According to two top medical researchers, the hype behind the wild claims of the “sodium police” isn’t, well, worth its salt. Salt is routinely demonized in the media, by regulators, and activist groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has called salt “the deadly white powder you already snort.” In the past year, though, we’ve seen salt vindicated time and time again through scientific research.
The food police and nanny-state regulators now seemingly want to double down with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) asking for public comments on approaches to reducing sodium consumption. But newly submitted comments by Niels Graudal and Gesche Jϋrgens may prove a fatal blow. The medical researchers, who published the most comprehensive review to date on salt studies, warn the FDA that recommendations to reduce salt consumption may kill people instead of saving them.
The Center for Objective Health Policy, the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Hypertension, and scores of other organizations, professionals, and concerned citizens believe the feds should keep their hands off of salt (they outnumber supporters by a 9-to-1 ratio, according to the Salt Institute). The possible drawbacks of lower sodium diets were documented in six different studies in 2011. Add in the scores of negative comments the FDA received, and you’d think regulators would surrender—even if the stubborn activists won’t.
