Reducing Americans Intake of Sodium - Case Study Example

? Reducing Americans’ intake of sodium The most important but elusive public health goal for the past decades is to reduce American’s intake of sodium. Individuals are at high risk for diseases related to elevate blood pressure because they tend to consume far more sodium than what health experts recommend. National dietary guidance recommendations and public intervention were established since 1969 to lay emphasis on the need to reduce sodium intake in America. However, these important activities have failed to meet their goal up to date. It is quite surprising that even after the intake of sodium has been considered to be risky, the intake trend has gone up because early 1970s, thus making diseases caused by consumption of excess sodium such as hypertension to increase rapidly. Two thousand and five was the first time when Dietary Guideline for Americans (DGA) made a major federal nutrition policy guideline on the specified limit of the amount of sodium that should be consumed. The policy recommends that any individual of two or additional years are supposed to consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium every day. In addition, individuals perceived to be at high risk of contracting diseases caused by over consumption of sodium such as hypertension, middle-age, and older adults are recommended by the DGA to take sodium of not more than 1,500 mg a day. The analyses that have been made so far indicate that 69 % of American adults would fall under the recommended people to take low level of sodium (CDC, 2009). According to DGA, measures of salt during cooking and use at the table fairly have been stable and relatively small as compared to other amount of sodium found from other sources. In addition, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has suggested that platforms for reducing the salt consumption of a populace may be utmost fruitful if they are intended to focus on decreasing salt additional in the course of food processing in addition to changes in food variety. The recommendation to consume sodium that is lower than 2,300 mg every day by an organization known as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is similar with the recommendations that were made by the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s). In their reports, it is evident that a majority of adults consume foods that have high level of potassium, water, chloride, sodium, and (IOM, 2005). In addition, their findings ascertains the necessity for public health tactics to moderate sodium consumption as well as the progress of substitute handling skills to ease the sodium content of nutrition. The IOM also emphasizes that distinct devotion should be specified to maintain texture, taste, low cost, and satisfactoriness of the end user. There has been many controversy surrounding recent recommendation regarding the extension of the amount of sodium intake from groups that have the highest risk to the general American populations. According to experts, Americans need to reduce their intake of sodium, and this will promote a longer lifespan for the American population. Their recommendation is on the basis of different panels that offer their expert advice regarding human health. Studies based on the results of clinical results as well as other studies show that there are many advantages of consuming low sodium (Kovner et. al, 2011). These findings indicate that a diet that involves a low amount of sodium lowers the chances of individuals to succumb to cardiovascular related deaths. This finding serves to add strength to the recommendation by experts that Americans ought to reduce their sodium intake. It is important that people with hypertension or older individuals to consume low amounts of sodium to reduce the degree of putting their lives at risk. Public health policies in America are then able to include not only the citizens who are at a high risk but the general American population. This is why the experts who made recommendations that Americans need to reduce their sodium intake put in mind the lifestyle of all Americans and found that almost every American needs to cut down on salt. Adults have almost 80% chance of developing hypertension in their lifetime. It is unfortunate that there is no method of determining those in the 20% range, who will not develop the condition. Excessive consumption of sodium for a long time causes high blood pressure in who ultimately may escalate to hypertension. It is hard for health care professionals to convince Americans on the importance of consuming little salt as many individuals develop the liking of salty food from an early age, when they were unaware of the possible dangers that sodium could have on their bodies The government, in collaboration with health care experts has come up with activities that engage the public in the hope of motivating and convincing individuals to reduce their sodium intake. This has been achieved through educating the public on the recommended portions of salt intake, the dangers of excessive salt consumption, and ways of changing their diets to make them healthy. The government also calls on the food industries to reduce the sodium amounts in all their products. It is also a requirement that there is provision of the amount of sodium in any processed food on its packaging or container. This is done so that the consumer is sufficiently informed before purchase of a product. New studies reveal that sodium intake from restaurant foods and processed foods have a very high contribution to increasing the rate of high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack among individuals. Reduction of the sodium intake amount definitely will save many lives and prevent many more from developing these complications. Efforts to reduce salt consumption have been successful with the help of government, health organization and the support of concerned citizens who have voluntarily joined in this race to trim down sodium consumption by 10 % (O'Callaghan, 2010). However, some health researchers have criticized the voluntary initiative saying this is not the right channel to cut down sodium consumption. It is nearly impossible to expect people to cut down sodium consumption when 77 % of processed foods contain sodium. Reducing sodium is an efficient and cost-effective way to reduce illnesses caused by over consumption of sodium such as hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. For example, high blood pressure is can reduce by 30 % if individuals reduce their sodium intake to 1840 mg a day. This approach would result to a reduction in people who have high blood pressure, thus saving the country millions of dollars. In addition, cardiovascular diseases would also reduce with reduction in sodium consumption. Finally, the government and health organizations should emphasize the need to consume unprocessed food because they have the lowest sodium content. Therefore, the easiest strategy that every individual should adapt to is to eat more unprocessed such as fruits and vegetables as well as reduce intake of highly processed foods. References: Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Sodium Fact Sheet (2009). Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2005). Dietary reference intakes for water, potassium, sodium chloride, and sulfate. 1st ed. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Kovner, A., Knickman, J., Weisfeld, V. & Jonas, S. (2011). Jonas & Kovner's health care delivery in the United States. New York: Springer Pub. O'Callaghan, T. (2010). U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to set limits on sodium content in processed foods | TIME.com. Health and family | A healthy balance of the mind, body, and spirit | TIME.com. Retrieved July 3, 2013 Read More