Rules number one, two, and three of soup? Cut the salt, keep the flavor, and load up on the good stuff (beans, lentils, vegetables). Here’s how to find soups that do all three...and more. Check the photos for some of the best-tasting Best Bites and Honorable Mentions.
Healthy EatingLindsay Moyer, MS, RDN, Bonnie Liebman, MS
In this factsheet, we review relevant, scientific literature on nutrient warnings for a science and policy audience. Overall, evidence from randomized controlled trials and real-world studies suggests that nutrient warnings can increase consumers’ understanding of the healthfulness of foods and have the potential to play a role in reducing purchases of foods and drinks high in calories, sodium, and added sugars. To maximize public health impact, policymakers should design nutrient warnings to be simple, highly visible, and convey information with shapes, icons, and other imagery in addition to text.
Got high blood pressure? Here’s how much your systolic pressure could fall with diet and exercise, according to new guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.
Replacing some ordinary salt with potassium salt can cut the risk of stroke.
Researchers randomly assigned roughly 21,000 people living in 600 rural Chinese villages to use either ordinary salt (sodium chloride) or a salt that was 75 percent sodium chloride and 25 percent potassium chloride. All the participants had a history of stroke or were 60 or older and had poorly controlled blood pressure (140 or higher with drugs or 160 or higher without drugs).
Excess sodium in the diet, particularly from packaged and restaurant foods that account for over 70 percent of sodium intake, raises blood pressure, increases risk of cardiovascular disease, and can lead to tens of thousands of early deaths and billions of dollars in health care costs per year.
On September 16, 2021, CSPI sent this letter to the Office of Management and Budget urging release of the voluntary sodium reduction guidelines, now pending at the agency.
CSPI, the Sustainable Food Policy Alliance (including member companies Danone North America, Mars, Incorporated, Nestlé USA and Unilever United States), and the American Heart Association jointly submitted these funding requests to the elected officials responsible for the fiscal year 2022 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies spending bill.
CSPI, the American Heart Association, and the Sustainable Food Policy Alliance, including member companies Danone North America, Mars, Incorporated, Nestlé USA and Unilever United States jointly submitted this letter to acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock to advocate for the swift release of the FDA's final voluntary sodium reduction targets, which were first issued in draft form in 2016 and are expected to be finalized by the end of June 2022.
