Hold the salt
- January 12, 2010 2:13 PM |
- By Amber Hildebrandt
First it was a ban on trans fats. Then it was calorie counts on menus. Now, the ever-feisty New York City is taking on the latest nutritional evil: salt.
It's just a proposal and it's still in the draft stages, but already the city's plans to seek a 25 per cent reduction in salt in packaged and restaurant food within five years has set everyone a-chatter.
This is, after all, the same city that brought us the shocking video of a man tossing back a glass full of thick, yellow, gooey fat in an effort to raise awareness about the pounds you can pack on from pop.
Yet again, all eyes are on New York. But they're not the first to tackle the salt problem. In fact, their plan is modeled on a similar effort in Britain, where it was also voluntary and tackled 85 categories of processed foods, such as ready-made meals, breakfast cereals and bacon.
Canada, meanwhile, is still mulling salt restrictions. We've been aware for quite some time that Canadians' sodium intake is too high: a Statistics Canada report in 2007 found most people in all age groups were overdoing it.
The federal health minister responded, setting up a working group on sodium reduction. But its action plan isn't expected until the end of 2010. And when it does finally come, it will likely only include voluntary restrictions -- in the same vein as Britain.
What do you think? What should the Canadian government do about salt consumption?
About the Authors
- Elizabeth Bridge is a producer with CBC's Digital Archives project. She got her start in the kitchen baking brownies and making fudge but is still trying to get pastry right.
- Andrea Chiu
is an associate producer at CBC Radio Digital. Though she loves to eat, cook and discuss food,
don't ask her to bake. It never turns out well. She tweets as @TOfoodie on Twitter and organizes food and wine events in Toronto called FoodieMeet.
- Amber Hildebrandt
works for CBCNews.ca in Toronto. Growing up on a farm in Manitoba, she acquired an insatiable appetite, but it was during a stint in Japan that she developed her discerning tastebuds and foodie ways.
- Tara Kimura
is a multimedia producer for CBCNews.ca.
- Andree Lau
is a CBC web reporter in Calgary. Her journalism career includes seven years as a CBC-TV reporter. Her own blog called "are you gonna eat that?" chronicles her eating adventures (including sampling snake and camel hoof tendon).
- Jessica Wong
is a CBCNews.ca writer who loves to eat and cook, as well as discuss, read and watch programming about food, sometimes all at once.
- Kevin Yarr
, CBCNews.ca's writer in Prince Edward Island, wrote about food and beer for national and regional magazines before joining the CBC. He acquired a desire for new tastes on his first trip to Europe, and an appreciation of eating locally and in season when he finally settled down on P.E.I.
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Comments (18)
People have to take care of their own health, we cannot have salt control boards. It would be nice to have salt reduced in packaged foods, and let us add Salt or not!
Unfortunately it is only coming too slowly for Canadians to learn how to eat well. Too much food is processed and if you don't know any better, never had much quality food,or home cooked food how could anyone eat better. We are picking one aspect at a time. This time it's salt. Fine. I use very little salt. You need some for taste but when you have quality ingredients made at home with love, you don't need as much salt. I can cook a pleasant, healthy meal for three within 30mins for $20.00. So many of these frozen, "faster" options aren't really. It's a shame. Even second generation Canadians do not realize how their parents ate in Italy, or Lebanon - countries with fantastic dishes and flavours. They are converted to our "North American Tastes" - which is pretty poor. I have had the good fortune of growing up all over the world and eating many kinds of genuine food. I am horrified by what Canadians put in their mouths. I would rather go with less or none.
education is the best way of helping people.
I have just started to look at the salt content of common prepared foods and it is quite shocking. I have stopped purchasing anything that has in one serving over 20% of the daily recommended intake of salt. I am glad at least one city is addressing this too bad politicians in Canada are such wimps.
I don't have time for education. As of today I have to be an expert on the Environment, my carbon footprint, my work, raising a Family etc. If I spent all my time learning I would have not time to live.
I think is a legitimate thing for government get some of this junk off the market. There are tons of regulations already, like baby crib standard, car crash tests, etc, that are good things. Having food regs is also a good thing.
Re: Douglas Vanderli - sorry Doug but government needs to step in to control the amounts of sodium added to prepared foods... many people are unaware of the issues caused, and others have little option on what they buy - whether due to lack of knowledge or lack of options on what or where they buy.
So with that argument Doug we should eliminate seatbelt laws, or all traffic regulations because we should just take care of those things ourselves...
If you read your labels you'll see that most prepared foods have brutal amounts of salt! And often the portion size noted is rarely the amount consumed... look at a soup can label and you'll see about 650 mg of salt in a serving, yet many people will consume the whole can - ending up with more than the recommended daily intake at one meal!
Some other single serving examples...
Bread - about 200 to 300 mg
General Mills Raisin Bran Cereal - 270 mg for 1 cup
Ketchup - 1 tbls 270 mg
Hamburger helper - one cup 680 mg
With these kinds of number its easy to see the problem, and more importantly the problem is not someone's diet, its the manufacturer going to extremes in the use of salt!!
Recommendations for sodium intake suggest about 1,200 to 2,100 mg per day, with the lower amount being more realistic for the average person...
