American consumers have more power than the FDA or the CDC to create needed and healthy changes in our food supply. For example, people have decided that they don’t want farm-subsidized high fructose corn syrup in nearly every product they purchase, beyond the obvious soda and cereal, to ones that really make you wonder, such as boxed macaroni and cheese, packaged chicken strips and microwavable vegetable soup. Slowly, due to demand, food manufacturers are replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar, or removing it altogether. They trumpet these changes in their advertisements.
Meanwhile, apparently to balance the sweet, sodium is another ingredient used in too great of proportions in packaged foods. Year after year researchers sound the alarm, because too much sodium is associated with high blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke. And almost anything that isn’t fruit or vegetables has too much sodium. (Yes, it’s possible to have too little sodium in one’s diet, but it’s rare because most foods, including fruits and vegetables naturally contain some sodium.)
The American Heart Association says people should aim to eat 2,300 milligrams of salt or less a day, (people with high blood pressure are advised to eat less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day) but almost no one hits that target, and that’s because processed food sold has so much sodium in it, researchers say, not because people use the salt shaker too much. Which makes added sodium exactly like added sugar — unnecessary and harmful. Bread is a good example of the worst of both worlds: Full of added high fructose corn syrup and sodium. Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that bread is the single biggest source of sodium in the U.S. diet because people eat so much of it. An earlier CDC study this year found that more than 90 percent of children exceed the recommended sodium intake, setting them up for health problems before they even hit adolescence, never mind adulthood. For the kids, approximately 43 percent of sodium consumed came from pizza, yeast bread and rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, savory snacks (chips, pretzels, and popcorn), sandwiches, cheese, chicken patties, nuggets and tenders, pasta mixed dishes, Mexican-mixed dishes and soups. This is why Michelle Obama has campaigned for healthier school lunches with less sodium, sugar and fat. Despite opposition from those who sell processed foods to schools, more kids are eating more fruits and vegetables, the USDA reports, 90 percent of schools report that they are successfully meeting the updated nutrition standards; school lunch revenue is up; and the program has not increased food waste.
When consumers — not the government — demand less sodium in their food, manufacturers will respond. It certainly can’t hurt the bottom line to spend less on added sodium and/or sweeteners. Less is more, physically and economically.
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