The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced new “voluntary guidance” requiring food manufactures to cut sodium levels in more than 100 categories of food, such as bread, canned soups and vegetables, and deli meats. The FDA claims these new regulations will improve Americans’ health. Yet, critics have raised several concerns.
The latest medical research questions the relationship between salt and cardiovascular disease, and some studies even warn that certain groups need higher levels of salt in their diets. Second, food manufacturers are already producing low- and no-salt food items. This makes these new guidelines unnecessary since consumers can already choose low-sodium options. Third, these regulations will increase food costs for Americans already struggling financially.
Americans should also remember that the government has a dismal record on dietary matters. Consider that after decades of telling Americans to lower cholesterol levels, the 2016 dietary guidelines declared cholesterol “no longer a nutrient of concern.” Recall the USDA’s disastrous food pyramid, which recommended a high-carbohydrate diet and made no distinction between healthy and unhealthy fats. The government’s decades long guidance to avoid saturated fats directly led to the development of hydrogenated oils, which have now been banned by the same government that at one time applauded their creation.
Now the government nannies are at it again, putting all Americans on a low-salt diet—no matter the consequences.