New York City is proposing that salt be banned from restaurant meals:

Chefs Call Proposed New York Salt Ban ‘Absurd’

Some New York City chefs and restaurant owners are taking aim at a bill introduced in the New York Legislature that, if passed, would ban the use of salt in restaurant cooking.

“No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises,” the bill, A. 10129 , states in part.

On the surface it does sound absurd. Salt seems completely natural. People have been cooking with it for millennia. The problem is that too much salt causes big health problems, as discussed here:

Too much salt is ‘as bad as cigarettes’

Basically the chain of events goes like this. Salt –> high blood pressure –> heart attack and stroke.

Heart attacks and strokes are obviously expensive because they are emergencies that require skilled surgery, along with lots of after-care. And “Chronic conditions” like high blood pressure are incredibly expensive, as discussed here:

Seventy-six percent of Medicare spending is on patients with five or more chronic diseases

For example:

The result will be an increase in spending on stroke care, from $65.6 billion in 2008 to $2.2 trillion by the year 2050 if there are no changes in treatment, preventative care, or trends of risk factors

To put that $65 billion in perspective, there are about 100 million households in the United States. So it is costing $650 per household per year to pay for people with strokes.

If the nation could cut salt consumption significantly, it would affect rates of heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure and could save hundreds of billions of dollars per year.

So the question is, does the New York measure go far enough? Shouldn’t it also cover the high-salt processed foods sold in grocery stores?