The Salt Skip Program
The Salt Skip Program is the second of three stages in the evolution of salt control:
1. Salt ‘RESTRICTION
People with salt-related health problems went on an artificially ‘restricted’ diet believing they could no longer tolerate ‘normal’ food.
2. BETTER FOOD (low in salt)
People with salt-related health problems follow the Australian Dietary Guidelines and choose normal (low salt) food. They realise that the excess salt in the artificial diet of an industrial society caused or aggravated their salt-related health problems.
3. GREEN LIGHTS for low salt foods
Already some supermarkets in the UK have Traffic Light food labels on their home brand foods that give separate green, amber or red lights for fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.
For salt they literally give a green light—exclusively—to low salt foods. Green lights identify them at a glance as the best foods on the market for salt content.
What this means in practice
To control salt there will be no more measuring of serving sizes, or spending all day counting up milligrams of sodium and stopping at the prescribed 500, 1000 or 1500 mg.
Admittedly the Salt Skip Program (Stage 2) still has hassles—it is difficult to read food labels carefully (you need spectacles or a magnifying glass for some labels) and it is still hard to find low salt foods in a market that carries so few of them.
Traffic Light food labels (Stage 3) will be a godsend when they are mandatory—just check for a green light for salt. Foods with green lights will sell better and should gradually replace foods with amber and red lights.
If our children or grandchildren see the day when nearly all the foods in the supermarket have green lights for salt, the salt-related health problems (caused or aggravated by salt) will be very rare, and will no longer affect half the adult population.
Page last modified on: Thursday 06 Mar, 2008