STATEMENT OF THE SALT INSTITUTE TO
HHS/USDA HEARING ON THE
DIETARY GUIDELINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT
SEPTEMBER 21, 2004

My name is Richard Hanneman and I am president of the Salt Institute, a non-profit association of salt manufacturers.

We strongly endorse the concept of having the federal government provide credible recommendations to the public to improve the quality of the American diet and reduce population risks of adverse health outcomes.      

I will confine my remarks today to the prevention of heart attacks and strokes and to the Advisory Committee’s recommendation to prepare foods with “little salt.”  We do not believe the scientific evidence warrants this recommendation, and we recommend further research to examine the question of whether reducing dietary salt would lessen the risk of heart attacks and strokes. 

I will make three points: 

1. We are concerned with the process used by the Advisory Committee.  It should have been evidence-based, not expert-based.
2. We are dismayed that the Report ignored the fundamental question of whether its recommendation would improve health outcomes.  All evidence finds no health benefit in low sodium diets.
3. We recommend that the Report’s research recommendations be augmented with a directive to conduct a study of the health outcomes of reduced salt diets. 

That the Advisory Committee report is not evidence-based and does not address health outcomes of its recommended intervention on salt should be embarrassing to the Secretaries.  Internationally, evidence-based medicine is the accepted standard.  It is defined by the Cochrane Collarboration around the world and promoted within HHS by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.  The scientifically-rigorous methods of the Cochrane Collaboration were not adopted by the Advisory Committee.  As a result, the experts on your Advisory Committee reached very different conclusions than those of the evidence based reviews.  The Cochrane Collaboration finds no evidence supporting universal sodium reduction.     The U.S. Preventive Service of HHS agrees:   there is no scientific evidence that justifies a population recommendation on salt. 

The Advisory Committee Report ignores the entire evidence base on the only relevant question:  whether salt reduction improves public health.  All ten studies of this question are in consensus:  not a single study of health outcomes of sodium reduction has identified a population benefit. 

This Administration has earned our admiration for voicing its commitment to data quality.  We implore you to apply the scientific standards you have publicly espoused to the science you intend to use on any recommendation you may make on dietary salt and to reject the unfounded salt recommendation of the Advisory Committee Report.

[About Salt Institute] [About salt] [About the salt industry] [News] [SI Member Business (password required] [E-Mail Salt Institute]

Search web site: