US Regulators Set New Target To Reduce Salt In Dozens Of Everyday Foods, The Guardian, 13 October 2021

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday updated its guidelines for 163 foods, including those that are commercially processed, packaged and prepared.

Over the next two and a half years, the FDA’s target sodium levels aim to cut average intake from 3,400 to 3,000 milligrams a day.

Our target should be half that … 1,500. The Dietary Guidelines say 2,300 just to appease people.

It’s not enough. It will never be enough. You know why?

In a statement on Wednesday, the American Heart Association said the FDA’s targets … did not go far enough.

“Lowering sodium levels in the food supply would reduce risk of hypertension, heart disease, stroke, heart attack and death in addition to saving billions of dollars in health-care costs over the next decade,” the association said.

“Lowering sodium intake to 3,000mg per day is not enough. Lowering sodium further to 2,300mg could prevent an estimated 450,000 cases of cardiovascular disease, gain 2 million quality-adjusted life years and save approximately $40bn in healthcare costs over a 20-year period,” it added.

40 billion dollars. Cha-ching! The healthcare industry makes money from our being sick. It says it right there. I’m being factual, not cynical. And Big Food makes money from selling us the salty food we want. And Big Health and Big Food have effectively infiltrated our regulating bodies.

This was the last sentence of that article:

… whether the targets are effective in pushing the industry to reduce sodium levels will depend on how the FDA monitors progress and publicly communicates about it.

Appearances are everything.