American Heart Association Strongly Supports Salt Reduction

The group pointed to "overwhelming evidence" that reducing sodium intake improves cardiovascular health.

February 17, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Industry groups have it all wrong: sodium reductions do improve health, the American Heart Association (AHA) asserted. The AHA recently submitted comments to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) for its inquiry into salt intake, Food Navigator USA reports.

The group said that the evidence pointed overwhelmingly to lowering sodium intake improves cardiovascular health. The AHA also said the government should limit sodium to 1,500 milligrams daily for nutritional labeling purposes.

The comments come after the Grocery Manufacturers Association filed its own remarks with the FSIS, saying that "results from a growing number of published research studies dispute the conventional wisdom that sodium reduction will universally lead to health-promoting outcomes." The GMA said the "data show that sodium reduction may lead to unintended health consequences such as increased all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality."

"Overwhelming evidence shows that reductions in sodium consumption are linked to improvements in blood pressure and a reduced risk for a number of chronic diseases," said Dr. Gordon Tomaselli, AHA president.

Since the food industry has been moving slowly to lower sodium in its products, the AHA recommended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) establish a step-down process to lower sodium content over a five-year period, starting with a reduction to 2,300 milligrams by 2015 and ending at 1,500 milligrams by 2020.

Meanwhile, the food industry is throwing its two cents?? worth into the mix by saying such mandates are "unrealistic" and "not sustainable," according to Kathryn Wiemer, director and fellow at the General Mills Bell Institute of Heath and Nutrition. "If the food industry is faced with overly aggressive, mandatory sodium reduction targets and not given adequate time to address these technological challenges, we will not be able to adequately formulate food products to consumer expectations and the FDA??s efforts will be for naught," said Wiemer.

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