A Salty Rejoinder

NY1 reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is working with several companies to voluntarily reduce salt content of foods within the Big Apple.

And how does the salt industry react? 

In a statement, Salt Institute President Lori Roman said, "The Mayor's time would be better spent educating consumers on consumption of fruits and vegetables...

The problem with that approach, Lori, is that it doesn't actually help us control our salt consumption, does it?  And let's face facts: when my doctor told me to cut back on salt, he DID tell me to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables.  We all know we're supposed to be eating our greens.  We just don't do it.

When I prepare foods at home, I can track how much salt I'm getting.  I can read packages in the grocery store to see how much salt is in prepared foods I might pop in the microwave.  I can decide if I really want to eat a can of soup that has over half my daily intake of salt in it.

But when we go out to restaurants, all bets are off.  There's no nutrition label affixed to my blue-plate special.  That's not to say that restaurant food is too salty;  while there are probably some meals at some restaurants that are, the real problem is simply knowing the content so we can track our intake.

Mayor Bloomberg is simply working to correct that.

Nobody is advocating the elimination of salt from our diets - that would be stupid. We need salt.  But we don't need so much.