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Implicit in the antilabeling position is the presumption that anyone who really needs to cut down on salt can easily do so now. As to the general public, the thought is that it can cut down simply by exercising a little common sense at the salt shaker. In fact it is very difficult to find one's way in the present patchwork of labeled and unlabeled products.
Even if labeling is worked out to everyone's satisfaction, many antisalt advocates fear that the general public will still not cut down on sodium. Says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest: "It is unlikely that the school-age child whose father or mother has hypertension will scrutinize labels, or the black teen-ager whose blood pressure is slightly above normal, or the 35-year-old trucker whose diet consists largely of convenience and restaurant foods."
But Jacobson has some hopes too: "Just like it's a plus to say there are 'no preservatives,' soon it will be a plus to say 'no salt added.' " All present signs suggest that American food tastes and label-reading skills are dramatically changing. And business, with a potential market of more than 40 million consumers watching their blood pressure or simply worried about salt, is already responding to the change. "Low-sodium sales are growing. Our own no-salt-added products are selling at 50% to 90% of the levels of regular brands," says Jane Armstrong, vice president of Jewel supermarkets. She also notes: "Whole families are cutting back in salt as the feeling grows that less sodium can't be harmful and may be healthy."
The change is visible in the nation's restaurants. At George's, an Italian restaurant on Chicago's West Kinzie Street, Owner George Badonsky still serves highly flavored sauces and rich Gorgonzola. But some of his younger customers object. Says he: "The biggest complaint I get is that the food is too salty." That is not a problem at Chez-Eddy in Houston, which specializes in lowfat, low-salt French cuisine and has no salt shakers on the tables. But, says one patron who is mad for their salmon mousse, "the place is always packed at lunchtime."
To learn how to go low sodium without having to eat like swamis or food faddists, Americans are buying books, taking courses and exchanging gourmet gossip. The skill and zeal they display would have been impossible before the country became fascinated, for other reasons, with do-it-yourself health and haute cuisine. Says John Terry, consultant to the Allen Canning Company in Siloam Springs, Ark.: "The whole convenience idea—Just Heat, Then Serve—isn't as big now. More consumers are ready to do their own seasoning."