San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 2010
Before surging obesity rates made villains of trans fats and sugars, salt was the big nutritional bad guy in the American diet, linked to hypertension, heart disease and stroke
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Then waistlines expanded and expanded some more, and the focus shifted.
Now, aware that Americans’ salt consumption has risen by 50 percent over the past 40 years largely because of an increased reliance on a diet of processed and restaurant foods, public health experts and politicians are attempting to put the spotlight back on salt and its harmful …

The Boston Globe, Karen Weintraub, February 1, 2010
Sure, a big deli pickle is salty. So is a strip of bacon or handful of chips. But who knew that a single serving of milk or yogurt has about 5 percent, or around 120 mg, of the recommended daily allowance of sodium? And a slice of bread – one slice, not a sandwich – has nearly 10 percent of the RDA.
Now, led by a New York push to cut salt consumption nationwide, health departments and advocacy groups around the country are …

In a report that may bolster public policy efforts to get Americans to reduce the amount of salt in their diets, scientists writing in The New England Journal of Medicine conclude that lowering the amount of salt people eat by even a small amount could reduce cases of heart disease, stroke and heart attacks as much as reductions in smoking,obesity and cholesterol levels.
Go to the The New England Journal of Medicine for the full article.
If everyone consumed half a teaspoon less salt per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year …

William, Neuman, The New York Times,  January 10, 2010
First New York City required restaurants to cut out trans fat. Then it made restaurant chains post calorie counts on their menus. Now it wants to protect people from another health scourge: salt.
On Monday, the Bloomberg administration plans to unveil a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products.
The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a …

h4 class=”introduction”>Unilever has announced plans to cut the salt content across its global range of 22,000 products with an eye on achieving the five grams daily maximum salt intake recommended by the World Health Organization.

Food companies face considerable challenges in reformulating with reduced salt, in terms of technical issues where salt plays a functional role as a preservative or to control the fermentation of yeast, and also in retaining a flavour that is acceptable to consumers. Nevertheless, salt reduction in processed foods has been a major target for manufacturers, particularly since the …