Setting the record straight on Food Trends 2009
A week ago, a blogger blatantly misrepresented "facts" from the Salt Institute. Within hours we filed a comment correcting his blog post. Comments on his site are "moderated," however, and, now a full week later, he has declined to post the badly-needed correction. I cannot let its inaccuracy pass without response.
Mr. Weck writes "Food Trends 2009: Food Business Resource's complete food trends guide 2009" and on July 9 posted "Easy on the salt ." He told his ostensible food service industry audience:
With all the talk of sodium and heart disease, I have a hard time even picking up a salt shaker anymore without grabbing my chest, gasping for air and seeing my life flash before my eyes! It’s no wonder Americans have grown increasingly fond of salt. According to American Salt Institute, “Salt intake has increased by 50% over a period of 15 years beginning in the late 1980’s.” If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is!
Mr. Weck misquotes us; no one associated with the Salt Institute has ever made such a representation. It's a total fabrication.
Americans have always been "fond of salt," but we are eating the same amount of salt today that they ate in the late 1980s. Indeed, we have eaten the same amount for more than a century. Before the early 1900s, we lacked instrumentation to make accurate measurements. True, we get the salt from different dietary sources -- far more from foods prepared by others and far less from foods we prepare ourselves at home -- but the amount of sodium, for which we have accurate measures, is about 3,400 mg/day. All that doesn't come from salt; most nutritionists calculate that about 10% of it occurs naturally in the foods we eat. Thus, the average American is consuming about 7.9 grams of salt per day today.
Mr. Weck warns: "As the public becomes increasingly aware of this issue and the severity of its consequences if ignored (i.e. heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, high blood pressure, obesity, ad infinitum), the entire food industry is going to be in a heap of trouble." He confesses his own employer promotes low-salt foods. Since the evidence fails to show adverse health outcomes from current salt levels (any blood pressure impact is canceled by offsetting changes in other risk factors like rising insulin resistance, plasma renin activity and increased aldosterone production) and since all evidence suggests that salt appetite is regulated by unconscious brain directives, not conscious decisions, it may be that Mr. Weck's company may be "in a heap of trouble" when Americans begin to realize that companies touting low-sodium foods to tap politically-correct salt avoidance stand accused of fomenting fears to promote a hidden agenda of increasing Americans' food intakes. While salt intake levels remain unchanged, our consumption of calories trends steadily upward.
Perhaps I should have more patience and empathy for someone whose feeble cardiovascular condition induces chest pains simply by picking up a one- or two-ounce salt shaker. Such a rare condition deserves medical attention; it separates Mr. Weck from healthy Americans.
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