Time to pinch off the salt

The AMA calls on the FDA to revoke salt's "generally recognized as safe" status to allow more regulation of sodium in food.

Editorial. Jan. 14, 2008.

One in three Americans has hypertension. The condition puts them at greater risk of developing two of the country's major killers -- heart disease and stroke.

Excess salt, as it so happens, increases a person's chance of getting high blood pressure. Research shows that most Americans consume two to three times the healthy level of sodium, which is 1.5 grams a day. Indeed, more than 95% of men and 75% of women regularly consume more than the tolerable upper intake level of 5.8 grams a day, according to the Institute of Medicine.

"The deaths attributable to excess sodium intake represent a huge toll -- the equivalent of a jumbo jet with more than 400 adults crashing every day of the year, year after year," noted Stephen Havas, MD, MPH, American Medical Association vice president for science, quality and public health.

The link between salt and hypertension, with its risks of death and disability, has led to a call by the AMA, along with other health and consumer organizations, to reduce the amount of salt added to food.

The overconsumption problem isn't caused by the salt shaker at the dinner table. The sprinkle on the plate and the pinch added during cooking account for only about 5% to 10% of a typical person's sodium intake. The main culprits are restaurant and processed foods -- responsible for about 75% of salt in the American diet. (Sodium that is naturally present in foods makes up the rest.)