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Category: Project

Description: Nearly 9 out of 10 Americans consume sodium at levels which exceed amounts recommended by the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It is now well established that the majority of this dietary sodium is derived from prepackaged foods. Efforts have been made to curtail population sodium intakes through consumer education and food labelling campaigns but have had minimal impact. As a result, experts have recommended that sodium reduction in foods be a primary focus of public health strategies to achieve population level sodium reduction. One approach to effectively target sodium levels in food is to identify key food contributors to sodium intake. Food categories identified by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) to contribute meaningfully to dietary sodium have also emerged as important dietary contributors to other key nutrients and food groups. For example, an analysis of 2009-10 NHANES identified sandwiches as a major contributor to sodium intake, and suggested modification of specific ingredients. It is plausible that other identified main sources of sodium such as “poultry”, “burgers” and “eggs and omelettes” which are generally high in iron and protein, may also be important dietary contributors of these nutrients. Research has also shown that food groups, such as mixed dishes, which have been identified as one of the top contributors to sodium intake, also accounted for half of the total vegetable intake in children. In contrast, other groups such as “savoury snacks” could be driving intakes of nutrients to discourage (e.g., saturated fat, calories). Understanding how the main dietary sources of sodium contribute to energy, nutrient, and food group intakes will enhance the effective monitoring of diets relative to recommendations and give context for dietary guidance. Therefore, more work is needed to elucidate how top contributing food categories to sodium intake relate to intakes of key nutrients and food groups important to public health, so that ongoing efforts to reduce population sodium intake do not inadvertently compromise the nutritional quality of the diet. This research can not only establish baseline data on the contribution of various foods to sodium intake by DRI age-sex groups, but also determine the contribution of these top contributors to sodium intake on the intakes of other key nutrients and foods recommended by Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Such information can help optimize the balance between food reformulation efforts and dietary recommendations and ultimately improve the effectiveness of sodium reduction strategies. Objective: Determine nutrient and food group contributions to the diet from the top ten food category sources of sodium, as a means of supporting optimal food reformulation or other recommendations toward meeting dietary guidance.