The New York City Health Department is coordinating a nationwide 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 cities, states 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.
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.
National Salt Reduction Initiative
The NSRI has developed specific targets to help companies reduce the salt levels in 61 categories of packaged food and 25 classes of restaurant food. The initiative includes voluntary two-year 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 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 extra salty as long as its overall cracker sales met the target. If manufacturers work in tandem to reduce average salt content, consumers will enjoy the health benefits without a noticeable difference in taste.
The NSRI is modeled on a similar program in the United Kingdom, where food makers have reduced salt levels by 40% or more in some products. Learn more about the UK's work. Canada, Australia, Finland, France, Ireland, and New Zealand have also launched national initiatives to help reduce the salt in food. Here is the proposed timeline for reducing salt levels in US products:
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