Doctors Group Pressures FDA to Limit Salt in Products, Restaurants

Physicians actively talking to the FDA in reference to sodium use in restaurants...could save lives...and there's always a salt shaker to add salt, but perhaps this will give folks the options of salt or no salt...BD

Now public health specialists are pressuring the Food and Drug Administration to require food makers to cut the sodium. In a hearing set for next week, they will call the government intervention crucial to fighting heart disease. The AMA says cutting in half the sodium in processed and restaurant foods within 10 years could wind up saving 150,000 lives annually.

It's not just a U.S. issue. Britain has a major government campaign under way to reduce salt consumption by one-third by 2010. In catchy TV ads, a shopper shouts, "Full of it!" as she tosses aside high-sodium foods, and a mound of salt crushes a grocery cart. Next year, Britain begins checking if manufacturers are meeting new reduced-sodium targets for different types of food.