George Orwell would have been proud
Two weeks ago, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Center for Science in the public interest co-sponsored a conference on salt. They excluded the press. It now seems clear why: they wanted to be the prism through which the conference was intepretted. Planting their "take" with Sally Squires of the Washington Post must have seemed better than letting any journalist report the facts directly.
The Salt Institute has responded to the Squires story as follows:
Having attended the GMA/CSPI conference (since the Post did not), I can report the most notable outcome was the general recognition by delegates that a holistic focus is required to improve overall dietary quality. Specifically, delegates voted to reject the approach you extol: the villification of any single nutrient.There is no "growing chorus" here, only the steady growth of medical studies -- now numbering 16 -- that are examining the relationship of salt and health outcomes like heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular mortality. The latest was published even since the GMA/CSPI event and shows no benefit of lowering dietary sodium -- and some additional risk to those who would "hold the salt." Readers should take your headline with a grain of salt. For more details, see http://www.saltinstitute.org/28.html or the list of studies at http://www.saltinstitute.org/healthrisk.html.
This is a controversy that should be settled by science, not media hype.
Dick Hanneman
President
Salt
