SALT LOVERS FEEL PINCHED

[Guest guest]

One more way to control

our lives. The politicians and bureaucrats

make rules and laws on things they don’t even understand, taking the

word

of some “experts” and the experts, especially in the medical field,

are often WRONG.

 

Health

Issues

April 21, 2010

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=19247 & utm_source=newsletter & utm_medium=email & utm_campaign=DPD

 

SALT

LOVERS FEEL PINCHED

The Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) is planning an

unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by

Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts

would

prevent thousands of deaths from hypertension and heart disease.

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.

Working

with

food manufacturers, the government would set limits for salt in these

categories, designed to gradually ratchet down sodium consumption.

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.

"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. 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," he said.

Reducing salt across the

food supply will be a massive and

technically challenging project, says the Washington Post:

Although

many

artificial sweeteners have been discovered, there is no salt

substitute.

Humans

have

an innate taste for salt, which is needed for some basic biological

functions.

But

beyond

flavor, salt is also used as a preservative to inhibit microbial

growth;

it gives texture and structure to certain foods; and it helps leaven

and brown

baked goods.

Source: Lyndsey Layton,

"FDA plans to limit amount of

salt allowed in processed foods for health reasons," Washington Post,

April 20, 2010.

For text:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041905049_pf.html