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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Pepper us with facts on salt

By: Editorial

18/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

18 November 2009 winnipeg free press dale cummings edit dinky Salt

Manufacturers of processed foods are on the parliamentary hot seat in Ottawa, defending their lacklustre efforts to cut the levels of sodium added to their products. High sodium intake can be a killer, particularly of people inclined to have high blood pressure or with a family history of stroke. Research indicates Canadians are addicted to salt.

Canadians, a Statistics Canada survey five years ago showed, consume twice the sodium nutritionists recommend -- less than a teaspoon of salt -- in a day. The recommended limit for adults is between 1,200 and 1,500 milligrams; children, about 1,200 daily. Ninety per cent of kids four to eight years old take in more than 2,300 milligrams, exceeding the upper adult limit, where authorities believe there is a significant risk to health.

Table salt is not the problem and avoiding fast foods -- a clear culprit -- can be deceptively ineffective, especially for children. A quick look at the labels on soups, crackers, processed cheese foods, even white and whole wheat bread, shows the high percentage each has of daily recommended intake. A bowl of chicken noodle soup and a hot dog can push a seven-year-old over the daily limit, the Globe and Mail revealed in a series on salt consumption last spring.

The health risks of excessive sodium include elevated risk of heart attacks and stroke. Dietary habits form early and with high sodium content in processed foods, the concern is that by adulthood, typically when hypertension develops, a taste for salt becomes hard to break.

But even children are beginning to show up with the signs of hypertension. The trend is causing some experts and disease prevention groups to demand that government impose mandatory limits on the sodium added to fast foods and processed items on the grocery store shelves. A federal working group, formed about two years ago, is to report early next year, with voluntary limits expected to be top among the recommendations.

Opposition members are unimpressed with the time it's taken for Ottawa to act. Unlike other countries, where manufacturers have been pressured to reduce salt, Canada has had no such campaign. That may explain why fast foods or processed foods in this country will have much higher levels of sodium compared to identical foods across the border or in Europe. A bowl of Kellogg's All-Bran cereal in Canada, for example, will have 620 mg of sodium, compared to just 120 mg in the United States, the Globe and Mail reported.

On Monday, a Kellogg executive told the House of Commons health committee that her company had to move slowly in cutting sodium so as not to turn Canadians off their products.

Mandatory limits with unrealistic deadlines for manufacturers risk consumer backlash and people may compensate by picking up the salt shaker. Manufacturers react quickly to consumer taste, something revealed by the consumer backlash on trans fats in recent years. Canada should take a lesson from the approach employed by other countries, which reduced sodium levels dramatically over several years through aggressive public awareness campaigns. Aimed especially at parents, who groom the taste buds of toddlers, voluntary and informed choices can be a powerful tool for change.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 18, 2009 A12

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