The New York Times reports on the Thirty Years War between health advocates and food manufacturers, who disagree about how much salt should be put in food. While government health experts estimate that deep cuts in salt consumption, which is linked to high blood pressure, could save 150,000 lives a year, industry strategists are using something they call "delay and divert." What does it mean? Back in 1978, when the links between salt and hypertension emerged, industry spokespeople claimed there wasn't sufficient data to justify a reduction in salt. These days, decades after the salt/hypertension link was documented to the satisfaction of most health experts, the industry is blaming consumers for resisting the effort to reduce salt.
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Sunday, June 1, 2025
Wow, save 150,000 lives a year….what is that, .001% of the population??? How many lives could we save by starting a curfew? Or by outlawing deodorant (with it’s very dangerous ingredients)? Or how about reducing the alcohol in beverages….alcohol kills far more people per year than salt, let’s outlaw that again! How about the non-salt alternative, MSG….that’s a very dangerous chemical, why isn’t that being attacked??? Let’s take out a natural substance like salt and replace it with an additive that causes birth defects and brain damage – YAY!!
GIVE ME A BREAK. There are already labels on EVERYTHING, so if I want to avoid sodium I can. STOP regulating everything in our lives in the name of *HEALTH*.
Wow! You really over reacted and sound very tense, as in hypertensive…how much sodium have you had today (along with the caffine, and maybe nicotine, and…). 150,000 lives a year is significant and if you had read the article you might have learned that consumers are having the sodium forced on them by the manufacturers who first denied the evidence ( a lot like you seem to be doing) and then blamed the consumers…
Congestive heart failure. Once you get the disease your prognsosis is five years. CHF’s main cause is uncontrolled hypertension. Salt can be a huge factor of CHF. So go ahead and eat all the salt you want. If you have hypertension then develop CHF or if you know someone, perhaps a father or brother or someone else, don’t think about the salt that you consumed. It’s too late. And don’t worry about the hundreds of thousands of dollars your care will cost. Worrying won’t help. Might as well keep eating those crackers, processed foods and lunchmeats. Hopefully Medicare will still be around to pay the medical costs. Hopefully a loved one will be around to help you with your daily activities. It’s a horrible way to live and die but what the heck.
im sure im live a long years..
I have LOW blood pressure and my doctor found my blood to be sodium DEFICIENT. I actually need MORE sodium in my diet! Pass the popcorn, EXTRA salt please!
The gov. should stop treating us like 3 year olds and let us make our own decisions on OUR health!!