Processed foods are loaded with salt, CSPI report says

• Is there too much salt in processed foods and foods served in restaurants?
• That's the topic of a new report from the Center for the Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
• It charts sodium levels in 500 food items, showing a wide range in sodium levels.
• Cutting back on salt is recommended for health reasons including controlling high blood pressure.
• Nearly one in three Americans has high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association's web site.
• The CSPI recommends that people carefully check sodium levels on nutrition labels.
• It is not uncommon for some brands to have 50%, 100%, or even more sodium than a competing brand," states the report, noting no particular pattern among brands.
• For instance, the report shows that the amount of sodium in 2 tablespoons of bottled Caesar salad dressings varied by 330 milligrams, and a half-cup of bottled spaghetti sauces varied in sodium content by 500 milligrams.
• The 2005 dietary guidelines, to promote health and disease prevention, recommend the amount of salt be limited to about 1 teaspoon a day or 2,400 milligrams.
• However certain groups -- those with high blood pressure, the elderly, and blacks -- should limit their intake even more, to 1,500 milligrams a day.
• The CSPI report also recommends giving high-sodium foods an attention-grabbing label and creating a division of the FDA that focuses on sodium reduction.
• "Restaurants and food processors need to lower the sodium content of their foods, for the sake of their customers' health," states the report.
• "The fact that sodium levels vary so widely, indeed inexplicably widely, between brands in a given category shows that many companies could lower the sodium contents of their product without seriously sacrificing flavor," according to the report.