Editorial: Welcome the regulation, cut the salt

At your next meal, don’t ask anyone to pass the salt. Studies have increasingly shown… At your next meal, don’t ask anyone to pass the salt. Studies have increasingly shown that salt ranks among the worst culinary culprits when it comes to our health. We need salt to survive, but Americans’ daily sodium intake has reached dangerous levels.

Now, the Food and Drug Administration plans to create federal standards to limit the amount of salt that food manufacturers and restaurants can add to food, the Washington Post reports. But this is a large-scale health issue that’s shown chronic concerns. We’re already in a pinch, and it’s time that the FDA takes action.

The U.S. government recommends around 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day. However, most American adults consume around double the recommended daily value, according to the Center for Disease Control. One in three Americans has high blood pressure. Time reports that excess sodium contributes to as many as 150,000 premature deaths each year and to $10 to $24 billion in health care costs. Sodium increases blood volume because it attracts and holds water, according to the Mayo Clinic. With higher blood volume, the heart must work harder to pump blood.

But all this health hullabaloo could fall on deaf ears to a group that’s notoriously unconcerned about health issues yet also notoriously unhealthy: college students. College diets rely on processed foods because those foods are cheap and require little preparation time amid a schedule that’s crammed with classes. College students also frequent restaurants and takeout food. And in attempting to deter that pesky freshman 15, sodium content could be overlooked in favor of cutting calories, sugar and fat.

If college students and others have heard of sodium’s health detriments, but won’t make accommodations in their diets, the FDA’s ensuing regulation becomes all the more important. Ideally, we’d all take responsibility for our health, but realistically that’s not the situation. Once again, it’s in college students’ nature to always reach for the convenient and cheap hunger fixes. Some might immediately associate regulation with nanny government, but in this instance, knowledge of the dangers of salt intake has been in the news for several years and we’re still having problems. FDA intervention seems one of the only viable solutions.

Consumers shouldn’t expect to see sodium content percentages on nutrition labels paring down anytime soon, however. The FDA’s massive overhaul is a 10-year program. The project will take significant effort on part of the FDA — they’ll have to analyze thousands of products that make up the $600 billion food industry. The details of how they’ll proceed have yet to be released. Sure, we’d all like to see this process sped up since it is a real concern, but because food manufacturers can add as much salt that they like to their products, the legal limits will be an unprecedented and massive change. Given the long timetable, hopefully it’ll be done right.