Headlines & features

For quick service restaurants (QSRs) despite a push from the health industry, so far the trend (of reducing salt in food products) hasn’t taken off," QSRWeb reports.

"(A) growing number of experts claim that salt is not the devil’s ingredient we have been lead to believe it," writes Peta Bee in today's TimesOnline (London, UK) in a story dismissing the claim that salt intake is evil. The story quotes Catherine Collins, the chief dietitian at London's St. Georges Hospital, home of the UK's most vociferous anti-salt activist.

Most of this hemisphere is heading into winter but the mayor of Moscow wants to skip it. He wants to ban snow from one of the world's northern-most capitals. The plan is to attack the clouds of approaching snowstorms. If planes drop liquid nitrogen, silver or cement particles into the clouds, they would release precipitation before hitting Moscow. That would cut down on snow shoveling within the city - though people outside town might not love the idea.

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Washington Post story examines implications of new research on dietary guidelines revision now underway. If salt intake is regulated automatically, perhaps further recommendations are useless or even counterproductive.

The federal government has been encouraging Americans to eat less salt and is considering possible regulations, but the entire enterprise may be in vain, summarizes OpenMarket.org , reporting on a study released yesterday.

An early start for winter finds snowfighters prepared to keep roads safe and open, the Johnstown (PA) Tribune Democrat reports. The article quotes the Salt Institute to the effect that things are back to "normal" this year, unlike the demand surge of a year ago.

No matter what "experts" may recommend about how much salt you eat, the body has an automatic system controlling appetite that keeps intake at the level the body needs -- and within a narrow range, according to scientists at the University of California-Davis and Washington University, St. Louis, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Cargill today reported net earnings of $525 million in the fiscal 2010 first quarter ended Aug. 31, down 65 percent from last year's record $1.49 billion in the same period a year ago. Cargill's potash business was a major contributor to the decline.

Last year, Ohio salt suppliers had a difficult time meeting significantly higher demand for road salt, but the salt industry is ready for 2009-2010, according to a story in the Plain Dealer .

Declaring that New York City's latest nanny-fad, banning all beverages but water and snacks deemed too high in calories, fat and sugar" is "insane," according to Gilbert Ross, M.D., medical director of the American Council on Science and Health in an op ed in the New York Daily News .