FDA plans to limit salt in foods. Committee member: "We can't just rely on the individual to do something"

Last month, ReasonTV announced its "Nanny of the Month" - Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn), who wants to ban all salt from restaurants:

Never mind that without sodium we couldn't be alive. I posted on Ortiz a few weeks before that: Video of Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn): Ban Salt In Restaurants With A $1000 Fine. But it's not limited to liberal Utopia New York. Salt Derangement Syndrome has made it's way up the chain quickly like a potent pathogen, all the way up to the highest levels of the FDA, which apparently thinks it has the Constitutional authority to tell each one of us how to eat. From the Washington Post via memeorandum: FDA plans to limit amount of salt allowed in processed foods for health reasons

The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands of deaths from hypertension and heart disease. The initiative, to be launched this year, would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food products.

This is called 'mission creep.' This is not what the FDA was set up to do. And where will this end? No red meat? Cereal labeled as a drug?

This is the liberal dream coming to fruition - the control of every aspect of our lives, from healthcare to the kind of car we drive all the way down to the food on our dinner plate. The FDA is exceeding its bounds and Congress - you know, that body of elected representatives that is supposed to be solely responsible to make law via Article 1, Section 1 - doesn't matter:

The legal limits would be open to public comment, but administration officials do not think they need additional authority from Congress.

How is this not the executive branch making law? It's patently unconstitutional. There is mention in the WaPo piece that they will 'work with' food companies on a 'voluntary' basis to make this happen. By voluntary, what they mean is that a government bureacrat will come into your business - say a restaurant - and say something to the effect of "hey! Nice restaurant you've got there. Would be a shame if something were to happen to it." But the most telling part of the article is perhaps this:

"We can't just rely on the individual to do something," said Cheryl Anderson, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who served on the Institute of Medicine committee. "Food manufacturers have to reduce the amount of sodium in foods."

That's right ladies and gentlemen - you're too stupid to take care of yourselves, so the government is going to step in and do it for you, your liberty, freedom and the US Constitution be damned. Again I ask - where will this road end? If they can control by fiat salt content, why not all other nutrients? It's ironic that this effort is being made to save what the article says is "thousands of lives" from hypertension and stroke, as it will at best offset the increased death rate from people having to drive smaller cars to meet the government's CAFE unrealistic standards. Would this then be a type of bureacratic idiot offset?

Lastly, John Stossel had a great show on the food police. Here's part 1:

More here: part2, part3, part4, part5. Next time the Soup Nazi denies you food, he's doing it for your health at the FDA's discretion...

UPDATE: From Ed Morrissey: "An Einstein University study in 2008 showed no connection between cardiovascular disease risk and higher-sodium diets: ..." Thus liberals are using junk science to push through unconstitutional regulation from an executive body that doesn't have such authority. Makes a lot of sense all around, no?

Previously:
San Francisco approves "meat free" Mondays
Video: Reason TV announced 'Nanny of the Month' recipient for March 2010
REASON TV Video: The Case Against A Nutrition Nazi
Video of Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn): Ban Salt In Restaurants With A $1000 Fine
Study: Going vegetarian can harm the environment more than eating meat
Video: Nick Gillespie Schools Food Nazi Meme Roth On Nutritional Fascism
Whole Foods to charge bodybuilders, athletes more for food
Govt Effectiveness: beef/chicken used by the 'National School Lunch Program' fails to meet safety standards of fast-food restaurants, by wide margins! Fit for compost or PET FOOD!
Liberal priorities: In NYC, food for hungry homeless thrown out, deemed "unhealthy"
Whole Foods to charge bodybuilders, athletes more for food
Study: Amino acid recipe could be right for long life (if you starve yourself)
Nanny state: Phoenix Councilman bans churches from feeding the hungry
Liberal priorities: In NYC, food for hungry homeless thrown out, deemed "unhealthy"
How to raise good cholesterol, lower bad cholesterol
Who says total cholesterol must be 200 mg/dL?
Calorie restriction can make you live a very long miserable life
Finally! Proof that high-carb diets are bad for your arteries!
Video: FDA declares Cheerios a drug?
NPR: Eating Meat = "Slavery Of Our Time"
Freep Has Suggestions On Raising Your HDL Level, But Misses The Best Suggestions
Cause Of Obesity Among Black Women Found - RACISM!
Research: We're Not Fat Because We're Lazy, We're Fat Because We're Greedy!
Non-surprise surprise: having breakfast helps
Bad Eating Habits of Kids
Another badly designed diet study
Non-surprise of the day: Yo-yo dieters face difficult odds
Scaring kids with food
Board of Education can't tell Between Sugar and Carbs
Duh! - Low-carb? Low-fat? Doesn’t matter. Calories count, study finds
Skinny ideas on overweight kids
Study: Multivitamins fall short