To find out how government has already been tinkering with the salt you ingest, check out this article by Rick Fisk on Lew Rockwell.