Salt Institute: New dietary guidelines on sodium will increase obesity and health risks for Americans (PR)
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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2010
Phone: 703-549-4648
morton@saltinstitute.org
Salt Institute: New dietary guidelines on sodium
will increase obesity and health risks for Americans
Washington, DC -- At the Oral Comment Meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, held today at USDA headquarters, the Salt Institute cautioned that instead of improving the health of consumers, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines will result in confusion and unintended consequences. Reduced salt in food will fuel the obesity epidemic as individuals will consume more to satisfy their natural sodium appetite and their hunger for taste satisfaction. It will also lead to other serious unintended health risks.
Salt Institute Vice President of Science and Research, Morton Satin said that the Dietary Guidelines have become far more a reflection of activist ideology than sound science. “The purpose of the 5-year review process is to objectively examine all the new evidence before making recommendations, yet, before the process began, key Committee members openly stated the expected outcomes regarding salt, thereby compromising the process and making any final recommendations a forgone conclusion,” Satin said.
The recommendation of 1,500 mg sodium amounts to less than 4 grams of salt per day. Available data confirms that there is no modern society that consumes so little salt, thus making the Dietary Guidelines recommendation a trial on more than 300 million Americans. Population-wide interventions to reduce health risks can only work when there are no negative health consequences – which is clearly not the case with salt reduction. Elevated renin-angiotensin-aldosterone activity, the body’s natural hormonal response to reduced salt intake, will drive the population’s health risks to higher levels. Peer-reviewed evidence further suggests the possibility of unintended consequences such as cognitive impairment, adverse infant neurodevelopment and increased attention deficits and falls in the elderly, resulting from insufficient salt intake.
Satin went on to state, “Previous Guidelines made rigid recommendations on fat, portraying them as scientifically sound, yet had to be withdrawn when the actual science proved them wrong. I believe this grim lesson will be repeated once more with salt. Healthy humans, all around the world, consume salt within a relatively narrow range, controlled by their natural physiological control mechanisms. Trying to trump biology with flawed policy is pure folly.”
About the Salt Institute
The Salt Institute is the world's foremost source of authoritative information about salt (sodium chloride) and its more than 14,000 known uses. The Institute is a North American-based non-profit salt industry trade association dedicated to advocating responsible uses of salt, particularly to ensure winter roadway safety, quality water and healthy nutrition. The Institute was founded in 1914 and consists of the leading salt companies in the world united in the common purpose of bringing the myriad benefits of salt to the benefit of mankind.
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I glanced at the abstract a study you cite. What you describe as a low-sodium regime might more accurately be depicted as an salt deprivation. The study found risks occurring at <20mmol/d. The new recommendations would be well above that at closer to 70mmol/d. You should reevaluate your use of the study as evidence.
As to your assumption that humans have an innate taste for salty snacks and would not possibly be satisfied by lower-salt options, you once again seem to be facing evidence to the contrary. From the DGAC report: "Taste preference for sodium is neither fixed nor innate. Rather, it is a malleable trait that is influenced by dietary exposure. At birth, there is no indication that salty substances are distinguishable or preferred (Beauchamp, 1986). "
"Studies have demonstrated that reducing dietary sodium intake over a time period of as little as 3 to 4 weeks can decrease preference for salty foods and increase acceptance of foods with reduced sodium content (Bertino, 1982;; Cooper and Sanger, 1984)."
To put it simply, the less salt we eat, the less we care for it. This, I am sure, does not seem good for your business. Think instead of the lives saved and the extended lives (and therefore ability to purchase products) that will result.
If you insist on heaping praise upon salt, please do not insult the public by trying to pass off studies of salt deprivation as evidence that current levels are beneficial.
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