In 1935, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia celebrated Arnold Reuben’s delicatessen, which created a La Guardia Cocktail for the occasion. Years before, Reuben’s had arguably invented that most Manhattanesque of delicacies, the sandwich bearing the restaurant’s name. But times change. New York’s oh-so-modern mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has effectively declared war on the Reuben, that classic compound of salt-cured beef and brine-basted cabbage (not to mention Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and toasted rye). What we see as a sandwich, the mayor sees as a sodium bomb aimed at the hearts of the city’s frail citizenry.
This week, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced an ambitious new campaign to strip our diets of excess salt. Among the myriad foods targeted are “deli-meat sandwiches” that “pack [the daily limit of] sodium in one serving.” The thought of New York attacking the venerable deli-meat sandwich brings a salty tear to the eye.
Those of us who live outside Mr. Bloomberg’s fiefdom might be tempted to laugh off his intrusion into the sanctity of the kitchen. But the mayorwho already prosecuted a campaign making trans fat contraband in the cityis no longer satisfied telling New Yorkers what to eat. He wants to give the nation the benefit of his dietary guidance. This week the city unveiled what it is modestly calling the National Salt Reduction Initiative, a plan to cut the amount of salt used in packaged foods and restaurant cooking coast to coast. The idea is to impose sodium restrictionsfor the moment, recommendationsfirst on New York, and then on the country as a whole. “Once finalized,” explains the city’s food 5-0, “the targets will provide a comprehensive framework for reducing sodium in the nation’s food supply.”
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