A-salt-ed.

This is how the conversation usually goes…

Dad: “Did you hear the government wants to regulate _______ in the food system?”

Me: “Yup. Whaddya think?”

Dad: “No way. Too much government interference.”

Me: “I see. Do you think that there might be an important underlying factor in why they are trying to regulate this?”

Dad: “Sure. But it’s a slippery slope. People should be personally responsible for their own well-being and education.” (-or- “Let the market decide”. Depending on the topic).

Me: (As eager daughter waiting to best her father in political debate…some sort of out pouring of nutrition or agriculture or food facts followed by…) “But what about those things that people just don’t know!”

The topics have covered milk support pricing and organics to the National School Lunch Program. In politically oriented debates about food and agricultural regulation, we excel at understanding where the other person is coming from. Or at least, we can predict and prepare. In December, we had this debate about salt. Not just about salt, but about government regulations to reduce the salt content of processed foods available for sale.

His argument: How much is the government going to regulate? People should just be educated on salt intake and make the best decisions for themselves.

Usually I agree with him on this point. People should be responsible for making the best decisions for their health and well-being. He and I both support education and awareness campaigns for health and nutrition topics. But in the case of sodium, consumer education is not enough.

Salt consumption in the US is trending up. Many of us have been successfully educated to avoid consuming excess salt by minimizing salt added when cooking at home, minimizing salt added to the plate served to us and avoiding the culprit ‘salty foods’ like the salted nuts at the Super Bowl party, an otherwise healthy salted pretzel snack and delicious serving of salted french fries or even a cube of cheese. In other words, we have become good at avoiding the sodium we add to food or the sodium we can see.

The problem here? Sodium lurks, in alarming quantities, in unassuming processed foods that don’t taste salty. In other words, even well-intended folks may be getting too much sodium from the foods they would least expect and in much higher quantities than most of us need.

Beyond that, it’s hard to visualize just how much sodium each of us needs each day. The newly released Dietary Guidelines for America 2010 recommends less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day…unless you are “over 51 or those of any age who are African American or have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease.” These vulnerable populations are recommended less than 1500 mg of sodium per day.

I decided I would poll my Dad (a well-educated and aware consumer) for a small telephone survey.

Me: “Hi Dad. Do you know how much sodium you should have each day?”

Dad: “Numbers, Hmm. 18-22 grams. Those are the numbers that come to mind.”

Me: “Do you know how much that is, like if you were to cook with it?”

Dad: “Like a measurement unit? I have no idea.”

Me: “Well, one teaspoon is about 2,325 milligrams.”

Dad: “How much air should you have in your tires?”

Me: "Thanks Dad."

We had a lovely chat. I informed my Dad that since he’s over 51, he should be getting about 1500 milligrams per day, way less than a teaspoon. I also told him that my tires should be inflated to 46 psi. He told me my mom and he don’t add any salt to the food they cook at home in their attempts to be salt conscious. We both got curious to check our pantries and read some Nutrition Facts labels for hidden sodium content.

But it proves a point for recommended levels of any nutrient. All the smartest people in the world can set all the most up-to-date standards…but this information has to be accessible to the consumer in an understandable format.

However, salt may require a little something more than an educational campaign, considering that we can’t use our taste buds to accurately judge the sodium content of processed foods. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) argues in Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States that this extra, unrecognized salt consumption from processed foods poses a health threat. And this is precisely the argument for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish guidelines for allowable salt content of processed foods.

We are accustomed to salt, we eat it without realizing it, and it is unhealthy. Therefore, because of this asymmetry of information, some regulation needs to be established to protect consumers. Fair enough. This regulation will affect all producers equally, can work to decrease sodium levels in processed foods and reduce overall sodium consumption. This may be the long arm of government regulation reaching in to help the hapless American consumer…but it can counteract long term health costs and possibly save lives. Just take it as a grain of salt.