New York Is Now the First American City to Require Salt Warnings on Menus

Sometimes it's better not to know.

Say you wake to find yourself spooning a trapeze artist in a sea of empty Drambuie bottles, with an ungodly craving for a snack glistening with gems of salt. Or suppose you're suffering from a brutal breakup and, goddammit, you're going to eat your heartache into oblivion and back.

Must the metropolis you live in try to save you from the evils of bad eating when you don't give a shit about saving yourself? The answer is yes—at least if you live in New York City.

Now, in what some call the greatest metropolis on Earth, chain restaurants—those meccas of corporately-engineered taste treats—will also have to designate the sodium content of foods deemed to be high in salt. And that's in addition to posting calorie counts on menus.

So no more ignorant reveling in that vodka-absorbing Big Mac. From here on in, New Yorkers, you will know. The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously this week to make chains—restaurants that have more than 15 outlets nationwide—put salt-shaker symbols on menu items that contain more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium. That's the recommended daily limit of sodium in America today—and it's the equivalent of only about one teaspoon of salt. So expect to see a lot of those salt-shaker icons, people.

New York City is trailblazing here, as it is the first US city to impose such a requirement on its restaurants. It already pioneered banning the use of trans fats in restaurants and tried, unsuccessfully, to limit the size of some sugary drinks.

Guess who hates this?

The salt people. Yes, the Salt Institute is not happy: "This is another example of the government creating policy based on outdated, incorrect sodium guidelines," said Lori Roman, president of the trade association for salt producers.

She's referring to the somewhat confusing science and policy on sodium intake in this country.

A study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at the salt intake of 100,000 people. The researchers found that people under 60 who don't have high blood pressure are probably fine with a salt intake quite a bit above today's recommended levels. According to the study, people who ate 3,000 to 6,000 milligrams per day of sodium actually had a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events than those who ate less than 3,000 mg. Other scientists say the study's results are not definitive. The average American consumes over 3,000 milligrams of salt per day.

But the city stands behind its decision: "This really represents, to me, the next step in allowing usable information for our community to make better health decisions," said New York City Board of Health member Dr. Deepthiman K. Gowda. "My hope is that this impacts not only consumer practices but also impacts the practices of our restaurants."

Restaurants are not too happy with the new policy, either.

Chains account for about one-third of the restaurant usage in the city. New York State Restaurant Association President Melissa Fleischut said, "This is just the latest in a long litany of superfluous hoops that restaurants here in New York must jump through," making their business tougher. Restaurant owners, especially national chains, would prefer to wait and see what the new federal guidelines for sodium intake—which the US Food and Drug Administration is now working on—turn out to be.

Still, those who believe that they should save us from ourselves as far as salt intake goes really believe: "There are few other areas in which public health could do more to save lives," said Michael Jacobson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group.

Oh well. No more ignorant salt-swilling. From now on, New Yorkers, you'll be painfully aware.