(NewsRx.com) -- Testifying at last week's Food and Drub Administration's hearing, Steven Havas, American Medical Association's (AMA) vice president for science, quality and public health analogized that the number of U.S. deaths attributable to excess salt intake "is the equivalent of a jumbo jet with more than 400 passengers crashing every day of the year, year after year."
U.S. consumers have a love affair with salt, ingesting six to 18 grams of salt daily, while the average person needs only .5 grams per day. The excess that Americans ingest leads to heart disease and strokes--number one and number three killers in the U.S. respectively.
However, the excess may not be coming in large part from consumers' shakers. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), up to 75% of the sodium in American consumers' diets is found in processed foods, such as condiments, soups, canned foods and prepared mixes.
So what can a health-conscious consumer do? Look for lower sodium salt alternatives. It sounds like a contradiction, but there are choices, such as sea salt, and many manufacturers and food processors are turning to these choices to offer better quality, healthier foods to consumers.
Alan Fisher, president of Oceans Flavor, a sea salt producer supplying the food industry stated, "In our conversations with customers and those who are discussing the use of natural low sodium sea salt, most are shifting their thinking to be out in front of the sodium reduction movement with their products."
Consumers can and often do provoke change in the food industry, but the food industry is also driving the dynamic of healthier ingredients in the foods they produce. The FDA hearing on Thursday underscores this new positioning within the industry. Alan Kirchner, Ocean's Flavor CEO and Ty Smith of TekPack Inc attended the hearing. Kirchner remarked, "The fact that the AMA and AHA provided comments that strongly linked hypertension and other health issues to the levels of sodium in our diets provided a powerful message that we need to address this issue now. We're pleased to offer an important, positive alternative."
This article was prepared by NewsRx editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2007, NewsRx.com. |
Medical News Today
''Salt Of The Earth'' May Be Healthiest
Article Date: 30 Nov 2007 - 3:00 PST
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), has submitted a citizen petition resulting in a public hearing regarding The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) policies regarding salt (sodium chloride) and sodium in food. The petition requests that the FDA make changes to the regulatory status of salt, require limits on salt in processed foods, and require health messages related to salt and sodium. The science regarding the link between poor health and excessive salt in the diet is alarming to many. According to Michael Jacobson of the CSPI, "There's just a growing scientific consensus that current levels of salt in the diet are one of the biggest health threats to the public." But what is a society to do when salt is so very prevalent in the diets we are used to and prefer? One way is to buy foods in which less sodium salt is used. Lower sodium salt? Sound confusing? Actually, sea salt, like the brand "Ocean's Flavor" is a natural low sodium choice that many food processing companies are using to provide benefits to their customers. For example, the home delivery premium frozen foods company Schwan's is benefiting from the opportunity to offer a healthy choice. "The Schwan Food Company is using Ocean's Flavor Sea Salt as one of a variety of technologies to enhance the healthfulness of its products," said Schwan's Research and Development Vice President, Bruce Paterson. Ocean's Flavor Sea Salt is a specialty product which is up to 57% lower in sodium than other standard table salt or sea salt. This is due to the company's tight patent-pending restrictions that can optimize the environment's natural ability to produce a salt comprised of lower sodium and great taste, while maintaining the ocean's healthy minerals which are required for a balanced, healthy body. "Over the last two years, Ocean's Flavor has experienced tremendous growth due to the public's demand for lower sodium products," says Alan Fisher, Ocean's Flavor president. "This need has been further supported by newer and more defined sodium intake guidelines, as set forth by the American Heart Association, American Medical Association and The Center for Science here in the states. Paralleling these new requirements are the new more stringent restrictions in the UK." Ocean's Flavor CEO Alan Kirchner explains that the company works in partnership with premium food processors by providing natural less sodium sea salts that meet today's market and health demands for lower levels of sodium, while providing a healthy balance of nature's minerals. "Why use a fake chemically-produced salt substitute when you can use a natural environmentally-produced less sodium sea salt?" asks Fisher.
