Cutting Salt, Improving Health
The New York City Health Department is coordinating a national effort to prevent heart attacks and strokes by reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant foods. Americans consume roughly twice the recommended limit of salt each day - causing widespread high blood pressure and placing millions at risk of heart attack and stroke. This is not a matter of choice. Only 11% of the sodium in our diets comes from our own saltshakers; nearly 80% is added to foods before they are sold. The National Salt Reduction Initiative is a coalition of local and state health authorities and health organizations working to help food manufacturers and restaurants voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in their products. The goal is to reduce Americans' salt intake by 20% over five years. This will save tens of thousands of lives each year and billions of dollars in health care costs. The IOM recently released two reports recognizing the value of coordinated voluntary action to reduce population salt intake.
Salt and Cardiovascular Disease
- Diets high in salt increase blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart attacks and stroke.
- These conditions cause 23,000 deaths in New York City alone each year – more than 800,000 nationwide – and cost Americans billions in healthcare expenses
- Most Americans eat almost twice the recommended limit of salt each day.
- Even people with normal blood pressure benefit from lowering their salt intake.
- For more information, please see recent references on salt reduction and health.
National Salt Reduction Initiative
This unprecedented public-private partnership has developed targets to guide company salt reductions in 62 categories of packaged food and 25 categories of restaurant food. The National Salt Reduction Initiative (NSRI) includes voluntary two- and four-year targets for average salt levels in each category of food. Some popular products already meet these targets – a clear indication that they are achievable. When a company signs onto the initiative, it pledges that its overall sales in a given category – canned soup, for example – will meet the relevant target for salt content, even if some individual products don't. A company selling three equally popular lines of crackers could keep one of them salty as long as its overall cracker sales meet the target. If manufacturers and restaurants work in tandem to reduce average salt content, consumers will enjoy the health benefits without a noticeable difference in taste.
Unlike past salt reduction efforts in the United States, the NSRI includes mechanisms to monitor sodium in the food supply and to track companies’ progress toward specific targets. In addition, the initiative will use urine analysis to monitor changes in people’s actual salt intake. The NSRI is modeled on a program in the United Kingdom, where food makers have reduced salt levels by 40% or more in some products. Canada, Australia, Finland, France, Ireland, and New Zealand have also launched initiatives to help reduce the salt in food. Here is the proposed timeline for reducing salt levels in US products:
Company Commitments to the NSRI Targets
The NSRI applauds the companies that have agreed to pursue NSRI targets. We encourage all manufacturers, restaurants, supermarkets and other food companies to follow their example.
The following companies have committed to work toward NSRI targets for certain packaged or restaurant foods:
- Au Bon Pain
- Bertucci’s Italian Restaurant
- Black Bear European Style Deli
- Boar’s Head Provisions Co.
- Butterball
- Campbell Soup Company
- Delhaize America
- Dietz & Watson
- FreshDirect
- Furmano’s
- Goya Foods
- Hain Celestial
- Heinz
- Hostess Brands
- Ken’s Foods
- Kraft Foods
- LiDestri Foods / Francesco Rinaldi
- Mars Food US
- McCain Foods
- Premio
- Red Gold, Inc.
- Snyder’s-Lance, Inc.
- Starbucks Coffee Company
- Subway®
- Target Corporation
- Unilever
- Uno Chicago Grill
- White Rose
If you would like to learn more about how to participate in the NSRI, please email salt@health.nyc.gov.
For more information:
Recent References on Salt Reduction
National Salt Reduction Initiative Press Releases
March 17, 2011: Health Department Announces New Company Commitments to National Salt Reduction Initiative; Sodium Study Confirms that New Yorkers Eat Too Much Salt
November 23, 2010: Health Department Announces New Company Commitments to the National Salt Reduction Initiative
April 26, 2010: Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Gibbs and Health Commissioner Farley Announce First Companies to Commit to National Salt Reduction Initiative
January 11, 2010: Health Department Announces Proposed Targets for Voluntary Salt Reduction in Packaged and Restaurant Foods
Committee Reports
Institute of Medicine. Report on Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States. Committee on Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake.
http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2010/Strategies-to-Reduce-Sodium-Intake-in-the-United-States.aspx
Institute of Medicine. A Population-Based Policy and Systems Change Approach to Prevent and Control Hypertension. Committee on Public Health Priorities to Reduce and Control Hypertension in the U.S. Population.
http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Disease/
ReducingHypertension.aspx
Journal Articles
Appel LJ et al. The Importance of Population-Wide Sodium Reduction as a Means to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke: A Call to Action From the American Heart Association, Circulation. 2011; 123.
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/123/10/1138
Bibbins-Domingo K, et al. Projected Effect of Dietary Salt Reductions on Future Cardiovascular Disease, N Engl JMed. 2010; 362.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0907355
Frieden TR, Briss PA. We Can Reduce Dietary Sodium, Save Money, and Save Lives. Ann Intern Med. 2010;152.
http://www.annals.org/content/early/2010/02/25/0003-4819-152-8-201004200-00214.full?aimhp
Johnson CM et al. Sodium Content of Lunchtime Fast Food Purchases at Major US Chains. Sodium Content of Lunchtime Fast Food Purchases at Major US Chains. Arch Int Med. 2010; 170.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/170/8/732
Smith-Spangler, C. et al. Population Strategies to Decrease Sodium Intake and the Burden of Cardiovascular Disease: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2010;152.
http://www.annals.org/content/early/2010/02/25/0003-4819-152-8-201004200-00212.full?aimhp
