CSPI takes on salty restaurant meals: 'Heart Attack Entrées with Side Orders of Stroke'

Unsafe levels of sodium chloride, or salt, in chain restaurant meals increase one's chance of developing hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease according to theCenter for Science in the Public Interest. The nonprofit food safety and nutrition watchdog group today isexposing chain restaurant meals with dangerously high levels of sodiumand is renewing its call on industry and government to lower sodium levels in foods.

People with high blood pressure, African Americans, and people middle-aged and older—70 percent of the population—should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium daily, according to the government’s dietary advice. Others should consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Yet it is almost impossible to get restaurant meals with reasonably safe levels of sodium. A lifetime of eating much more than the recommended amounts of sodium presents an increased risk of disease in the long term. But for some, particularly the elderly, consuming 4,000 mg or more of sodium in a single meal can present an immediate risk of heart failure or other serious problems.

CSPI researchers examined 17 chains and found that 85 out of 102 meals had more than a day's worth of sodium, and some had more than four days' worth.

CSPI hopes that new leadership in the Obama administration will look to sodium reduction and other prevention measures as means of making health care reform affordable. Since the Bush administration did nothing to encourage sodium reduction, some city public health departments, particularly New York City's, have begun to press the food and restaurant industries to cut the sodium in their products. Requiring chain restaurants to disclose sodium on menus would help consumers regulate their salt intake and would likely nudge the industry to provide more low-sodium choices, according to CSPI.

"Americans spend north of $15 billion to treat high blood pressure, and many billions more on expensive heart procedures, yet the government spends peanuts improving Americans' diets,"said CSPI executive director Michael F.Jacobson. "Getting the food and restaurant industry to use less salt would be one way the Obama Administration could help prevent chronic disease and make health coverage more affordable."

Tomorrow, before the Senate Finance Committee,Jacobson will testifythat reducing sodium consumption by just 25 percent over the next 10 years couldsave the government $9 billion a yearin direct medical costs.