Forbes.com
''Salt of the Earth'' May Be Healthiest
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), has submitted a citizen petition resulting in a public hearing regarding The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) policies regarding salt (sodium chloride) and sodium in food. The petition requests that the FDA make changes to the regulatory status of salt, require limits on salt in processed foods, and require health messages related to salt and sodium. The public hearing is scheduled for this Thursday, November 29. The science regarding the link between poor health and excessive salt in the diet is alarming to many. According to Michael Jacobson of the CSPI, "There's just a growing scientific consensus that current levels of salt in the diet are one of the biggest health threats to the public." But what is a society to do when salt is so very prevalent in the diets we are used to and prefer? One way is to buy foods in which less sodium salt is used. Lower sodium salt? Sound confusing? Actually, sea salt, like the brand "Ocean's Flavor" is a natural low sodium choice that many food processing companies are using to provide benefits to their customers. For example, the home delivery premium frozen foods company Schwan's is benefiting from the opportunity to offer a healthy choice. "The Schwan Food Company is using Ocean's Flavor Sea Salt as one of a variety of technologies to enhance the healthfulness of its products," said Schwan's Research and Development Vice President, Bruce Paterson. Ocean's Flavor Sea Salt is a specialty product which is up to 57% lower in sodium than other standard table salt or sea salt. This is due to the company's tight patent-pending restrictions that can optimize the environment's natural ability to produce a salt comprised of lower sodium and great taste, while maintaining the ocean's healthy minerals which are required for a balanced, healthy body. "Over the last two years, Ocean's Flavor has experienced tremendous growth due to the public's demand for lower sodium products," says Alan Fisher, Ocean's Flavor president. "This need has been further supported by newer and more defined sodium intake guidelines, as set forth by the American Heart Association, American Medical Association and The Center for Science here in the states. Paralleling these new requirements are the new more stringent restrictions in the UK." Ocean's Flavor CEO Alan Kirchner explains that the company works in partnership with premium food processors by providing natural less sodium sea salts that meet today's market and health demands for lower levels of sodium, while providing a healthy balance of nature's minerals. "Why use a fake chemically-produced salt substitute when you can use a natural environmentally-produced less sodium sea salt?" asks Fisher. About Ocean's Flavor In 2003, Al Kirchner and Alan Fisher co-owners of Ocean's Flavor had the idea to produce a natural, less sodium sea salt. After searching the world for a suitable location, they came across a sleepy little town in Latin America which possessed the right environment, the ideal climate and the required processing support that would be needed for optimum natural less sodium salt production. In two short years Ocean's Flavor has become the world's leader in the sale and distribution of natural less sodium sea salts; furnishing to soup-, vegetable-, ingredient-, seasonings-, frozen food-, beef- and poultry-producing companies both domestically and internationally. Ocean's Flavor is ahead of the curve in reducing sodium by "thinking natural," and keeping the taste of what real less sodium sea salt should taste like.
Ten health myths that are untrue:
• Anti-bacterial soap cleans better
• Sitting up straight contributes to back pain
• More carrots mean better eye sight
• Taking antioxidant supplements
• Drinking eight glasses of water daily
• Vitamin C fights common cold
• Chicken soup helps the cold sufferer feel better
• Stress causes ulcer.
• Eyeglasses make vision get worse overtime
• Tomatoes protect from prostate cancer
For details visit http://www.tribune.com
6-28-2007The scientific literature linking sodium intake to blood pressure is extensive and dates back more than 100 years. Populations with a high average salt intake have a higher average blood pressure and higher levels of hypertension (high blood pressure). Restricting the amount of salt you have will lower high blood pressure - the extent depends on your age and blood pressure. However, sodium restriction may not lower blood pressure if it is within the normal range.
Sodium intake and other health conditions
Excessive sodium intake has also been linked to other conditions that are exacerbated by water retention, such as:
- Heart failure
- Kidney problems and kidney stones
- Oedema
- Stroke
- Gastric cancer
- Left ventricular hypertrophy
- Osteoporosis.
Please read full article at http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Salt?OpenDocument
6-30-2007
Hi AllYou may be aware that over the weekend I have been looking at the salt/potassium ratio our bodies need.
In one article I read about a test that you can do to convince yourself of the difference between 'sea salt' against ordinary every day 'table salt'. So I thought I would try it.
I got two empty herb jars and filled them up to the neck with ordinary water (Oh, I forgot. We only have rainwater I don't suppose it should make a lot of difference. Might even be a better quality for the test). I then added a measured teaspoonful of table salt (Saxa) to one jar and the same measure of sea salt (we use the cheapest we can find) to the other. I then gave each bottle a shake and then left them sitting on the window sill for twenty-four hours.
This is the result:
As you can see the sea salt, in the jar on the left, has completely dissolved in the water while the table salt just lies in the bottom of the jar.
This is what has been happening within our bodies since the introduction of processed salt. Table salt does not dissolve in the body and, over time, begins to block arteries etc, causing serious harm to our bodies. The sea salt will flow through your body and do more good than harm. We all need salt!
Table salt, obviously, has had all the goodness extracted during refining so you get a nice shiny white substance that looks and tastes salty but is of no use to your body.
Hoo Roo
Norm
PS the Saxa will be going into the garbage bin!
April 20, 2007
The highest-quality study to date on the link between a low-salt diet and heart health confirms what many doctors have long suspected: For a healthy heart, you should cut back on your salt. Low-salt diets have been shown to lower blood pressure, so a link to overall heart health seems logical.
However, the new study, published in the current issue of the British Medical Journal, showed that even in people whose blood pressure was not excessively high, putting down the salt shaker could have heart benefits. Specifically, the study shows that the occurrence of heart attack, death caused by heart disease and other cardiac conditions were reduced by 25 percent to 30 percent in those following a low-salt diet. Dr. Jeffrey Cutler said recommendations in favor of a low-salt diet had been "challenged by some because there's no [good] proof that lower dietary salt will lower the risk for heart attacks and strokes."
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