NaCl

Over a particularly salty dish at dinner last night I commented on how the focus on food these days seems to be largely on reducing fat and carbs but little attention is paid to the abundance of salt we consume which in turn has a direct impact on high blood pressure (trust me I know), heart disease, strokes, and other ailments.

From Newsweek...

Forget about fat. What's really killing Americans is salt. We've increased our sodium consumption by 50 percent in the past two decades, and the results are shocking: excessive sodium intake leads to high blood pressure, stroke, and a variety of other health woes. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that reducing salt intake by about 3 grams a day—we currently consume an average of 10—would drastically improve our health, reducing by about a third cases of chronic heart disease, stroke, and heart attack. It would also save up to $24 billion in annual health-care costs.

The war on salt has already begun, with New York making a very public stand: a state assemblyman tried to ban salt in restaurant cooking, while the New York City Health Department declared an initiative to fight the increasing number of cardiovascular diseases by reducing salt in packaged foods. Getting companies on board is the most important part: according to the NYC Health Department, 80 percent of the salt consumers eat is added to food before it's sold.

For your own good, lay off the salt.