Yesterday morning, I was sitting in the Bistro at a Marriott in San Antonio.  While my breakfast was being made, I took a glance through the USA Today.  Of course, sodium was front and center on the lead page of the newspaper.  All the health news this past week has been centered around sodium, and the Institute of Medicine’s report that the regulatory agencies in our country should start decreasing the levels of salt allowed in food.

As I read the article, a little light bulb went off in my head.  And it wasn’t about sodium.  Are we as a nation – consumers and health professionals alike – afraid to talk about the fact that we eat too much food?  Is it too personal?  Is it too complicated?  Are we just afraid to really touch the whole topic?

I ask because we’ll talk ad naseum about salt right now.  We can go and on about trans fat.  But in reality, getting us to eat less food would solve all these problems.  If we ate less food, we’d get less sodium.  We’d get less saturated fat.  We’d get less trans fat. While this change won’t necessarily get us to the levels of sodium recommended (2,300 mg a day), it will get us a good chunk of the way there.

But no one seems to be talking about this.  Why is that?

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