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New Yorkers Are Depraved Saltaholics
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 18, 2011
Modified Mar 18, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 18, 2011
Modified Mar 18, 2011
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It starts in college, when someone passes around a salt lick at a party and you decide to "experiment." Fast forward to turning tricks behind the truck stop for a handful of salt packets, getting ejected from gyms for licking the sweat off Nautilus machines, and asking the Internet if you made a big mistake eating a salt packet you found in a shoe box. That innocent-looking Morton's salt girl? She's a devilish temptress who's enslaved millions, and here in New York she's got an army of sad saltaholics in her grip. According to officials leading the War on Salt, New Yorkers are eating twice as much salt as they should!
According to the Health Department, a recent study reveals that an average New Yorker consumes 3,150 mg of sodium per day—twice the recommended limit for most adults. The majority of New York City adults (61%) should consume less than 1,500 mg of sodium per day, and the Health Department says "this recommendation applies to those 51 years and older, blacks, and people with hypertension, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. However, only 11% of these high risk New Yorkers are at or below the 1,500 mg limit." Of all adult New Yorkers, only 1 in 5 consume within their recommended limit.
You'll recall that the city has enlisted the help of corporations like Snyder’s of Hanover, Au Bon Pain, Heinz, Butterball, and Boar's Head. Only 11 percent of the sodium in our diets comes from our own saltshakers; nearly 80 percent is added to foods before they are sold. So Mayor Bloomberg's National Salt Reduction Initiative aims to reduce salt in restaurant and packaged foods by 25 percent over five years. Of course, what you do once you get the food back to your apartment, lock the doors, and lower the blinds is your business... for now.
New participants in the War on Salt include Bertucci’s Italian Restaurant, Black Bear European Style Deli, Campbell Soup Company, Dietz & Watson, Ken’s Foods, and... the Target Corporation? What's the world coming to when you can't sit back and enjoy your salty patio furniture in the privacy of your own back yard? Mayor Bloomberg is, ahem, a salting our Constitutional rights.
Tagged
mayor bloomberg
nyc salt
SALT
salt reduction initiative
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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