I'm a little torn on this issue. I think restaurants should be excluded; people should know by know that restaurant food tastes great because it's full of fat, salt, and sugar. Then again, people are idiots. We know salt's bad for us and the information's right there on the label and we buy it anyways. But do we need the state to be stepping in when we're harming ourselves? As long as it's not too heavy-handed, I say go for it and we'll all get a tax-break (yeah, right) when society gets healthier (again, yeah, right) and less people go to the hospital.
Ironically, as I'm a big fan of open government normally, I'd also try to keep this issue quiet so no overt infomercial's of a guy drinking a can of salt or whatever. People are being hoodwinked by low fat and diet claims all the time. If the population somehow thought that salt levels have gone down, even if it's from astronomic levels to a still elevated level, they'll be more willing to scarf down a bag of chips. I mean I'd probably eat more chips if the salt level came down far enough.
I try very hard to watch what I eat. I do pay attention to sodium, but it's everywhere.
You drink a glass of V-8 thinking it's great for your health. Sure, you get 2 servings of vegetables, but you also get 33% of your maximum daily sodium.
The first thing out of the "salt Marketing board" was that they were acting harshly and there was NO problem with salt in food.
I like the half salt chips better because the potato chip flavour actually comes through.
I really find all the talk about NO salt disturbing. Table salt, sodium chloride is actually not good for the body, BUT seasalt of good quality like himalayan contains 84 trace elements our body desperately needs. Sodium chloride causes the body to retain water whereas seasalt and proper amount of water per day, ie 8 glasses is absolutely imperative to the body.
If you want to research the effects of salt and its necessity to the body study Dr. Bhatmangelijh's work, The Bodies Many Cries for Water www.watercure.com. Without salinated water within our bodies we become sick bit by bit. I agree table salt should be banned. It is actually seasalt cooked at 1200 degrees F to reduce all the elements down to just sodium and chloride. This is seen as toxic to the body. Our tears are salt, our mucous membranes are salty, our mucous is salty, and when we are sick or injured the first thing they do is hook us up to saline IV, why? Because they know that salinated water is absolutely crucial to the survival of our body. Salt is a natural antihistamine also, and even a slight amount of dehydration in our body causes many problems, severe in some cases. So do look up www.watercure.com to study the effects of salt, don't just stop taking salt, but use proper natural salts ie Himalayan or Celtic seasalt. I think most people are completely unaware of the necessity for salt and water, and we do not get enough of it but medical community and notes like this on your site stating to use NO salt is completely wrong. Thank you and I hope each person looks into this for themselves.
Hey e cardinal
If you want to spend your money or dirty sea salt, that's your choice. All salt comes from the sea, including table salt. The expensive product you buy has impurities which slightly changes taste and colour. Other than that the chemical compounds of both products are the same, some table salts have a natural silica added for dispensing. But that's not the issue. The issue is that many consumers don't realize the amount of sodium in their diet. A fresh 6" sub sandwich contains the total amount of your sodium intake. Two pieces of toast and piece of cheese contains half of the recommend daily amount. So there is no simple answer, like putting down the salt shaker, not eating out, or using yuppy salt. Food packaging regulations need to be improved so consumers can make informed decisions. Food packagers are mischievous in the way the report sodium content. When buying preferences change, food packagers will respond.
I believe that people need to worry about their own health. No one can force people to eat less of anything.
I say don't both with a salt board, it's really not going to do anything, people will just use salt regardless if you say it's bad for them or not.
I think the Canadian government needs to act quickly on forcing food companies to reduce the amount of salt they point in foods. I always read nutritional tables on packages and find myself astonished usually at the amount of sodium added to foods. Just when you think you are picking something healthy to eat, you find it is loaded with salt! I try to stick with fresh foods but its not always easy! I also think its crazy that food companies are putting more salt in Canadian products when compared to the same products sold in the U.S!
The facts are simple. Canadians eat too much SODIUM. I see it in my practice every day. And remember, sodium is the operative word here. Not just salt. You could avoid salt all you want and hidden sodium could still result in exceeding your daily limit of 1300-2300mg/d. Reading food labels on products and at participating stores is the best way to manage your intake. Simple as that. It's not a big education requirement to know how much you need, where it comes from, and how to avoid it. Oh, and please everyone take e cardinal's comments with a "grain of salt" (booo, sorry bad pun). His points are NOT very defendable.
Among the worst are canned and dried soups. I'm fortunate to have a store where I can buy dried chicken and beef stock NaCl (salt) and MSG free.
Making your own soups isn't hard. It tastes better and saves money as well.
I should have added that years ago I isolated salt as the primary trigger of my migraine headaches.
I used to get them at least once per week but haven't had one since cutting out all the unnecessary salt in my diet.
I'm of English origin. One thing i've never gotten used to since moving here is how salty everything is. Everything from Eating out, down to CORNFLAKES - everything just tastes salty as hell.
It's good in a way as it's encouraged me to cook my own food more. But it cant be good for the population when nearly every manufactured food you can buy seems to be 50% salt (over estimate)
What I would like to see is companies start doing is taking into the account the FULL package when listing the nutritional composition (ie. a full-sized box of No Name macaroni and cheese would show 84% of daily recommended sodium levels rather than the 28% per 1/3 portion it lists now).
While mathematically correct to list the percentages as they are now, they can be slightly misconstrued or misunderstood especially since the average person does not have enough time to stand there and figure out a mathematical equation each time they pick up a box in the grocery store.