chanel
Silver Member
The U.S. food industry may face federal sodium restrictions if it doesnt move on its own to make packaged meals less salty, said Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Substantial changes in food production are needed to improve Americans health by reducing salt consumption, Frieden, who previously headed New York Citys health department, said in an editorial published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. A voluntary reduction of salt by food manufacturers would lower consumption more than a mandatory tax on salt in packaged foods, according to a study in the same journal that Frieden cited.
Levying a sodium tax could decrease U.S. sodium consumption by 6 percent and save $22.4 billion in medical costs, the study found. No country has imposed such a tax, according to the report.
After tobacco control, the most cost-effective intervention to control chronic diseases might be reduction of sodium intake, Frieden said in the editorial, written with Peter Briss, the CDCs acting associate director for science.
Salt Limits in Prepared Meals May Be Mandatory, CDC Chief Says - BusinessWeek
There is some controversy over whether sodium really is as harmful as they say. Could this be another "Big Daddy Gubmint" boondoggle like Warmergate?