TUESDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDay News) -- There can be plenty of sodium -- commonly known as salt -- in foods that seem to be health-friendly, and shoppers should know that lower-fat foods can have much more sodium than full-fat products.

That's the finding of a report published online Monday by Consumer Reports magazine.

Researchers analyzed 37 common supermarket items and found large amounts of sodium in unexpected places, including some products that don't even taste salty. For example: a cup of Kellogg's Raisin Brain cereal contains 350 milligrams of sodium; a half-cup of Friendship 1 percent low-fat cottage cheese has 360 milligrams of sodium; and a single Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain White Bagel has 440 milligrams of sodium.

Here are some other findings from the report:

• Four strands of Twizzlers Black Licorice Twists have 200 milligrams of sodium, while four strands of Twizzlers Strawberry Licorice have 115 milligrams.
• Prego Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce has 430 milligrams of sodium per half cup. The product has an American Heart Association logo on the label, which means that saturated fat and cholesterol are restricted, but not that it's low in sodium.
• Each pancake made, as directed, with Aunt Jemima Original Pancake and Waffle Mix contains 200 milligrams of sodium.
• One cup of Heart Healthy V8 vegetable juice has 480 milligrams of sodium.
• Some seemingly healthy fast food can contain high levels of sodium. For example, McDonald's Premium Caesar Salad with grilled chicken has about 890 milligrams of sodium, without dressing. A large order of fries has 350 milligrams of sodium.

"Our analysis found that lower-fat products might be higher in sodium. That's in part because when fat is taken out of full-fat foods, sodium is sometimes used to compensate for flavor," Jamie Hirsh, associate health editor at Consumer Reports, said in a news release.

Healthy adults should consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day (the amount in one teaspoon of table salt), according to dietary guidelines. Middle-aged and older people, those with high blood pressure, and black Americans should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day. But, the average American consumes 2,900 to 4,300 milligrams a day, the study authors said.

A high-sodium diet can increase the risk of high blood pressure (which can lead to heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease) and also increase the risk of asthma, kidney stones, osteoporosis and stomach cancer. A 50 percent reduction in Americans' dietary sodium intake could save 150,000 lives a year, according to the American Medical Association.

"On average, Americans consume far more sodium than the recommended daily limit. Unfortunately, cutting back isn't easy because of the high levels of sodium in the many processed and prepared foods that Americans eat on a regular basis," Hirsh said.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute offers advice on how to lower the amount of sodium in your diet.

MONDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A lack of vitamin D, which is absorbed primarily through exposure to sunlight, helps boost the risk of heart attacks and strokes, new research finds.

"There are a whole array of studies linking increased cardiovascular risk with vitamin D deficiency," noted Dr. James H. O'Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City. "It is associated with major risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and stiffening of the left ventricle of the heart and blood vessels. Inflammation is really important for heart disease, and people with vitamin D deficiency have increased inflammation."

O'Keefe is the lead author of a review of such studies to be published in the Dec. 9 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Experts estimate that up to half of adults and 30 percent of children and teenagers in the United States are vitamin D-deficient, according to the report.

Recent data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study indicated that someone with vitamin D levels below 15 nanograms per milliliter of blood is twice as likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular problem within two years as someone with the recommended 20 nanograms per milliliter, the report said.

Vitamin D is well known as the "sunshine vitamin" because human skin makes the nutrient upon exposure to sunlight. Only 10 minutes of exposure to sunlight between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day will be enough for whites to reach the recommended level, experts say. People with darker skins will need somewhat longer exposure. Sunscreen can also block vitamin D production, the experts add.

People must balance the risks and benefits of sun exposure, however. "A little bit of sunshine is a good thing, but the use of sunscreen to guard against skin cancer is important if you have more than 15 to 30 minutes of intense sunlight exposure," O'Keefe noted.

Some foods are also rich in vitamin D, he noted. "Salmon and other deepwater fish are good," O'Keefe said. "Also milk, which is supplemented with vitamin D. But you would have to drink 10 to 20 glasses of milk a day to get the recommended intake."

Recommended vitamin D intake is 200 international units a day up to age 50, 400 units for ages 50 to 70, and 600 units a day over the age of 70.

One way to reach that level is to pop a supplement, O'Keefe said. "There is strong evidence that supplementing vitamin D improves health."

"This is an important report," said Robert U. Simpson, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Michigan, whose group was the first to identify vitamin D receptors in heart cells. "It will help those interested in cardiovascular disease understand more about the vitamin D system."

Vitamin D is not just another vitamin, Simpson said. "It is a precursor to a hormone, and this prehormone is responsible for making a very important regulator of cardiovascular processes," he said.

Supplementation is an acceptable way of getting enough vitamin D, Simpson added. "Food is not really an option," Simpson said. "You don't get enough vitamin D in the foods we ordinarily eat. Supplementation is my preferred choice, although I get sunlight whenever the sun shines here in Ann Arbor."

