Ban salt from New York restaurants?
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According to the NY Daily News, if Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has his way, yes.
The Brooklyn Democrat has introduced a bill that would ban the use of salt in New York restaurants – and violators would be smacked with a $1,000 fine for every salty dish.
“It’s time for us to take a giant step,” Ortiz said yesterday. “We need to talk about two ingredients of salt: health care costs and deaths.”
He claims billions of dollars and thousands of lives would be saved if salt was taken off the menu altogether.
There’s little argument that too much salt causes high blood pressure, which can lead to heart attacks
One teensy-weensy problem: the science isn’t clear that a ban will change a thing. Unlike anthropogenic global warming, the debate is NOT over. (See an excellent overview of the sodium debate in the NY Times.)
Dr. David A. McCarron, a nephrologist at he University of California at Davis, has called into question studies (especially from the UK) that claim it’s possible to get people to reduce their salt consumption. Surveys in 33 countries show that no matter where you are (unless it’s a sodium-challenged region) we all consume about the same amount of salt.
The results were so similar in so many places that Dr. McCarron hypothesized that networks in the brain regulate sodium appetite so that people consume a set daily level of salt.
If so, nutrition nannies like Ortiz could wind up exacerbating the country’s obesity epidemic.
…if future policies reduce the average amount of salt in food, people might compensate by seeking out saltier foods — or by simply eating still more of everything.
As for low-salt diets reducing strokes and heart attacks, in a recent article in JAMA, Dr. Michael H. Alderman of Albert Einstein College of Medicine has his doubts. He found that clinical outcomes were improved in fewer than half of the studies he surveyed. In fact, some showed worse outcomes.
“When you reduce salt, you reduce blood pressure, but there can also be other adverse and unintended consequences. As more data have accumulated, it’s less and less supportive of the case for salt reduction, but the advocates seem more determined than ever to change policy.”
Some people can wail away with that salt shaker until their food looks like Mount Fuji and not experience the slightest uptick in their blood pressure. Others of us are not so lucky. It makes sense for people with high BP and/or renal disease to watch their sodium intake. That’s a personal responsibility. But banning sodium use in restaurants is bad public policy that could cause further expansion of our already excessive waistlines.
Worse, it’s bad culinary policy too. To quote Tom Colicchio of Top Chef:
Anybody who wants to taste food with no salt, go to a hospital and taste that.
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Just another misguided fool trying to protect people from themselves.
You beat me to this one! Entirely silly, if you ask me.
The fundamental question is this: at what point do we consider an activity so dangerous that it must be banned?
Do we ban skateboards? Bicycles? Mountain Climbing? Eating fish from rivers that may be polluted? Eating red meat? Do we ban racing? Do we ban eating excessive amounts of sugar?
The point is that at some level we have to allow for free will. The nanny state people mean well, but they do not see what the rest of us are doing:
We’re not trying to stay alive; we’re living.
I, for one, welcome this government intrusion to my table.
It’s for my own good, right?
After the salt ban I’m envisioning a legion of G-men like Eliot Ness trying to shut down illicit restaurants serving tasty food in hidden basements all over Manhattan. Repairman Jack will be bringing Abe deadly salty chicken soup instead fattening pastries in the next novel if the prudish legislator from Brooklyn actually got his way.
I don’t always agree with everything I see you post here, but in this case, I agree with you 100%. Banning salt is silly.
In my humble opinion, I am mixed. I don’t think government should be telling people, be it local, county, state or federal, what they should put into their bodies or on them. Yet if you really want to make a difference health-wise, why not simply impose a salt tax? It’s been done for thousands of years, dating back to ancient times in the early second century.
There’s already a salt tax: cardio disease.
Ortiz’ heart is in the right place, no pun intended. Proles are going to continue to do bad things to themselves — eating McDonalds and whatnot — for convenience and frugality’s sakes. Is every move toward a more responsible and realistic American diet, ie preventive care, going to be met with taunts and accusations? That’s not good.
In response to another comment. See in context »@esaeger – Ever hear the story about the camel who wanted to put his nose – just his nose – into the tent? I’m curious where you draw the line at passing laws that interfere with personal preferences. Do you =have= a line? Or does “preventive care” give the Ortizes of the world carte blanche? AIDS patients cost $600k each in care over their lifetimes. Wanna go there? Where will you draw the line?
In response to another comment. See in context »Not everyone’s health is adversely affected by salt. It’s a necessary part of our diet, some need more than others, and, in fact, there are numerous ailments caused by LACK of sufficient salt. Do you also think we should ban water since some die from hyponatremia every year? Or food since some overeat?
In response to another comment. See in context »This is a prelude to Obamacare….where the government will regualte every aspect of your life….because
The new America makes me want to puke.
In response to another comment. See in context »Besides the lack of firm science about excessive salt use being a risk to SOME people, we humans do actually REQUIRE a certain amount of salt in our diet. Those of us who physically work hard and sweat a lot need more salt than those who do not. And there are many of us who do not suffer from high blood pressure, have inherited LOW blood pressure and have no need to worry about salt intake. If those of you who do have high blood pressure and do worry about your salt intake can’t control yourselves, then you should seek psychiatric help in addition to medical help. I really don’t see why the entire rest of the population should be deprived of a NECESSARY part of our diets.
One better, how about we stop subsidizing the sugar industry and put a tax on it instead? It’s taken me 30 years to realize the majority of my calories were garbage. Mostly because sugar is so cheap in the market and readily available and like crack for the population. Once they’re hooked they keep coming back.
And our tax dollars go to sugar growers so they can pump our market full of it. I haven’t seen the science but I bet reducing the sugar content in all of our diets would do much to reduce health care costs…
I probably would not be distressed to eat in a post-ban New York. I took quick action when I realized my blood pressure was climbing and cut way down on the stuff, and now a lot of restaurant food tastes “too salty” to me; I have a new “normal” in my tastes.
But I’m against it anyway.
What I found in my R&D on watching your blood pressure is that licorice – specifically Glycyrrhizic acid (don’t ask me to pronounce) that gives licorice its flavour – makes salt look like health food.
It, too, retains water in the body, and helps sodium stick around, a double-threat. The Dutch, with an almost comical radar for bad choices, love, yes, salted licorice, and it’s the primary cause of hypertension in the Netherlands.
So if they want to ban salt, hell, the candy stores that keep selling licorice will have to be raided as if they were head shops dealing ounce bags under the counter.
I now have salty bacon pretty rarely, licorice candy more so. My beloved invention, licorice cookies (basically ginger snaps with pure ground licorice root instead of ginger), are down to birthdays and Xmas. Bottom line: I’m capable of rationing my own Bad Choices, my BP was 119/80 yesterday morning, so Bite Me if you want to make those choices for me.