Even as the FDA prepares ambitious new rules pressuring food makers to reduce the amount of salt in their wares — recipe regulation, as we’ve called it — a new study questions whether most people in Western countries really need to cut salt after all. The study, led by Dr. Salim Yusuf of McMaster University, finds evidence consistent with sodium being a health risk for person with hypertension and those with the highest salt intake, but also suggests that most of the population is in the optimal zone for salt intake and that adding potassium-rich fruits and vegetables to the diet may be a superior way for many to fend off bad effects from sodium. The study ran jointly in the New England Journal of Medicine with a second which lays more emphasis on hazards of salt intake. [Yahoo News] More: Just One Minute, ACSH.

Filed under: FDA, salt