Salt talk: Bloomberg wants to cut salt--from YOUR diet

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg needs to butt out of other people's dietary habits.

I would like to respectfully suggest to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that he stuff it. His face, that is. Go for it, Mikey. Eat whatever you want, when you want it. Just keep your mitts off my salt.

This request comes on the heels of Bloomberg's latest efforts to convert the city into a nanny state by telling restaurants that they will have to cut down on the amount of salt in their food. Last week, at the mayor's insistence, the New York City Health Department issued guidelines spelling out the maximum amounts of salt to be used in specific restaurant and store-bought  foods. This measure, whose goal is to reduce salt consumption by 25 percent over five years, follows another food-related dictum—Bloomberg's ban on trans fats in restaurant meals.

New York's intrusive measures follow in the footsteps of similar actions taken recently by the state of California. Both are based on a model that was implemented in Britain in 2003.

From a health standpoint, there is no doubt that Americans ingest too much sodium. There is equally little wiggle room in the scientific literature about the link between salt intake and high blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack and stroke. There is abundant doubt, on the other hand, over whose responsibility—and ultimately decision—it is to monitor dietary sodium. I maintain it's up to the individual, not the salt police.