The Health Department recently launched a campaign raising awareness of the dangers of high sodium foods, a major cause of high blood pressure, which can lead to heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.
These conditions, which lead to 23,000 deaths in New York City each year, and more than 800,000 around the country, are the leading causes of preventable deaths in the U.S. These conditions can also cost Americans millions in heath care expenses
The salt in American diets poses a risk for those with normal blood pressure. For the 1.5 million New Yorkers with high-blood pressure, the risks are even greater.
The Institute of Medicine released a report in April stressing the need to reduce sodium intake in the United States because Americans consume roughly twice the recommended limit of salt.
This campaign is paired with the announcement this past April of the formation of the National Salt Reduction Initiative. This initiative’s goal is to reduce American’s salt intake by 20 percent over the next five years. The partnership now includes 18 national health organizations and 16 food companies, including, Goya, Subway and Starbucks.
“The National Salt Reduction Initiative has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives that otherwise would be lost to cardiovascular disease in coming years,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The initiative, which is monitoring 62 categories of packaged food, will also hold companies accountable for meeting their targets.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said that he hopes that these combined efforts will gradually reduce the excess salt in foods, giving consumers a greater choice of healthy products and lowering the risk of heart disease and stroke.
The current campaign is trying to educate consumers on what to look for when purchasing foods. The ads and slogan, “Many foods pack a lot more salt than you think,” encourages consumers to check the labels and choose the foods containing less sodium.
Only a small percentage of the salt most people intake comes from their own salt shaker. Almost 80 percent is added to the foods before it is bought, according to the Health Department.
“While consumers can always add salt to food to taste, they can’t take it out,” said Farley. “It is our hope that by increasing the public’s understanding of how much salt is in food, we can help consumers become better equipped to read labels and choose wisely.”
Most people should eat under 1,500 mg of sodium a day, though some foods exceed that per serving, as seen in the chart.
Item Serving Size Range of Sodium (mg) per serving*
Canned soup 1 cup 50–950
Canned vegetables 1/2 cup 10–550
Sliced bread 1 slice 100–240
Frozen cheese pizza 1 slice 510–1090
Frozen meals 6–10 ounces 330–1130
Tomato juice 8 ounces 140–680
Salad dressing 2 tablespoons 80–620
Salsa 2 tablespoons 90–250
Potato chips 1 ounce 10–380
Pretzels 1 ounce 50–610
The chart exhibits the importance of checking labels as that the amount of sodium can vary greatly even between two brands in the same category.
