From Currency to "Food Additive"

The word "salary" originates from the Latin adjective for "of salt", as used in the phrase "salarium argentum" ("salt money"), when Roman soldiers were paid with it. But today, there are some who want the government to withhold the same substance from ordinary citizens! From today's Houston Chronicle:

A consumer group sued the federal government today, saying that salt is killing tens of thousands of Americans and that regulators have done too little to control salt in food.

Despite advisories to take it easy on sodium, Americans are now consuming about 4,000 milligrams a day -- nearly double the recommended limit to keep blood pressure under control, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said.

So the CSPI renewed a lawsuit first filed in 1983 to ask federal courts to force the Food and Drug Administration to declare sodium a food additive instead of categorizing it as "generally recognized as safe." This would give the agency the authority to set limits for salt in foods.

We're already thinking about a fat tax. What's next? A ban on salt shakers?

As usual, the thing not mentioned here is that which advocates of the nanny state are really trying to get rid of: self-control. They note that many people aren't doing enough on their own to control their sodium intake and use this as an excuse to add yet more government controls over everyone. According to the article, such a measure might "save about 150,000 lives each year." Granted, for the sake of argument, but wouldn't that also make over 300 million lives less free?

I have a humble request for my would-be nannies: I'll worry about my own life and you mind your own business.

-- CAV