Did you know that it’s recommended to limit your sodium consumption to 2,300 mg of sodium a day? That’s just a little more than a teaspoon of table salt. For those with heart disease or certain risk factors, that number is even lower. The majority of sodium in the American diet does not come from the salt shaker, but from processed foods and restaurant meals. That’s why the FDA is proposing guidelines for voluntary reduction in sodium in restaurants across the nation to help curb such health epidemics such as high blood pressure and heart disease. While there is no set timeline for these guidelines to be announced, it is towards the top of the FDA’s priorities for 2014.
The response from the nutrition world has been mixed, with some applauding these efforts while others worry that not enough restaurants will take part. The main concern for restaurant owners is that their competitors won’t lower their sodium and diners will choose those saltier dishes that their taste buds are accustomed to. Nutritional watchdog groups, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, are pushing the FDA to make these guidelines mandatory for restaurants so the impact would be much greater.
For those in the restaurant industry, the first step in abiding by these guidelines is to know how much sodium lies in your food. The second step is to address the common sources of sodium and consider alternatives. Ingredients such as canned products, cured meats and cheese are all big contributors of sodium but each has a lower-sodium alternative that could make for an easy replacement. And some of those switches don’t even require looking for “reduced sodium” on the food label. Switching out an ounce of Swiss cheese on a burger for an ounce of cheddar could save the diner 200 mg of sodium. The food industry is constantly swaying in the direction of increased transparency and ingredient awareness, and the FDA’s involvement in restaurant sodium levels is just one way of many that this is coming to fruition.
