Too Much is Never Enough for NYC Food Nannies

Posted by Jessica on Jan. 28, 2009

The latest target in New York City’s war against food freedom is salt. As reported today in the New York Times, the Orwellian-sounding Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has put a dartboard on the back of that evil seasoning.

As evidence of the existence of a slippery slope, the department is emboldened by its recent victories against smoking, trans fats and calories and believes it can likewise succeed in getting New Yorkers to decrease their sodium intake. The effort will be voluntary, according to department head Dr. Thomas Frieden. Voluntary like Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) famously called our IRS tax system. Money quote:

“If there’s not progress in a few years, we’ll have to consider other options, like legislation,” [Frieden] said in an interview last week.

If reducing sodium intake is a noble goal, why not run a public service ad campaign instead of reducing choice, coercing the public and harrassing food producers and restaurants? Give people the facts and let them make their own choices.

The law of unintended consequences might also kick in here as the cure could end up being worse than the disease as companies try to create salt substitutes under pressure from regulators and interest groups. For an historical perspective, let’s recall the hysteria in the 90’s over McDonald’s using beef fat to fry its fries. Public health groups mobilized to decry the practice and pillory the company so it replaced beef fat with… trans fat, the new wonder fat. As a rule of thumb, synthetic “foods” are less healthy than natural ones, so it is not a leap to imagine that salt substitutes will be worse for one’s health than actual salt. And the industry is already heading in this direction as it anticipates growing regulatory pressure:

Kraft alone has spent $20 million on sodium reduction research, studying chemicals that block taste receptors and experimenting with yeast or potassium as substitutes.

Whole NY Times article is here.

  • Sabayon
    Recent studies indicate that eating too much salt is actually no big deal at all, provided you drink enough (which you will be inclined to do naturally when you've eaten too much salt through a newly discovered internal mechanism called "thirst"). You'll then just pee out the excess salt, so unless you have hypertension, eating too much salt...makes you pee more. Oooh, scary. However not getting enough salt relative to your water intake can cause dizziness and fainting because without sodium your body can not absorb water. But god forbid actual facts and research get in the way of our moral panic over food.
  • teqjack
    In the UK, some areas have started searching scholchildren's lunch boxes and, if not always outright confiscating stuff, writing nasty notes to the parents.

    Salt... harmful IF preexisting condition exists. Known to "cause" hypertension? Well, yes - in the subset of the population with the corresponding genetic condition.
  • Jessica Lee
    Dawdy, so good to hear from you. I miss you.
  • Philip Dawdy
    jessice, i've been saying for a long time that once the nannies get done with smoking they are going to go batshit over food of every kind and they'll be policing peoples' homes over additives and such. i can't wait!
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