Anyway, according to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air yesterday, the government is moving toward creating the crisis that will allow it to regulate the amount of salt used in processed foods. OK, there is too much salt in some canned soup, but those of us who read labels can avoid buying soup with too much salt, and eventually the companies who manufacture it will make more of the lower salt variety. That is how the free market works. However, the free market seems to be temporarily sent out to lunch.
According to the article:
"Officials have not determined the salt limits. In a complicated undertaking, the FDA would analyze the salt in spaghetti sauces, breads and thousands of other products that make up the $600 billion food and beverage market, sources said. Working with food manufacturers, the government would set limits for salt in these categories, designed to gradually ratchet down sodium consumption. The changes would be calibrated so that consumers barely notice the modification."The article further points out:
"High-salt diets may not increase the risk of death, contrary to long-held medical beliefs, according to investigators from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
"They reached their conclusion after examining dietary intake among a nationally representative sample of adults in the U.S. The Einstein researchers actually observed a significantly increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with lower sodium diets."
So why in the world is the government doing this? It seems to me that the government is interfering in an awful lot of different areas of our lives for no apparent reason. Again, the consumer will naturally buy the products that they feel are healthier, the government does not need to intervene. If the problem is an uneducated consumer, the answer is to educate the consumer--not more government regulation.
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