FDA Salt Statement Leaves a “Mistaken Impression”

From OpenMarket.org:

The only places in the world where you might find a significant population who eat so little salt are in countries so poor that people don’t have reliable access to food at all. In such a place, one might indeed find low rates of hypertension-related illness, but only because those who live under such tragic circumstances don’t enjoy the luxury of living to the age where high blood pressure starts to become a concern.
Decades of research, encompassing multiple lines of evidence, have shown that our bodies naturally self-regulate salt intake. Not unlike the feeling of thirst we experience when we need more water, our bodies send us queues—though more subtle than thirst—that lead us to unconsciously adjust our diets to meet our salt requirements. One recent study by nutritionists at the University of California at Davis examined data collected from over 19,000 individuals across 33 countries to find that the normal range of salt consumption is 2,700-4,900mg per day. The study went on to conclude that, because of our natural ability to regulate salt intake, it is “unlikely to be malleable by public policy initiatives, no matter how well intended.”
A study conducted 12 years earlier coincides with these findings, concluding that most people are simply unable to reduce their consumption below about 2,700mg per day, even when receiving regular dietary counseling and instruction. A third study, conducted the same year, demonstrates that people will unconsciously increase or decrease their dietary salt intake to stay within the normal range, even when they don’t know how much salt is in their food. Neuroscientists have even successfully identified the specific neurological mechanism by which this unconscious salt-regulation occurs.
Grossly out of step with the current scientific understanding, the FDA clearly has begun the process of regulating the amount of sodium in foods, and has been working on it for several years. Between the hearing in 2007, their sponsorship of—and participation in—the 21 month project specifically aimed at reclassifying salt, and their sponsorship of the report itself, there is little more that the FDA could have done to expedite the process.

Read more at CEI's website.