NYC Starts a Nationwide Initiative to Cut the Salt in Restaurants and Processed Food
Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Health Department have launched a nationwide effort to prevent heart attacks and strokes by reducing the salt levels in processed and restaurant foods. A coalition of health organizations and public agencies has joined together to work with food industry leaders on a voluntary framework to cut the salt in their products. If the food industry reduces salt levels by a quarter over the next five years and by half over the next decade, that action will lower health care costs and prevent 150,000 premature deaths every year.
Americans’ salt intake has increased dramatically in recent decades. We now consume almost twice the recommended limit of salt each day – but not by choice. Nearly 80% of the salt in our diet is added to processed and prepared foods before we buy them. Reducing salt in food will lower blood pressure in people with hypertension. Salt reduction will also help prevent strokes, heart attacks, and other problems in people who don’t have clinical high blood pressure.
The initiative calls on food industry leaders to help develop, and then adhere to, sodium targets for all products, using categories such as breads, breakfast cereals and prepared entrees. The goal is to achieve substantial, gradual reductions in salt levels across a wide range of foods. Meeting salt reduction goals will require significant changes in food manufacturing practices, but the changes are feasible.
Facts about Salt and Cardiovascular Disease
- Heart disease and stroke are leading causes of preventable death. Together, heart attack and stroke kill 850,000 Americans – including more than 24,000 New Yorkers – every year. Cardiovascular disease is also the leading cause of health inequalities.
- High blood pressure is a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. In New York City alone, more than 750,000 people are at increased risk of heart attack and stroke because of uncontrolled high blood pressure.
- High salt intake is a leading cause of high blood pressure. Health authorities throughout the world agree that reducing salt intake can save lives by lowering blood pressure and preventing cardiovascular disease.
- The American Medical Association estimates that halving the salt content of processed and restaurant foods could prevent 150,000 premature deaths each year in the United States, while saving millions in health care costs.
- Other countries are already reducing salt in processed and restaurant food. In the United Kingdom, the food industry is working closely with the government to cut the amount of salt in food. While food manufacturers were initially resistant, they are now working to meet their ambitious goal of reducing the salt in processed and restaurant foods by one third by 2010. Ireland, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Finland have all launched national initiatives to reduce the salt in food products.
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