Health specialists urge Americans to reduce salt intake

Even raw turkey, which is naturally low in sodium, sometimes is injected with salt water before it reaches the store, a lot more salt than a home cook would sprinkle on. One has to read the brand's fine print to know.

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 government intervention crucial to fighting heart disease.

"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," said Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group that filed the FDA petition that led to the meeting.

"This is truly urgent," added Dr. Stephen Havas of the American Medical Association. "We need to act."

The AMA says cutting in half the sodium in processed and restaurant foods within 10 years could save 150,000 lives annually.

The grocery industry knows there is a problem. Food makers and the Center for Science in the Public Interest put aside their differences last month for an unprecedented, closed-door meeting on how to reduce sodium. And the salt content of many foods has inched down in recent decades.

But manufacturers contend they do not have tasty ways to make deeper cuts in salt, and fear consumer backlash if they slash it.

"There's a tremendous need for investment by government and industry to come up with salt alternatives," said Robert Earl of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. "There are just very few that exist that work and perform well in foods."

That is an excuse, contends Havas. Scientific studies show people get accustomed to less salt in months, and then usually find their old foods too salty.

One in three US adults has high blood pressure, and almost 1 billion people do worldwide. Hypertension in turn is a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure. And while being overweight and inactive raises blood pressure, too much salt is also a big culprit.

Government guidelines set 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day as the safe upper limit. The Institute of Medicine says 1,500 milligrams a day, or a little less for older adults, is enough to regulate the body's fluid balance, the mineral's job.