{"id":167374,"date":"2010-01-11T20:41:24","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T01:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calorielab.com\/news\/?p=6738"},"modified":"2010-01-11T20:41:24","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T01:41:24","slug":"new-york-city-to-seek-lower-salt-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/167374","title":{"rendered":"New York City to seek lower salt levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City has long been a pioneer (for good or ill, depending on your perspective) in public health initiatives having to do with food. It was the first major city to work on banning artificial trans fats<\/a> from restaurants and to require calorie counts on menus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The city has also launched a campaign against soda consumption<\/a>, and now the city is set to discourage salt consumption<\/a> by encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains to cut the salt levels in their products.<\/p>\n

As NYC goes, so goes the nation<\/h3>\n

The goal is to cut the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent in the next five years. Of course that food largely comes from places that aren’t in New York City, so such a campaign will require changes that will ultimately affect people who eat across the country.<\/p>\n

The city says health officials from other cities and states support the plan, and health advocates predict such a drop in salt consumption would reduce the incidence of high blood pressure in America, probably also cutting some heart attack and stroke deaths.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s estimated that 80 percent of the salt we consume comes from prepared meals and processed foods.<\/p>\n

Compliance may be difficult to get<\/h3>\n

The plan is voluntary and there is no legislation planned to force food companies and restaurants to curb their salt use. And that’s probably a good thing, because it would be incredibly difficult to legislate salt content, particularly since some foods — like bread and other baked goods — require a certain amount of salt to help with rising, browning, and, frankly, taste.<\/p>\n

Because changing products for the New York City market would require changes nationwide, companies might not be excited to develop new recipes. But representatives of Subway and the A&P grocery store chain say they expect to comply with the proposed guidelines.<\/p>\n

What the guidelines say<\/h3>\n

The city was expected to announce preliminary targets for sodium content in foods, to be followed up with final targets to be unveiled later in the spring. Reductions in salt content under the program range from 10 to 40 percent for 61 classes of grocery store items and 25 classes of restaurant food, according to the New York Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The city would look at sodium content over the range of a company’s offerings, which would allow them to keep some items saltier while cutting the salt in others. <\/p>\n

Government guidelines suggest adults should consume between 1,500 and 2,300 milligrams a day of salt, depending on their risk factors for high blood pressure. Most Americans consume more like 3,400 milligrams daily.<\/p>\n

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)<\/p>\n

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News<\/a> (REF3076322B7)<\/p>\n

New York City to seek lower salt levels<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York City has long been a pioneer (for good or ill, depending on your perspective) in public health initiatives having to do with food. It was the first major city to work on banning artificial trans fats from restaurants and to require calorie counts on menus. The city has also launched a campaign against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2815,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}