from the journal PLOS Medicine
Salt or sodium consumption is a leading modifiable risk factor for high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Two years ago, the United States Food and Drug Administration adopted lower targets for sodium in commercially processed foods. Will the new targets work? A new study in the journal PLOS Medicine calculated that over a twenty-year period even modest compliance to the lower sodium content rules could save American society nineteen billion dollars. Researchers project that one hundred percent compliance could save society approximately forty billion dollars over just ten years. Authors of the study say a delay in reaching the sodium targets could result in a significant number of preventable cardiovascular deaths.