Shaking up our love of salt

Panelists at a Harvard School of Public Health symposium on May 3 said the best way to get Americans to eat less salt may be to silently cut the amount used in the chips and dips and TV dinners and other processed and ready-to-eat foods we all love. They suggested the stealth approach because a direct assault hasn't worked. Research indicates that Americans' high salt intake is a leading cause of high blood pressure. The research has also shown that reducing the amount of salt we eat will not only help those who already have a problem, but also reduce the natural slow increase in blood pressure as we age. The biggest problem is that a lot of the salt we eat comes from unexpected sources. Salt added in cooking or at the table makes up just 15 percent of the salt in the average diet. It is in processed, ready-to-eat, and restaurant foods that we get most of our salt - about 75 percent. Another problem is that the salt industry is a powerful advocate of its product and can finance and publicize its own studies and present enough of an alternate case to muddy the water around the issue.