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Handful of Foods Responsible for High Sodium Intake in Young Children
Specific foods consumed by young children are resulting in excessive intake of sodium and saturated fat in their daily diets, according to updated findings from the 2008 Nestle Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) recently presented at the Experimental Biology 2014 conference. Just a handful of foods contribute almost 40% of young children’s daily sodium intake, including milk, hot dogs, bacon, chicken, turkey, cheese, bread and rolls, crackers, and cereals. This intake equates to a child aged 2 to 4 years consuming an average of 1,863 milligrams of sodium per day. The new findings complement previously released research from FITS that showed that 45% of toddlers and 78% of preschoolers consume more sodium than recommended. – FoodNavigator-USA.com
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Bring the Salt Monster Under Check
Readers respond to the editor on a recent article, “The Public Health Crisis Hiding in Our Food,” (Op-Ed, April 21), in which physician Thomas A. Farley discussed the hidden sodium in packaged foods in light of recent findings from the British government’s sodium reduction program. “For how much longer will our country allow the real food nanny—the producers of highly processed foods—to cause heart attacks and strokes by force-feeding us too much salt?” asked Lynn Silver, senior adviser at the Public Health Institute and former assistant health commissioner for New York City. “New York’s National Salt Reduction Initiative was a great start,” she added, “but food companies have not acted as forcefully as needed.” A second reader concluded that “it’s up to . . . the consumers to protect ourselves” until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “figures out how to regulate salt content or until more food companies join a voluntary sodium-reduction program like the one in Britain.” A third reader, an older woman with hypertension, noted that after she skeptically reduced her sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams a day, she now has a blood pressure reading in the normal range. – New York Times
Reformulation Can Pose a Food Safety Risk
Healthy reformulation of foods by reducing levels of salt, fat, and sugar could increase the risk of food poisoning unless companies know how to do it properly, warned Roy Betts, head of food microbiology at Campden BRI, an organization that carries out research and development for the food industry. Manufacturers need to understand the preservative effect that salt and sugar provide, he said: “We remove preservatives at our peril, and it’s not something that’s easy to do safely.” By reducing the salt or sugar content of a product, food companies could change how microorganisms grow, which could increase the risk for food poisoning. – FoodManufacture.co.uk
The Truth About Salt: Should You Shake the Habit?
Guidelines from CDC, the American Heart Association, and other health organizations seem to suggest that everyone needs to limit sodium. A recent study from Britain confirmed that need, finding that lower salt consumption led to fewer stroke and heart attack deaths. At the same time, however, researchers in Denmark reported that only extremely high sodium intake is related with increased fatalities; they went so far as to suggest that consuming 5,000 milligrams per day (twice the recommended amount) can be healthy. The article discusses whether people really need to reduce their sodium intake and describes how to figure out how much is a healthy amount for each individual. – The Daily Beast