Sodium

For decades now, we've heard that too much sodium can cause hypertension and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease. People have paid far less attention to potassium, a mineral that has opposite effects on health: Get enough of it, and it can actually lower your blood pressure and protect your heart. Now a study of more than 12,000 adults has underscored something that doctors and nutritionists have been saying for years: If you watch your sodium but ignore potassium, you're missing an important part of the picture.

In an effort to forestall proposed government regulation of food and beverage products that can be advertised to children, some of the biggest companies in the industry have put forth their own, self-imposed measures. The industry's plan targets a number of food types, including juices, dairy products, grains, soups and meals. It holds companies to limits on the amount of calories, sugar, sodium and saturated fat allowed in foods promoted to children. The self-imposed regulations, announced Thursday, would give companies time to make adjustments.

Exactly how much salt is in Campbell Soup Co.'s "less-sodium" soups? Almost as much as in some of its regular soups, said four New Jersey women who won a federal court order rejecting a bid by the Camden, N.J., food maker to throw their lawsuit out. The women accused Campbell of misleading consumers by selling lower-sodium soups at premium prices when they had almost as much salt as regular soups. Among other things, the suit claimed that Campbell's 25% Less Sodium Tomato Soup had the same sodium level — 480 milligrams — as its regular tomato soup.

Enjoying that cottage cheese? We have a bit of bad news for you -- a cup of the stuff could contain roughly 1,000 milligrams of sodium, a little less than half of what you should consume in an entire day. Using three packets of ketchup on those fries? There's another 534 milligrams. Making people aware of how much sodium may be in certain foods is the idea behind a series of "Salt Shocker" videos produced by the L.A. County Department of Public Health's RENEW LA County initiative as part of their sodium awareness program.

Happy National Pancake Day! Perhaps you’re planning to celebrate by swinging by an IHOP Tuesday (if you haven’t done so already) --  the restaurant chain is offering free short stacks to all comers until 10 pm. This IS a health blog, so we can’t help relaying the following information, courtesy of the IHOP Nutritional Information website. A short stack of 3 Original Buttermilk pancakes contains: 490 calories 18 grams of fat (including 8 grams of saturated fat and 1 gram of trans fat)

The government is telling Americans to eat less. The fast-food industry didn't get the memo. Even as the U.S. Department of Agriculture rolled out its latest nutritional advice this week — urging people to "enjoy your food, but eat less" — fast-food chains are cooking up some of their biggest offerings ever. "The bottom line is we're in the business of making money, and we make money off of what we sell," said Beth Mansfield, spokeswoman for CKE Restaurants Inc., which owns the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's chains.

Salt is the latest enemy highlighted in the nation's battle against obesity and poor eating habits, with new federal dietary guidelines calling on Americans to dramatically cut sodium intake, bulk up on fruits and vegetables and drink water instead of sugary beverages. Everyone 51 and older, all African Americans and people with high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease ?about half of the American population ? should reduce sodium in their diets by more than half, according to the revised guidelines, issued every five years by the federal government.

In response to violations of international human rights norms, Western governments are slapping sanctions on a rogue regime by halting exports of a deadly substance. That's nothing new; what is new is that the rogue nation is the United States. The substance in question is sodium thiopental, a fast-acting anesthetic designed for surgery that has been put to a more sinister purpose in 34 states, which use it to numb condemned prison inmates before injecting another drug that stops their breathing and a third that stops their hearts.

The sole U.S. maker of the anesthetic used in executions announced Friday it would stop manufacturing sodium thiopental to prevent its product from being used to put prisoners to death. Discontinuance of the drug that has been in short supply nationwide for the past year portends long-term complications for death penalty states. Some, like California, might have to revise laws governing executions and those seeking supplies from foreign makers may be turned away by countries that condemn capital punishment.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer and grocer, said Thursday that it would launch an aggressive initiative to make its food products more healthful and affordable and would build new stores in underserved areas. Appearing with First Lady Michelle Obama at a news conference in Washington, Wal-Mart executives outlined the ambitious plan, which includes reformulating thousands of packaged food items by 2015 to reduce sodium by 25%, lower added sugars by 10% and remove all industrially produced trans fats.