006 Less Salt Can Mean More Life

Less Salt Can Mean More Life

The government says the average American man eats 10 grams of salt a day. The American Heart Association advises no more than 3 grams for healthy people. It says salt in the American diet has increased 50% since the 1970s, while blood pressures have also risen. Less salt can mean a lower blood pressure.

 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading an effort called the National Salt Reduction Initiative. The idea is to put pressure on food companies and restaurants. Critics call it government interference.

 

Mayor Bloomberg has already succeeded in other areas, like requiring fast food places in the city to list calorie information. Now a study by the Seattle Children's Research Institute shows how that idea can influence what parents order for their children.

 

99 parents of 3 to 6 year olds took part. Half had McDonald's menus clearly showing how many calories were in each food. The other half got menus without the calorie information.

 

Parents given the counts chose an average of 102 fewer calories when asked what they would order for their children. Yet there was no difference in calories between the 2 groups for foods that the parents would have chosen for themselves.

参考译文：
政府表示，美国人均每天食用10克盐。美国心脏协会建议，对健康人来说，每天食盐不应超过3克。它还提到，二十世纪七十年代以来，美国饮食中盐的分量已经增加了50%，相应地人们血压也上升了。而少食盐意味着血压低。

纽约市市长迈克尔?彭博正在发起一个名叫“全民减少用盐”的倡议，以此给食品公司和饭店施压。但反对者称这是政府干预。

彭博市长已经成功解决了其它问题，诸如让该市的快餐点列出食物的卡路里数。目前西雅图儿童研究中心一项研究显示，这一提议对父母为孩子的点餐内容产生了影响。

99位拥有3~6岁子女的父母参加了这次调查。有一半的父母拿到的麦当劳菜单中，清楚地列出了每份食物的卡路里数，另一半父母拿到的菜单中则没有列出这一数据。

当被问及为孩子点餐内容时，菜单上有卡路里数的父母选择了平均少于102卡路里的食物。然而两组父母为他们自己订的食物里，卡路里数没什么不同。