The cardiac benefits of banning salt

Restaurants throughout New York State would be forbidden to use salt in the preparation of food if New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has his way. He introduced a bill Tuesday, citing a World Health Organization report that says at least three-quarters of the sodium Americans consume comes from restaurant foods.

"Studies have also proven that lowering the amount of salt people eat, even by small amounts, could reduce cases of heart disease, stroke, and heart attacks as much as reductions in smoking, obesity, and cholesterol levels," Ortiz told Nation's Restaurant News.

That's true. (Check out the recent Time magazine story on that subject.) But civil libertarians might quibble with whether that means we should be creating laws that prevent restaurants from cooking with salt.

Aside from the health benefits of lower salt intake, a study in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine says reducing dietary sodium levels would save $32 billion in medical costs and avert almost one million heart attacks and strokes over the lifetime of adults ages 45 to 85.

In the study, researchers considered two approaches for reducing a population's sodium intake--governments getting food manufacturers to voluntarily reduce salt in processed foods, and governments placing a sodium tax on food, reports HeartWire. Though they projected financial savings and health improvements, researchers admitted that "efforts to reduce population sodium intake could result in other dietary changes that are difficult to predict."

We Americans like our salt, after all-- and generally ingest way more than we need. It's not that way everywhere. Check out that World Health Organization report that Ortiz referenced and you'll read how some cultures grapple with iodine deficiency from too little sodium.

Meanwhile: Some advice for cooking flavorfully with less salt.