Health benefits lie in reducing calories, dwarfing any benefit of cutting sodium: study

"Healthy Choice" marketer ConAgra Foods announced publication today of a new study in the American Journal of Health Promotion that shows how unbalanced has been the debate on salt reduction.

Using data from the National Center for Health Statistics, National Academy of Sciences and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Timothy Dall, et. al. of The Lewin Group documented that reducing calories by less than 5% would produce economic benefits of about $100 billion. Adopting the most anti-salt interpretation of the medical evidence (i.e. Ignoring evidence that sodium reduction would produce no net health benefit), the authors found that reducing salt by more than double that amount (>12%) would yield benefits of $5 billion. Dall declared: "One of the most revealing finding was just how big an impact of 100 calories less per day can have compared to the more modest benefit of sodium reductions." (And, he failed to note that the sodium reduction was two-and-a-half times more severe than the curtailed calories).

Put another way, using the Dall analysis, reducing calories by less than half the magnitude being advocated for salt reduction would put national economic savings at $243 billion a year.

ConAgra's diet foods reduce both calories and sodium, but as Dall concedes: "Although many adults could benefit from cutting back on both sodium and calories, the return on investment for long-term health is clearly greater for calories."