A bill to make the food industry accountable for sodium had its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday.

NDP MP Libby Davies’ bill focuses on the 77 per cent of sodium Canadians consume from prepackaged foods.

If passed, Bill C-460 would phase in lower sodium levels in foods and add simple, standardized labels.

During second reading, Colin Carrie, the parliamentary secretary for health, said a regulatory approach is not required and that mandatory warnings can’t be legislated for individual foods based on Health Canada’s targets for categories like breads and cereals.

Read the full article at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2013/02/01/sodium-children.html
Source: CBC News

A coalition of Canadian medical groups wants all food companies to be required to clearly disclose on the label if the amount of sodium in their products exceeds Health Canada’s targets.

The move comes as the World Health Organization recommended new daily consumption limits on sodium for children.

The public health advice aims to reduce blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Read the full article at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2013/01/31/sodium-limits.html
Source: CBC News

But just try reducing your sodium intake to the daily level promoted by Health Canada: a maximum of 2,300 milligrams per day for people over 14, known as the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL). Tougher yet, try hitting the preferred Adequate Intake level (AI) of 1,500 milligrams per day (children and older people may need even less).

Read the full article at: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/When+doubt+sodium/7867726/story.html
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

The bill, formally named An Act Respecting the Implementation of the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada, will take its cues from a list of recommendations that were published by Health Canada in July 2010.

Read the full article and watch the CTV News piece at: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/ndp-health-critic-tables-bill-for-national-sodium-strategy-1.1025394#ixzz2BSRHwkT9

Read the rest of the story online at the Brisbane Times.

To read more on the sodium increase click here.

Read the full story from the Daily Mail here.

Children and teens, between eight and 18, consumed an average of 3,387 mg of sodium per day – more than double the recommended amount. Children from ages four to eight should aim to consume no more than 1,200 mg per day and adolescents between eight and 18 should intake 1,500 mg of sodium per day.

Sodium intake was higher among boys than among girls, higher among those of normal weight than among those overweigh and highest by race/ethnicity among non-Hispanic whites, the study found.

High sodium consumption is associated with increased systolic blood pressure and increased risk for pre-hypertension and hypertension.

Reducing sodium consumption, being more active and maintaing a healthy body weight can help reduce the increased risk for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease.

To read the full study click here.

“We found sodium levels in hospital meals to be unacceptably high,” says Dr. JoAnne Arcand of the University of Toronto’s Department of Nutritional Sciences and lead author of the study. “These are sick, vulnerable patients and many of these individuals require lower levels of sodium to treat underlying health conditions.”

While there has been considerable attention focused in recent years on poor quality fare in hospital food courts and cafeterias, little research has been done on sodium content of food delivered to the bedside. High sodium intake leads to high blood pressure, the leading risk factor for stroke.

University of Toronto researchers analyzed regular, diabetic and sodium-restricted diets between November 2010 and August 2011. Sodium levels were compared with the adequate intake level of 1,500 mg a day and the tolerable upper limit of 2,300 milligrams a day. Most menus came from general medical wards, surgical and cardiology wards.

The study found the mean sodium level in preset daily menus (where the patient does not make any food choices) was 2,896 milligrams of sodium, almost double the adequate daily intake and almost 600 milligrams more than the upper tolerable limit. “Of these pre-set menus, 100% exceeded the adequate intake and 86% exceeded the tolerable upper limit,” the study says.

Diabetic menus had a mean sodium level of 3,406 mg. It is especially important for diabetic patients to keep blood pressure under control as diabetes also increases the risk of stroke.

“Exposing patients to these high levels of sodium undermines their health,” says Dr. Andrew Pipe, chief of prevention and rehabilitation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. “Hospitals have a responsibility to address this deficiency in care.”

“The food industry and those planning and ordering foods for hospital patients should be aware of the risks of feeding such high levels of sodium to patients. Governments need to ensure that meals served to patients, who rely totally on the foods provided to them in hospital, meet nutritional standards,” says Dr. Mary L’Abbé of the University of Toronto research team, one-time chair of Health Canada’s Sodium Working Group, an expert panel that made recommendations on reducing sodium in the food supply.

“These findings create an opportunity to develop better procurement and menu planning policies and to work with food manufacturers to lower sodium levels in hospital foods to help benefit patients,” Dr. Arcand says.

While federal politicians still ponder proposals to require nutrition information on restaurant menus, chains throughout the United States soon will be required to list calories on menus and officials in the City of Ottawa and Queen’s Park will consider requiring calorie and sodium information on menus.  Even professional dietitians can’t accurately estimate calorie and sodium levels in restaurant fare.  A report published by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest in February, Writing on the Wall: Time to put nutrition information on restaurant menus, showed that restaurant foods are generally high in calories and sodium and that two-fold and five-fold variations, respectively, are common even within similar product categories at the same restaurants.  Many health-conscious consumers would choose differently and restaurants might change recipes if calories and sodium information were displayed right on menus.  Consider that:

• Tim Hortons Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich had nearly double the calories (530 calories) of the English Muffin with Egg and Cheese (280 Calories);
• McDonald’s Angus Bacon & Cheese Sandwich has nearly triple the sodium (1,990 mg) of the Big Xtra Sandwich (700 mg).

Two large studies—one of 8,000 New York chain-restaurant customers and one of 100 million Starbucks transaction records—indicated that 11%-14% reductions in calories ordered can be expected, with bigger effects demonstrated among people who report reading the labels and for food (as opposed to beverages).

Today, CSPI released a statement calling for calorie and sodium labelling at chain restaurants that was signed by 24 health groups and experts, including the Canadian Diabetes Association, Canadian Stroke Network, Hypertension Canada, Canadian Women’s Health Network, Dietitians of Canada, Childhood Obesity Foundation, Fitness Industry Council of Canada, and Public Health Physicians of Canada.

For more information, contact:
Bill Jeffery at 613-244-7337 (ext. 1) or jefferyb@istar.ca or read his deposition to the Ottawa Board of Health or his comment on the Ontario bill, see: http://www.cspinet.org/canada/foodlabelling.html