Reducing salt in restaurant food: Some progress made but more needed

ANN ARBOR-Restaurants are reducing sodium in some newer items on their menus, but when it comes to existing fare and use of sodium overall there has been little change, according to research led by the University of Michigan. Julia Wolfson, assistant professor of health management and policy and of nutritional sciences at the U-M School of Public Health, and colleagues examined menu items from 66 of the top 100 chain restaurants and found that while some attention has been given to offering lower-sodium options, restaurant food is still high in sodium, particularly in main-course items. High-sodium diets have serious adverse health effects. "Overall, sodium content of newly introduced menu items declined by about 104 milligrams. However, among existing and new main-course items, the average sodium content of a single menu item is still more than half of the daily sodium recommended limit of 2,300 mg," Wolfson said. "The fact that new, lower-sodium menu items are being introduced indicates that it is possible for restaurants to reduce the sodium content of their food, but that, thus far, their efforts have been insufficient. Restaurants may be reluctant to reformulate existing menu items that are popular with customers and that define their brand." Using data from the MenuStat project, Wolfson and colleagues at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Pittsburgh looked at nearly 22,000 menu items in fast-food, fast-casual (think Jimmy Johns and Panera) and full-service chain restaurants over the period 2012 to 2016.