最新研究称盐摄入量过少对健康有害 食品行业面临新难题

    “我们将继续致力于为消费者提供低钠食品选择，但我们认为《新英格兰医学期刊》近期发表的文章应该引起公共健康部门的认真思考。尤其是奥唐纳及其同事的文章更是提供了更多科学证据，证明低钠摄入可能增加心血管风险，尽管文章所指的低摄入量为公共健康组织建议的水平。因此，我们必须进行权威研究，确定低钠摄入对健康的正面和有害影响，确保旨在降低钠摄入量的公共健康干预会对公众带来好处，而不是造成损害。”

    “此外，美国联邦政府必须对《膳食营养参考摄入量》（Dietary Reference Intakes）进行独立可信的重新评定，因为该参考标准是目前钠摄入量建议的依据。为了制定不会损害美国消费者健康的公共健康政策，这次重新评定至关重要。”

    食品行业严重依赖盐，而且只要食品公司还希望销售加工食品，未来也离不开盐。而且，食品行业目前已经形成了一个专门生产和销售低钠食品的子行业。据市场调查机构MarketsandMarkets去年公布的数据，“低盐市场”正在以每年11%的速度增长，至2018年其规模将超过10亿美元。所谓“低盐市场”，包括各种旨在减少含钠量的盐晶替代原料。

    这些投资虽然规模庞大，但并不意味着食品行业将不再严重依赖盐。如果食品制造商无需担心盐的问题，他们的日子会好过得多。

    如今研究认为过多和过少的盐，都可能造成健康危害，食品制造商应该怎么办？他们应该采取中庸之道，宣称他们的食品的含盐量“正合适”？这种理念在标签上很难解释清楚，尤其是到目前为止，究竟多少才是“正合适”，业界也没有就此达成共识。

    但与此同时，食盐行业却并不担心食品行业面临的营销挑战。美国盐业协会（Salt Institute）负责科研的副主席莫顿•萨坦表示：“我希望食品行业能够拿出一点勇气。”美国盐业协会是代表食盐生产商的行业机构。他表示，营销“低钠”食品只是大型食品制造商“迎合美国食品药品监督管理局”和公共利益科学研究中心（Center for Science in the Public Interest）等行业批评者的一种方法而已。“他们只是在遵从他们对于民意的理解”，而不是美国盐业协会认可的研究成果，例如盐并非导致高血压的主要原因。

    当然，在这方面，有许多观察者并不认同美国盐业协会的观点。营养学家马里昂•奈斯德便是其中之一。她认为食品行业努力减少食品含盐量是好事。她在电子邮件中写道：“食品行业的策略是逐渐减少食品中的含盐量，使消费者不会注意到这种变化，并习惯低盐口味。而这需要所有食品公司的参与。”

    新研究结果或许是食盐批评者的一次胜利。我们摄入的钠，有75%来自加工食品和餐厅食物。而后者往往也包含大量加工食品。

    与此同时，食品行业正在为如何理顺这个高度复杂的问题而头疼。然而，不论会有哪些最新研究结果显示盐摄入量过少对身体有害，摄入过多盐会带来健康风险，仍将是批评者们抨击食品行业的一件有效武器。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    “And while we are committed to continuing in our efforts to provide consumers with these lower sodium product options, we think that the articles such as those recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine warrant serious consideration by some public health authorities. In particular, the article by O’Donnell and colleagues further adds to the scientific evidence that low sodium consumption, at levels recommended by public health organizations, may actually increase cardiovascular risk. Therefore, it is vitally important that we undertake definitive studies to resolve the health impacts, both positive and adverse, of low sodium consumption to ensure public health interventions aimed at lowering sodium consumption provide benefit and do not cause harm.”

    “In addition, the U.S. Federal government needs to conduct an independent credible reassessment of the Dietary Reference Intakes, which form the basis for current sodium intake recommendations. This reassessment is critical to establishing public health policy that does not harm the health of US consumers.”

    The food industry depends heavily on salt, and as long as it wants to sell us processed foods, it always will. But it also has created a whole sub-industry devoted to creating and marketing low-sodium products. According to data released last year by MarketsandMarkets, the “salt reduction market” — which includes substitute ingredients and various manipulations of salt crystals to reduce their sodium content — is growing by about 11% a year and will surpass $1 billion by 2018.

    But those investments, while substantial, don’t mean the industry isn’t still heavily reliant on salt. Life for food makers would be much easier if they didn’t have to deal with the salt question at all.

    But what do they do when research shows that both too much and too little salt might be harmful? Do they take a Goldilocks approach, claiming that their products contain the “just right” amount of salt? That would be very difficult concept to get across on a label, especially since there is little agreement on how much is “just right.”

    The salt industry, meanwhile, isn’t too worried about Big Food’s marketing challenges. “I really wish the food industry would have a little guts,” said Morton Satin, vice president in charge of science and research for the Salt Institute, the trade group representing the salt producers. Marketing “low sodium” products is just a way for big food producers to “mollify the FDA” and industry critics like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, he said. “They’re just conforming to what their perception of public opinion is” rather than to what the Salt Institute believes the research to show — for instance, that salt is not a major contributor to hypertension.

    Of course, plenty of observers differ with the Salt Institute on this score. One of them is nutritionist Marion Nestle, who sees the food industry’s efforts to reduce the salt in its products as a good thing. “The strategy is to reduce salt in food products gradually so people don’t notice it and get used to a lower salt taste,” she wrote in an email. “To do this, all food companies need to participate.”

    That would be a major win for critics of salt. About 75% of the sodium we eat comes from processed food and restaurant meals, which are themselves often composed of a lot of processed foods.

    Meanwhile, the industry is stuck trying to navigate through this highly complex problem. But whatever new research might come out on the harms of too little salt consumption, the ill-effects of overconsumption will continue to be an effective weapon wielded by critics of the food industry.