More information

There's more on recommended levels of vitamins and other nutrients at the U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements.

MONDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Responding to criticism that it has done a poor job safeguarding the nation's food supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a report Monday detailing its efforts to protect consumers.

Among the most important changes in 2008 was the agency's initiative to build better relationships with state and local health departments to protect the food supply, said Dr. David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food protection at the FDA.

"Another big success is the strategic change we are making with regard to imports. What you could call the 'globalization of FDA,' which is shifting our emphasis on inspection on the port of entry only to more of a product-lifecycle approach," Acheson said. "We are focused on building the systems to better understand what's going on in foreign manufacturing."

U.S. consumers have been bombarded during the past two years with a series of worrisome headlines, ranging from milk products, blood-thinning medication and pet foods contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine imported from China; to jalapeno peppers from Mexico bearing the salmonella bacteria; to U.S.-produced spinach poisoned with the E. coli bacteria.

The new report updates progress made since the FDA unveiled its Food Protection Plan in 2007. Titled Food Protection Plan: One-Year Progress Summary, the document cites improvements in three areas: prevention of outbreaks of food-borne disease; intervention; and response to outbreaks. Some of the accomplishments include:

Prevention:

• The agency said it's in the process of opening five offices around the world, to be staffed with its own inspectors, in China, India, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
• The FDA participated in meetings in China to discuss food-safety issues in both countries and to share suggestions on ways to address global food safety.
• It is hiring an "international notification coordinator" to serve as a liaison between the FDA and its foreign counterparts.
• It has approved the irradiation of iceberg lettuce and spinach to control toxins such as E. coli.
• It has developed tests to detect contaminants such as melamine and cyanuric acid.

On the intervention front, the FDA said it has inspected 5,930 high-risk food establishments in the past year; has developed a rapid detection test for E. coli and salmonella in food that's now being used in poultry-processing plants; and has expanded its database of "adverse drug events" to include "adverse feed events," to respond faster to outbreaks of feed-borne disease in animals, among other efforts.

As for its "response" efforts, the FDA said it's working with industry and the public to find better ways of tracing fresh produce in the food-supply chain; has hired two "emergency/complaint-response coordinators" to improve the agency's response to emergencies involving animal feed, including pet food; and has reached agreements with six states to create a "rapid response team" for food and food-borne illnesses.

In response to the threat of melamine-contaminated infant formula and milk products from China, the FDA said it has canvassed more than 2,100 stores stocking Asian products to remove them from store shelves.

Some critics think the FDA's food-safety efforts still don't go far enough.

"We were not a huge fan of some of the goals they laid out, so we are not a huge fan of the progress they've made," said Patty Lovera, assistant director of the consumer watchdog group Food & Water Watch.

Lovera thinks the FDA needs to have more independent authority to enforce food safety.

"They are too reliant on the industry," Lovera said. "They are really collaborating with the industry -- there is really not new regulation. There is not an overall commitment to enforcement domestically or abroad. This whole plan they are reporting progress on, we think is a step in the wrong direction."

Lovera said many of the food-safety problems that occurred this year highlighted the FDA's shortcomings. For example, late last week, the agency set acceptable levels of melamine in domestic infant formula -- one month after stating that no levels were acceptable.

"That's a month after they said, 'Oh, we don't think there is any safe level for infants.' Then magically, they said, 'Now we have a safe level for infants,' " Lovera said. "They are always in catch-up mode, they are always in response mode."

Jeffrey Levi is an associate professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and a senior policy advisor to the consumer group Trust for America's Health. He said the new FDA report fails to offer enough guidance for what needs to be done to protect the food supply.

"The report does not rise to the level of providing a roadmap for the next administration about the challenges ahead, the resources that will be needed, and the milestones against which we can measure progress," Levi said.

The challenges to food safety are growing, Levi said. "Especially as we import more food, especially as the food-production system becomes more complex, we need a system that keeps up with that," he said.

Consumers Union, while acknowledging some progress, also said the FDA wasn't doing enough to protect the American food supply.

"The FDA needs a complete overhaul, including but not limited to vastly increased funding, far greater staff and much more frequent inspections of both domestic and foreign food processors," Consumers Union said in a news release. "While FDA's progress report states that the agency has inspected 5,930 domestic food establishments during fiscal year 2008, a January 2008 GAO report analyzing the Food Protection Plan states that there are 65,520 domestic food production facilities in the U.S. This means that FDA is still inspecting U.S. food production facilities only once every 10 years. At this rate, we would not be surprised to see more problems like the salmonella that was found in peanut butter manufactured at a Georgia processing facility in 2007."

Besides regulating drugs and medical devices, the FDA oversees about 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, including many foods grown abroad.

More information

For more on food safety, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.