All the experts point to the processed foods and foodservice industries as the major contributor of sodium in the diet. The CDC cites 1991 data that concludes these foods provide 77% of the sodium we consume. So this is an issue the food industry takes seriously, with many private and public initiatives to reduce sodium in place.
Sodium reduction is challenging from both a flavor/acceptability and a functionality perspective. And research indicates that, for Americans, it might be equally difficult from a general eating-pattern perspective, too.
According to the CDC, Americans eat an average of about 3,300 mg of sodium a day. This is well above the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommended limit of less than 2,300 mg sodium per day for the general population and a large group of adults that should be limiting sodium intake to 1,500 mg a day (people who are 51 years or older, African Americans, and those with high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic kidney disease).
But a new study indicates that achieving that lower level, which the CDC says applies to about 60% of adults, might be impossible without drastic changes in the typical American diet.
The study, conducted by the Nutritional Sciences Program and Center for Public Health Nutrition, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle pretty much sums up the problem: “A Conflict Between Nutritionally Adequate Diets and Meeting the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Sodium" (Am J Prev Med. 2012 February; 42(2): 174–179, doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2011.10.009). The researchers used U.S. federal nutrient-composition and dietary-intake databases and made model food patterns for six gender–age groups to determine what diets were suitable to meet the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommended sodium limits.
The results? Not encouraging: “For adults aged <50 years, the 2300 mg/day sodium goal was consistent with nutrient-adequate diets but required large deviations from current eating patterns. The 1500 mg/day goal was not feasible and no mathematical solution was obtained. The lowest-sodium food patterns that were nutrient-adequate and theoretically achievable were very high in fruit juices, nuts, and seeds but were low in grains and meats." The authors concluded that to hit the goals would “require large deviations from current eating behaviors and/or a profound modification of the U.S. food supply."
Not that we should abandon the quest to lower the collective sodium level in processed foods and in restaurants and other foodservice venues. But achieving the public health goals might be harder than we thought.
