A 2010 study found New Yorkers consume more than 3,200 mg of sodium each day on average, with higher intake among blacks and Hispanics, the health department said. It requires restaurants with at least 15 USA locations – a group that accounts for about a third of the city’s restaurant traffic – to identify menu items with more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium, the recommended daily limit for adults, and label them with a warning icon of a salt shaker in a triangle.
Advertisement
While some sodium is necessary, people can usually get enough salt from meat and other items in which sodium occurs naturally, Kramer explained.
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading killer in New York City, causing 17,000 deaths in 2013. “With the high sodium warning label, New Yorkers will have easily accessible information that can affect their health”, city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said when the Board of Health approved the new warning in September.
In an article in Capital New York, NRA spokeswoman Christin Fernandez said the board “is dealing yet another blow” to numerous city’s locally owned restaurants.
As previously noted, increased levels of sodium have been attributed to high blood pressure and can lead to heart disease and stroke. They also must have a statement regarding the dangers of too much sodium posted in the restaurant, much like cigarette packets have the warning from the Surgeon General.
And many in the city will be shocked to find how much salt their food contains.
The new rule has already spurred restaurants to lower the sodium in their offerings. The move has been taken as federal regulators, health advocates and some in the food industry are trying to make people in America cut down on salt.
The sodium warning pushed by NYC mayor Bill de Blasio is one among a series of health-related initiatives that started from the time of his predecessor Michael Bloomberg, including required calorie count labels and banning of smoking in public places.
Advertisement
“If they want to sell their products in New York City”, Huenning said, “they can either choose to create a whole separate packaging and industry or just change everything they do, and usually they just change everything they do”.
