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Latest Salt Guidelines Are At Odds With Biological Data

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US dietary guidelines for sodium intake are not practical for the general population. Image courtesy of TheGiantVermin.

Salt has had its share of bad press this year. In January, the Bloomberg administration in New York City proposed new legislation that would require restaurants and food manufacturers to cut salt content by 25% over five years. In June, the U.S dietary guidelines recommended the upper limit of sodium intake be reduced to 1,600 mg/day, a 40% decrease from the current average.

According to recent data published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition the recommendations may be misguided. The review examined data from 38 studies dating from 1957 to 2003. The studies measured the amount of sodium excreted in urine, a value that very accurately reflects total sodium intake. Importantly, there was no significant change in sodium levels over nearly five decades, despite vigorous public health initiatives to reduce salt intake.

The new data reinforces findings published in 2009 that examined sodium levels in populations across 33 different countries that showed a very narrow window of human sodium intake regardless of culture, lifestyle or eating patterns.

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In an editorial published in the same issue of AJCN, UC Davis adjunct professor David McCarron explains that the available data makes it clear that sodium intake is not a variable that is easy to modify in the population.

According to McCarron, “These data should close the debate on whether there should be a recommended level of salt intake for the general population.”

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