August 27, 2019 -Reducing Sodium

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Anchor lead: Should federal regulations be created to reduce sodium in foods? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Obesity and dietary sodium are a bad combination, rendering people much more salt sensitive and at risk for high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, new evidence confirms. Shel Gottlieb, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, says this points to the need for public policy changes.

Gottlieb: It interacts with individuals and their day to day nutrition, but it also has to do with public policy which is a really big deal. The public policy aspect of it then brings you into the whole other realm of when do you start putting restrictions onto society?  :16

Gottlieb says many more people are impacted than anyone thought before.

Gottlieb: Going along with obesity is diabetes is the really big deal and also hypertension. There’s a very heavy overlap between. If you look at all the people with hypertension, all the diabetics, that’s a lot of people, it’s a lot of people. It’s a really big deal.  :14

Since most dietary sodium is in prepared foods policy change is needed, Gottlieb states. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.