CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson told FDA commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, that upwards of 100,000 lives could be saved annually if sodium levels in packaged and restaurant foods were halved.
According to CSPI, direct medical costs would be cut by about $18bn per year if sodium consumption were reduced from 3,400mg per day to 2,300mg per day. $28bn could be saved if consumption were further reduced to 1,500mg per day.
In April 2010, the Institute of Medicine recommended setting gradually decreasing limits on sodium in the coming years, giving American palates time to adjust to safer levels. Companies could lower sodium in a variety of ways depending on the food, according to CSPI.
Stephen Havas, MD, adjunct professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said: “Every year of delay on the part of the FDA means hundreds of thousands of additional strokes, heart attacks, and deaths that could have been prevented.
“I’t’s really astonishing that the agency has not seized the opportunity presented by the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report and begun to use its regulatory authority to fix this huge problem with our food supply. How many more deaths will it take before they act?”
Source: CSPI
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