I’d like to clarify that our kids soups contain 480 mg of sodium per one-cup serving (half cup of condensed soup reconstituted with the same amount of water). All 12 of our kids soups meet FDA/USDA criteria for healthy foods and also are low in fat, saturated fat, no trans fat.

As our quote in the New York Times states, we will continue to reduce sodium in our products. It’s our number one strategic priority. By “consumer acceptance,” we mean we’ll not just lower sodium, but make sure we offer the great-taste people expect from us. That’s one of the biggest challenges in sodium reduction – but we work every day to meet that challenge head-on.

My final word on this — please read my comments carefully as I usually endeavour to be precise with my choice of words — I said the effect of sodium on hypertension in individuals is INCONSISTENT, not non-existent.

“For fifty years, researchers have been trying to causally link salt consumption to hypertension and the data has continued to be, at best, ambiguous. It’s a nice hypothesis, but it just hasn’t panned out in human trials or even, really, in the observational studies. On the other hand, it’s been known since the 1870s that carbohydrates cause water retention and the more water you retain, simplistically speaking, the higher your blood pressure will be. It’s been known since the 1950s that when people go on carbohydrate-restricted diets their blood pressure drops dramatically because of that water loss, and it’s been known since the 1980s that one of the many things insulin does is regulate blood pressure. Moreover, hypertension is associated with obesity and diabetes so, in one sense, whatever causes obesity and diabetes also causes hypertension, and obesity and diabetes, as I explain in GCBC, are almost assuredly caused by the quality and quantity of carbohydrates in our diet.”

Full interview is here: http://www.thedailybell.com/604/Gary-Taubes-Good-Calories-Bad-Calories.html

If salt doesn’t cause hypertension in individuals, and if the mechanism of hypertension is known and unrelated to salt, then where is your public health case? To be clear I’m not saying there isn’t one, but I am saying that this isn’t it.

The RD article you attached addesses INDIVIDUAL health and relates to people changing their personal food choices. Certainly the DASH type diet she recommends is important, but can’t be legislated. Sodium reduction in the food supply can be legislated.

I’m not going to address the fructose issue. That’s pretty much a red herring.

Also see here, where a clearly-understood biochemical mechanism is seen to implicate fructose consumption as the principal culprit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Please give us a cite or two if you’d like to rebut.

The taste changes you refer to are generally temporary. Then you start to taste the real food. Which is quite flavourful — not bland! It only seems bland in the transition period while your taste buds and physiology adjusts. Small amounts of salt can be used by most people to enhance the flavour of cooked-from-scratch foods, either while cooking or at the table for individual tastes. It’s the mountains of salt in processed food and condiments that are creating the severe health impacts.

Are you a physician? A researcher? My understanding is that about 1/3 of the population is salt-sensitive in terms of high BP resulting from too much salt. The other 2/3′s aren’t as conclusively correlated
to salt sensitivity, but because doctors cannot easily determine who is who, they recommend lower salt intake for everyone. This is from my cardiologist. The issue of the salt/BP relationship is separate from the weight/BP issue as it has been explained to me. Do you have any sources or were you just musing in response to Chelsea’s post?