New York City begins requiring salt warnings

Any item on the menu with a salt shaker icon beside it contains at least 2,300 milligrams of sodium, which is the daily recommended dose. Restaurants with 15 or more locations nationwide will be mandated to warn customers that items with the black icon may pose a health risk as they exceed the daily recommended total intake of sodium.

The amount of sodium at issue is equal to one teaspoon of salt, according to the Health Department’s guidelines for restaurants.

“With its sodium mandate, not only is the Board [of Health] inflicting financial burden on restaurants, it is imposing on both restaurant owners and consumers, a view regarding the health effects of sodium intake that is the subject of scrutiny based on recent and evolving scientific research”, the association said in a statement.

New York City diners will now see little black triangles on restaurant menus to denote high-sodium dining choices.

According to the New York City Board of Health the rule will apply to combo items, such as an order-by-number meal that might include a soup and a sandwich or a burger and french fries. These numbers, however, are slightly lower when one considers that Americans in general tend to eat around 3,400 mg a day.

How much sodium is in some fast food favorites?

A McDonald’s hamburger has 490 mg of sodium, but upgrade to a double quarter pounder with cheese and that’s 1,310 mg. Until Tuesday, they may have been blissfully unaware of the sodium content of a Chipotle loaded chicken burrito (2,790 mg), Subway’s foot-long spicy Italian sub (2,980 mg), TGI Friday’s classic Buffalo Wings (3,030 mg) or Applebee’s grilled shrimp and spinach salad (2,990 mg). If any of the restaurants or vendors who fall under this rule fail to display the warnings by the March deadline, the owners will be fined $200. Under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city banned smoking, required calorie counts and tried to set limits on sugary drinks.

“Things are not going to work out great if all you do is just not eat salt”.

“This is something that people that have love affairs with salt shakers are well exceeding on a regular basis”, Dr. Howard Weintraub of NYU Langone Medical Center.

The National Restaurant Association plants to repeat what they did along with many others back in 2012.