MIT Press
Salt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet
Key Metrics
- Michael F Jacobson
- MIT Press
- Hardcover
- 9780262044448
- 9.1 X 6.9 X 1 inches
- 1.5 pounds
- Social Science > Agriculture & Food (see also Political Science - Public Policy - Agricultur
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
A high-sodium diet is deadly; studies have linked it to high blood pressure, strokes, and heart attacks. It's been estimated that excess sodium in the American diet causes as many as 100,000 deaths deaths and many billions of dollars in avoidable health-care costs each year. And yet salt is everywhere in our diets--in packaged foods, fast foods, and especially meals at table-service restaurants. Why hasn't salt received the sort of public attention and regulatory action that sugar and fat have? In Salt Wars, Michael Jacobson explains how the American food industry and a small group of scientists have successfully fought government efforts to reduce dangerous levels of sodium in our food.
Despite an abundance of research going back more than half a century showing that high-sodium diets lead to hypertension and other ills, a few scientists argue the opposite--that American consume a healthy amount of salt and that eating less would increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. This man bites dog take on sodium confused consumers and was enthusiastically taken up by food industry lobbyists. Jacobson, a salt wars combatant for more than forty years, explains what science actually says about salt intake and rebuts sodium skeptics. He discusses what other countries are doing to cut dietary salt, and describes some recent victories in the United States. He advises readers how to reduce salt--warning them against salt bombs (Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, for example, packs an entire day's worth of sodium in one can)--and calls on them to suit up for the next battle in the salt wars.
Author Bio
Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D. (non-voting), is a co-founder and was long-time Executive Director of CSPI. Jacobson has written numerous books and reports, including Salt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet; Eater’s Digest: the Consumer’s Fact Book of Food Additives, Nutrition Scoreboard; Salt: the Forgotten Killer; and Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming Americans’ Health.
He has also been honored with such awards as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Hero Award (2010), the American Public Health Association’s David P. Rall award for advocacy in public health (2011), and the Food Marketing Institute’s Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award (1992). His Ph.D. in microbiology is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Source: Center for Science in the Public Interest
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