No U-turn on sodium reduction

High blood pressure is the world's leading modifiable risk factor for preventable mortality, causing more than 10 million deaths per year,¹ more than the number of deaths from all infectious diseases combined. Sodium reduction has the potential to prevent millions of cardiovascular events and deaths, primarily through reducing blood pressure,² and tested, scalable approaches exist to reduce sodium in commercially processed packaged foods. However, implementation has been limited by two problems: (a) academic controversy, with a few vocal authors mistakenly suggesting that low levels of sodium can increase cardiovascular mortality,^3, 4 and (b) the challenges of implementing population-wide sodium reduction interventions.⁵ This article suggests ways forward on both issues.