To Save Lives, Make Sodium Labeling More Comprehensive

    If we took sodium abuse as seriously as we take cigarette smoking, products with salt would come with warning labels, same as cigarettes. 

   Sodium abuse, perhaps we've just coined a new phrase. We've got drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and now . . . sodium abuse. 

   Consider that 6,500 people die of heart disease each year. Note that that is one in every four deaths. Now, it might be difficult to determine how many of those cases resulted from "sodium abuse," but a good number of those deaths due come from it. 

   So, slap a warning label on all sodium sales, same as we have on cigarettes. "Taking too much sodium or too little might be harmful to your heart." Then, spell out the goal of how much a person is to have each day. If 2,300 milligrams is the target, say so. We already place the sodium content on food labels, but help the consumer even more, when the salt content can be reduced by washing it off, by saying how much sodium remains when it is washed. If a can of tuna has 360 milligrams, by washing it off in a strainer, will that reduce it to 100 milligrams?

   And, require the labeling at fast-food and other restaurants. Require every meal to come with a sodium count total, and a breakdown for each item on the plate.

   Americans are dying because of sodium abuse. They need to be able to count how much they are getting each time they sit down to eat. Lives are in the balance -- our lives.