Still More Salt!

Marion Nestle has kindly gathered a lot  of the evidence for salt reduction in one place. I understand that this is highly contentious, and that the salt lobby would really like us to think that salt reduction is pointless, but from my perspective the question is not whether a salt reduction could make us healthier. The question is what to do with that information.

The answer to that question is not, in my humble opionion, any sort of mandatory salt reduction in foods. Let people see this  research, and decide for themselves how much salt they want in their diets. Oh, and that means not lableing things in deceptive ways viz-a-viz salt. I love salty, fatty foods, but I think it's inexcusable when the producers of these use loopholes to advertise these products with all sorts of health (structure/function, in the legalese) claims, or proudly mark their "lesser evil" foods as "heart healthy." If a package says something is good for my heart, shouldn't that at least mean that it's not really bad for my heart? It's like the new Taco Bell campaign: a new menu that's HEALTHY (when compared with and eaten in place of the other truly horrible things on our menu) !