Baby Boomers drive lower salt foods

December 4, 7:53 AMBaby Boomer ExaminerPaul Briand

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Low-sodium soup

Baby Boomers' health needs are playing a big role in the drive to lower the salt content of prepared food.

"Aging Boomers are in search of low-salt foods," USA Today said in a recent story about the growing trend of big food makers to cut salt from their recipes.

Companies such as the Campbell Soup Company and ConAgra have company-wide plans to cut salt, according to the story.

Lower sodium is "our top strategic priority," Campbell CEO Douglas Conant told the newspaper. Campbell has cut sodium in everything from soups to Prego sauces to V8 juices.

The story cited statistics that 663 products claiming "reduced sodium" were introduced in 2007, vs. 449 in 2006. Through the first nine months of this year, 402 were introduced, Tom Vierhile, director of Datamonitor's Productscan Online, which tracks new products, told USA Today.

There are some who believe salt needs regulation in the way that policy makers have addressed trans fats and calories. Trans fats have been banned from foods in some areas, and the calorie content of fast foods is a requirement in many places.

The average daily sodium intake now is 4,000 milligrams. The government's recommended daily intake is 2,400 milligrams. Some activists want the government's recommendation to be half of that. That's quite a reduction from the 4,000 milligrams we consume on average to the 1,200 being recommended by some.

Here are a few of USA Today examples of the sodium content in some prepared foods:
 

• DiGiorno For One Garlic Bread Crust Supreme Pizza, frozen (1 pizza): 1,450 milligrams (mg).
• Stouffer's Macaroni & Cheese, frozen (12-ounce box): 1,390 mg.
• Marie Callender's Chicken Pot Pie (10-ounce pie): 1,100 mg.
• Hillshire Farm Deli Select Ultra Thin Honey Roasted Turkey Breast (2 ounces): 770 mg.

A high sodium diet is known to contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease.

About 150,000 lives could be saved annually if Americans cut sodium intake in half, according to a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute study cited by the USA Today article.