CDC Announces Grants for Sodium-Reduction Strategies

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced five grants geared toward researching, developing and implementing sodium-reduction strategies. Totaling $1.9 million, the grants “will support policy strategies to create healthier food environments and help reduce sodium intake for a three-year funding period,” stated CDC, which identified the grantees as California (working with Shasta County); Kansas (working with Shawnee County); Los Angeles County; New York City; and New York state (working with Broome and Schenectady counties).

The agency specifically cited studies indicating “that on average U.S. adults consume more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day,” with an estimated 77 percent of this intake coming from “processed and restaurant foods.” According to CDC, each funded project will implement “at least one major sodium reduction policy as well as evaluation activities” that build on existing community policies “to improve nutrition and lower blood pressure.” Such activities could include “working with restaurants and food service suppliers, grocery stores, schools, hospitals and government facilities to develop low sodium food policies, and media campaigns to help raise awareness of the dangers of too much sodium in the diet.” See CDC Press Release, October 1, 2010.