May 11, 2009 (Washington, DC)-In a shameful act of fear mongering based on a misrepresentation of research, the Center for Science in the Public Interest held a press conference today warning of "dangerous" levels of sodium in restaurant food. But an organization representing the interests of small businesses is pushing back against their call for increased regulation.

"Eating one meal high in sodium is not dangerous, per se. And a meal does not constitute a person's overall diet. It is time to curtail the "politics" of scaring consumers and base dietary advice on recent misinterpretations of scientific evidence," said Kerri Houston Toloczko, Senior Vice President for Policy at the Institute for Liberty. "The Institute for Liberty believes the time has come to end fear-mongering when making public policy.

Investigative reporter Gary Taubes addressed this misrepresentation of research in his 1998 expose in the prestigious journal, Science, "The (Political) Science of Salt"[i] for which he won the national award of the U.S. Science Writers Association. Taubes uncovered an unsavory pattern of scientific manipulation and abuse amongst anti-salt activists. Extreme warnings and attempts to reduce the sodium level of individual foods represent a retreat from sound science and a growing gulf between what scientists know to be true and what alarmists have made into a cottage industry.

"I have spent my entire career in DC looking at the intersection of science and public policy," said Andrew Langer. IFL's President. "It is becoming increasingly common for activists to cherry-pick their data in order for them to present skewed conclusions and politically-driven policy recommendations. Good public policy is based on sound-science, science that weighs risks, compares them, and allows policy makers to prioritize options. What CSPI is doing is using fear to drive public policy, and that nearly always give us bad policy."

Last year, Italian scientists published the first-ever randomized controlled health outcomes trial comparing congestive heart failure patients who consumed normal salt intakes with those treated with reduced salt diets. The low-salt dieters fared far worse. And NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) showed that in average, healthy Americans, those consuming the recommended lower amounts of sodium had 37% more cardiovascular deaths than those who tuned out to this "healthy" advice.

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[i] Gary Taubes, The (Political) Science of Salt, Science, August 14, 1998 ; Vol. 281. no. 5379, pp. 898 - 907 (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/281/5379/898)