Pass the salt ... while you still can

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after introducing laws regulating smoking and trans fat in his city, is asking restaurants and food packagers to hold the salt.

Here's a story about it in The Guardian, a publication from The United Kingdom:

... the campaign, called the National Salt Reduction Initiative, aims to cut the quantities of sodium in packaged and restaurant foods by a quarter over five years. The city claims that if the 2014 target is met it will help save many thousands of premature deaths ... Americans consume on average about 3,400 milligrams of salt a day ? well above the recommendation of the American Heart Association of less than 2,300 milli­grams. Most of that is out of the individual consumer's hands as almost 80% of salt intake is already added to packaged and restaurant foods and only about 11% added in the home ... high salt levels can raise blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart disease and strokes ... Dr Thomas Farley, New York's health commissioner, said that 1.5 million New Yorkers already suffered from high blood pressure ... "If we can reduce the sodium levels in packaged and restaurant foods we will give consumers more choice about the amount of salt they eat, and reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke in the process," he said ...

OK, you might think. Let those New Yorkers live their lives any ol' way they please; what does this have to do with everyone else?

Here's the thing: New York City, like California, is a testing lab for strange new laws. Give it a few years, then what happens there will eventually happen in the rest of the country.

Back in the 1980s, writer John Naisbitt penned "Megatrends," a futuristic look at American society, and while he missed the mark on some of his guesses he was spot-on with others. In Megatrends, Naisbitt listed five states as "bellwether states," arguing that, as I am, what happens there will happen here. He kept up on trends by following the news in those five states. To Naisbitt, California was a bellwether state then, but New York wasn't. He did list Florida and Connecticut as two of the other states to watch 30 years ago.

Although it's not something I'd brag about, I grew up in California. But one thing I did gain from my 30 years there was that I had a sneak preview of today's and tomorrow's headlines. I wasn't terribly surprised to see the number of illegal aliens in South Carolina; in fact some folks in the Palmetto State thought I was some sort of mad prophet because I was predicting this here 10 years ago. I'd already seen it happen on the other coast. And I wasn't shocked to see new laws regulating smoking here; in the late 1980s California cities were already banning smoking in public places. We California products -- and New Yorkers now -- already know what's going on.

But then, Californians and New Yorkers know what's going to happen because they're often the trigger for new laws elsewhere. The more folks emigrate from these places, the more they'll bring their laws and customs with them. They become missionaries, trying to bring "civilization" on those poor backwards country boys in the South and Midwest. Shoot, no wonder folks in the South don't care that much for strangers. It's like what the late Lewis Grizzard, a great American, said of the southern states: "Come on down. Marry our daughters. We just don't want to hear how you did it in Cleveland."

Partly because of health concerns (but mostly it's nothing but preference), but I don't use much salt myself -- and I'm glad to share some of my own cooking hacks here -- but I'm not about to ask the government to regulate other people's salt usage. Are you kidding? Even if I could, the feds are the last folks I'd want to involve in this.

Again, from Guardian:

... the difference between the salt drive and the previous health initiatives is that this new mission will be purely voluntary. Smoking and trans fats were both banned, and the posting of calories imposed on larger chains, but in this case food manufacturers and restaurants will be encouraged to participate out of concern for public well-being rather than by compulsion ...

Yeah, that's what they all say.

Almost everything starts off as voluntary.

But here are a couple of things to chew on here:

The federal government is on the verge of taking over our health care system; it's just a question of how thorough a takeover will be at this point. The feds will then have an interest in cutting health care costs one way or another. While there's this talk of rationing health care and cutting back on Grandma (some of this is pure smoke, while some is actual fire), they'll start looking more at the prevention angle. Smoking is definitely a factor in respiratory and circulatory problems, fats fill your thighs and arteries with all kinds of sludge, and too much salt does a number on your blood pressure.

So you know it's coming.

###