N.Y. mayor’s salt plan needs more seasoning

Aman isn’t easily separated from his salt. Consider the French Revolution. Salt prices contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy after it imposed and abusively enforced taxes on this basic commodity. According to Mark Kurlansky, author of “Salt: A World History,” uneven tax apportionment led to huge differences in salt prices on opposite banks of the Loire. Smuggling became rampant, with many French subjects imprisoned for their salt crimes.

Maybe that’s why the mayor of New York is proposing only a voluntarycrackdown on the ubiquitous seasoning, now that the city already has banned smoking and trans fats at restaurants and was the national leader in requiring calorie counts on the menus at chain eateries. This time, Michael Bloomberg plans a nationwide, non-mandatory push to get restaurants and processed food manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in their products by an average of 25% over five years. National food companies, of course, are under no obligation to meet the sodium goals of a city government. If the guidelines became mandatory, though -- which is what happened to the once-voluntary trans-fat ban -- city restaurants would be forced to comply.

The mayor’s health-mindedness is laudable, but this campaign is different. Notifying consumers about what they’re eating on menus allows them to make informed choices rather than limiting their choices. And there is no such thing as second-hand salt.

Individual tastes for salt -- and reactions to it -- vary tremendously. Overall, experts say, if sodium consumption were cut, the nation’s average blood pressure would drop and lives would be saved; a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine predicted that up to 92,000 fewer deaths would occur each year. For some people, the reduction in hypertension from eating less salt is steep; for others, sodium intake has little or no effect. There’s heated debate about salt as the villain of the hour; some doctors worry that the lives saved might be offset by unintended health consequences, including insulin resistance and adrenal hormone imbalances. Certainly, lowering the nation’s rate of premature death is an intricate calculus of nutrition, exercise, stress reduction and other factors.

If the mayor’s push remains voluntary, it will probably make little difference in the food world. Food companies are more likely to reduce salt levels in reaction to consumer demand, and many already have. If he imposes his saline solution on New York restaurants, Bloomberg is intrusively sticking his finger into the individual diner’s pastrami. The fate of Louis XVI tells us that heads have rolled over such matters.