By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Many American consumers know that eating too much salt is bad for their health. They’re also able to figure out when they look at canned soups and see 410 mg of salt for a serving of soup – 35 percent of the daily allowance of sodium – that it’s too much.

However, with busy lives, consumers eat high amounts of sodium in processed and fast food.

Today’s average sodium intake is several times what the body requires and its long-term effect on the health of consumers is serious, reports the Food and Drug Administration.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects one in three U.S. adults – nearly 75 million people aged 20 or older. An additional 50 million adults suffer from pre-hypertension. High blood pressure can increase the risk for heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, and kidney failure. Too much sodium in the daily diet is a major contributor to high blood pressure.

I’ve wanted the FDA to take strict action on sodium for years. Putting so much sodium in processed and fast food is contrary to good health. It needs to be stopped.

I cheered when I read an article in The Washington Post recently that the FDA has begun the process of regulating the amount of sodium in foods. About time, I thought.

However, the FDA said in a statement that it’s not currently working on salt regulations nor has it made a decision to regulate sodium content in foods at this time. See “FDA Issues Statement on IOM Sodium Report” for details.

A report from the Institute of Medicine concludes that national action is imperative to reduce the sodium content of foods if the country is to make significant progress toward reducing the risk of hypertension and major cardiovascular events for American consumers.

The FDA said it will more thoroughly review the recommendations of the IOM report and build plans for how the FDA can continue to work with other federal agencies, public health and consumer groups, and the food industry to support the reduction of sodium levels in the food supply.

The Department of Health and Human Services will be establishing an interagency working group on sodium at the department that will review options and next steps, the FDA also reported.

“Success in reducing sodium intake will require coordinated national action, with participation of all,” the FDA said in a news release on sodium. “We are encouraged by the fact that some food manufacturers have already begun or announced their commitment to reduce sodium levels in their products.”

The FDA also gave this advice to consumers:

As a consumer, you can start lowering your sodium intake today by purchasing foods low in sodium, asking your grocer to carry more low-sodium products, and asking for low-sodium options at restaurants.

How disappointing. The federal government needs to require that sodium levels be dropped. To set up another study group and tell consumers that they should cut sodium when the marketplace is saturated with sodium-ladened foods boarders on the ridiculous. And to refer to voluntary actions by food manufacturers – who know that people crave foods high in salt, sugar, and fat – is laughable.

Stand up FDA. Regulate sodium levels now.

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By Rita R. Robison, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Controlling calories, especially after age 40, is the most important way to lose weight, according to recent research. About 1,600 calories is about right for optimal weight loss.

To rein in the extra calories and watch the weight drop off, Prevention offers these six tips based on recent research:

1. Trim down portion sizes at home.

2. Skip over-sweetened drinks.

3. Eat protein at every meal.

4. Start a meal with soup, but not the high-calorie, creamy-based types.

5. Drink vegetable juice.

6. Make your own snack packs.

See the article “Six Calorie Cutters to Fight Fat” for details on how to carry out these tips and what the research studies said about them.

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By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

The Washington Toxics Coalition and the Michigan-based Ecology Center are releasing new chemical test data for more than 900 everyday products, including back-to-school products and pet toys, on a new website www.HealthyStuff.org.

The site offers information on more than 15,000 test results on about 5,000 common consumer items.

The site alerts consumers to the dangers of lead, cadmium, mercury, PVC, flame retardants, and other hazardous chemicals found in school supplies, pet toys, cars, and many other everyday consumer products.

I recommend baby boomer consumers make use of this information.

I took some toys, a plastic storage container, and a pair flip flops to a testing day offered by the coalition last year. All of the items I had tested contained PVC or a hazardous chemical.

It’s especially important to find out about possible toxins in children’s toys because children often chew on them.

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By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Some baby boomers are continuing to use drugs into their later years, causing the rate of illegal drug use to go up among boomers.

Boomers aged 50 to 59 reporting use of drugs within the past year has nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007, according to a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The rates among all other age groups are staying the same or decreasing.

“An Examination of Trends in Illicit Drug Use Among Adults Aged 50 to 59 in the United States” is the first in a series of reports by the administration on drug use.

“These findings show that many in the Woodstock generation continue to use illicit drugs as they age,” said the administration’s Acting Administrator Eric Broderick, D.D.S., M.P.H., in a news release on the report.

“This continued use poses medical risks to these individuals and is likely to put further strains on the nation’s health care system…”

The report includes information on the types of substances involved, different demographic and behavioral factors associated with higher rates of use, and other issues.

The data used in the analysis comes from many sources including 16,656 respondents aged 50 to 59 participating in the 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, a national public health survey.

The study surveyed use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants, and prescription drugs used non-medically.

The report is available at oas.samhsa.gov/.

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By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Baby boomers have their last best shot at helping to straighten out the mess they helped make.

That’s the opinion of Kurt Andersen, author of the book “Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America,” writing a four-part series in Time.

In part three of the series, “Boomers: Older and Maybe, Finally Wiser,” Andersen said the postwar generation was the first to refuse to grow up, but Gen-X and the rest have followed in their footsteps.

“And the selfish, heedless, if-it-feels-good-do-it approach enshrined by young boomers subsequently enabled the risk-taking, party-hearty paradigm that has governed so much of American life, economically and otherwise, for the last quarter century,” he said in the article.

In their empty-nested years, perhaps boomers can channel some of the vast energies and micromanagement they lavished on their children to pro-social enterprises and volunteer work, Anderson added.

It’s a series worth reading especially if you think like I do that we need a new economic model. The financial crisis presents an opportunity to change our economy and spending habits to create a more sustainable economic system.

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