"Shake salt from your diet)" is an excellent article in Consumer Reports January 2009 issue

The January 2009 issue of Consumer Reports has an excellent article beginning on page 21 that gives helpful information to you about how to find the hidden sodium in your diet. They even give the definitions of many sodium-related terms that food manufacturers use (allowed by the FDA) on food labels that serve to further confuse the consumer. Terms such as:

SODIUM FREE (or zero sodium, no sodium, without sodium, free of sodium, trivial source of sodium): Fewer than 5 mg of sodium per serving

VERY LOW IN SODIUM: No more than 35 mg per serving

LOW IN SODIUM: No more than 140 mg per serving

LIGHT IN SODIUM: At least 50 % less sodium per serving than the full sodium version

REDUCED SODIUM (or lower sodium, less sodium): At least 25% less sodium per serving than a full-sodium version of the same food.

UNSALTED (or no salt added, without added salt): No salt was added during processing. If the food is not sodium-free, the label must say, "Not a sodium-free food".

HEALTHY: For an individual food, no more than 480 mg of sodium per serving. For a meal, no more than 600 mg of sodium.

You would need to be a food scientist to be able to remember all of this as you are grocery shopping! I'm sure the average consumer has as much or more difficulty remembering these terms and their definitions as I do - and I'm reasonably well educated about dietary sodium. That is why I strongly believe that the SalTrax system is needed for ease of label reading. If the SalTrax "Points" were listed on the food label, no complex math or confusing definitions would be required. I urge you to read this important article today and become and informed consumer of sodium!