FDA to Control Salt Intake, Not Aspartame or High Fructose Corn Syrup

by Heidi Stevenson

21 April 2010

The FDA plans to control intake of salt, a natural and necessary food. Meanwhile, known killers like aspartame and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are left free to continue their destruction of health. As ever, the usual incestuous techniques have led to this latest ploy to hand over our food supply to Agribusiness, and the marketing campaign to convince you it's a good thing is in full swing, with full cooperation of the news media.

The Incestuous Relationship Between FDA and IOM

A report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is cited to support the FDA's control of salt. However, the IOM was not asked to report on whether we should limit salt intake. They were asked to report on how to limit salt intake. The question of whether it should be limited was treated as a foregone conclusion and was not part of the IOM's remit for this project—though the IOM accepted the presumption that salt is dangerous.

At this point, the FDA says that it isn't actually planning to regulate salt intake. However, the FDA sponsored the IOM report, which asked them to focus on strategies for limiting salt intake. It's a stretch to believe that the FDA has no intention of doing it. In fact, the IOM's report recommends:

As its primary strategy for sodium reduction, the committee recommends that the FDA set mandatory national standards for the sodium content in foods—not banning outright the addition of salt to foods but beginning the process of reducing excess sodium in processed foods and menu items to a safer level. It is important that the reduction in sodium content of foods be carried out gradually, with small reductions instituted regularly as part of a carefully monitored process. [Emphasis mine, not IOM's.]

The FDA cites the IOM's report:

A new report from the Institute of Medicine this week concludes that national action is imperative to reduce the sodium content of foods if we are to make significant progress toward reducing the risk of hypertension and major cardiovascular events for Americans.

So, we have an incestuous relationship between the FDA and the IOM. The IOM was paid to produce a report on how to limit salt intake, and the FDA sponsored it. Now, the FDA cites the results in support of regulating salt consumption.

Salt Is a Healthy and Necessary Nutrient

It's never been shown that salt intake is harmful to health, except in cases of obesity. It has been shown that lowering salt intake increases the rate of death. See Take a Grain of Salt With That Salt Reduction Advice for more about the flawed science that's led to the erroneous belief that salt is harmful.

FDA's Lack of Concern With Toxic Substances

Yet, the FDA will try to control salt intake, a necessary and natural nutrient, but says nothing about artificial processed salt, which may include highly toxic fluoride.

The FDA has no problem with aspartame, which is an excitotoxin that destroys nerves and is known to cause or worsen brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and diabetes.

The FDA has no problem with HFCS, which is closely linked to the obesity epidemic and associated with liver disease.

There's a gruesome irony in all this. With the incredibly high incidence of obesity nowadays, there certainly are huge numbers of people whose salt intake is harmful. These are the only people who are known to be at risk for high salt intake. Most of these people are obese because of products like aspartame and HFCS, products that the FDA, along with other government agencies, like the USDA, have no interest in controlling.

Instead, the FDA wants to regulate a safe, natural, and necessary substance—but not to assure that it's of high quality and in a natural state. No, adulterated salt is fine. Salt with the added poison of fluoride doesn't bother the FDA. Salt with all the micronutrients removed doesn't bother them, either.

The FDA is a rogue agency that acts for the benefit of its corporate masters, Agribusiness and Big Pharma. Can there be any other reason for its actions? Consistently, the FDA makes decisions that support its masters' profits at the expense of your health. Dangerous and deadly drugs that don't even provide the benefits claimed are approved. It advocates the addition of fluoride, a dangerous toxin, to drinking water. It goes on the attack against dairies that provide raw milk, a product that's in great demand.

The Washington Post reports that "administration officials" do not believe that the FDA needs to ask for Congress's approval to act on reducing salt intake. This is a done deal. The desires of the people have not been a consideration.

You needn't fear—at least not yet. So far, the only arena in which the FDA proposes to control salt is prepared foods. You can still add salt to your own foods. The important issue is to be aware of the risks in processed foods and not to assume that the agencies supposedly tasked to assure food safety act for your benefit. Obviously, they don't.

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