PRESS HYPERVENTILATING ABOUT NEW SALT STUDY
Research Has Not Been Peer Reviewed Or Published
(Washington, D.C.) – In response to multiple press outlets, from ABC News and CBS News to Everyday Health and Bloomberg, who are running with alarming stories reporting that salt is responsible for 2.3 million annual deaths and referencing research that has yet to be peer reviewed or published, Julie Gunlock, Director of the Culture of Alarmism project at the Independent Women's Forum, issued the following statement:
The press is again hyperventilating about a new study linking salt intake to millions of deaths worldwide each year. Last week, sugar was the great killer, and before that it was beef, bread and eggs. What’s next?
This study hasn’t even been published or peer reviewed, yet the press is blaring its most alarming findings without providing any context on how it was derived. More importantly, the news stories covering this new study ignore a significant new body of research calling into question the collective perception that salt is bad for you.
This is yet another example of the culture of alarmism at work. By frightening the American public, there's a greater chance that the public will demand salt restrictions on the food industry–an industry that already provides consumers with thousands of low and no-salt products.
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www.iwf.org
www.cultureofalarmism.org
Independent Women's Forum is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and educational institution dedicated to expanding the conservative coalition, both by increasing the number of women who understand and value the benefits of limited government, personal liberty, and free markets, and by countering those who seek to ever expand government in the name of protecting women.
Americans are bombarded with messages about how everyday products threaten their health and the health of their children. The media hypes the findings from scientifically-dubious studies; politicians and government regulators seize on them to promote regulations that expand their power and so that they can reassure the public they are doing something to protect Americans. IWF is leading the fight against this Culture of Alarmism.