By Cindy Hazen, Contributing Editor
According to an April 2010 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), “Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States,” the average American consumes about 50% more sodium than recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Currently, average consumption is more than 3,400 mg of sodium per day. To meet the recommended level of no more than 2,300 mg daily will require a coordinated approach, “requiring new government standards for the acceptable level of sodium,” according to the IOM report. “Manufacturers and restaurants/foodservice operators need to meet these standards so that all sources in the food supply are involved and so that the consumer’s taste preferences can be changed over time to lower the amounts of salt in food.”
Further, the report recommends that “the FDA set mandatory national standards for the sodium content in foods—not banning outright the addition of salt to foods, but beginning the process of reducing excess sodium in processed foods.”
Excess sodium in the daily diet contributes significantly to high blood pressure, which affects nearly 75 million people aged 20 or older, according to FDA. “Success in reducing sodium intake will require national coordinated action,” the agency agrees. “Over the coming weeks, the FDA will more thoroughly review the recommendations of the IOM report and build plans for how the FDA can continue to work with other federal agencies, public health and consumer groups, and the food industry to support the reduction of sodium levels in the food supply. The Department of Health and Human Services will be establishing an interagency working group at the agency on sodium that will review options and next steps.”
A pinch of perspective
Michael G. Tordoff, Ph.D., faculty member, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, questions the efficacy of national mandates. “The IOM is proposing a dietary experiment involving the entire U.S. population, and I think there is a strong argument to be made for some initial research to see if there is a chance such a grand manipulation will work,” he says.
