Delegates take aim at salt intake

The house stops short of backing a tax on sugary soft drinks.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. July 3, 2006.

Chicago -- Salt. Sugar. Getting and staying fit. These broad topics led to debate and discussion during the American Medical Association's Annual Meeting last month regarding several specific strategies to improve the country's nutrition and health.

Evidence indicates that most Americans have too much sodium in their diets and that more than three-quarters of it comes from processed, restaurant or fast food. This finding amplifies long-standing worries surrounding the link between sodium consumption and hypertension, which, in turn, can lead to cardiovascular and kidney disease. Thus, AMA delegates urged a 50% reduction over the next decade in the salt found in these products. This objective should be achieved without upping the levels of other unhealthy ingredients.

The Association also asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke salt's "generally recognized as safe" status, develop regulations that will lead to sodium limits in processed food and create labels that will warn if a food is high in this ingredient. These new policies were adopted as part of a Council on Science and Public Health report on this subject.

"The problem is that wherever you turn, people are being exposed to foods that have a high sodium content," said AMA Trustee J. James Rohack, MD, a cardiologist in Temple, Texas. "If we can start to reduce the hidden salt exposure to patients, they're going to be better off."

The AMA has previously called for reductions of sodium in processed foods, but this is the first time it has made such pointed recommendations. The approach is in line with efforts in other countries to reduce sodium intake and is similar to policy from the American Public Health Assn.