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Mexico to restaurants: Hold the salt
The Mexican government has its sights set on regulating a white, powdery substance, but not the one drug cartels make billions off of. The offender in this case is salt, and regulators say it is being dangerously abused by Mexican eaters. According to officials, Mexicans eat twice as much salt as is recommended by the World Health Organization, leading to alarming levels of hypertension, heart problems and obesity.
So the Mexican government is trying to help Mexicans kick their salt addictions. In March, the nation’s health department will embark on a pilot program to ban salt shakers from restaurant tables in select cities. If eaters want to add a little more salty stuff they will have to ask their waiter. While they wait they can read a tableside sign warning them of the dangers of salt.
The salt initiative is part of a larger plan to make eating out in Mexico healthier, according to Reforma newspaper. The government also wants restaurants, as well as street stalls (the taco stands where the majority of Mexicans eat out), to offer more vegetables, smaller portions and meat cooked with less oil. As delicious as Mexican street food is, it’s best not to think what those carnitas and quesadillas are doing to your arteries.
Mexico hasn’t been shy about using government regulation to make restaurants healthier. Last year, Mexico City banned smoking in restaurants and bars, overcoming bitter resistance in this cigarette-happy city.
Comments
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By njharman
February 9, 2009 1:14 PM | Link to this
Hey, just wanted to say I really enjoy the unique subjects and perspective you provide in this blog. It rare/hard to find foreign news that anything but superficial reporting of top stories.
By Suzanne
February 12, 2009 6:06 PM | Link to this
Great blog! Im writing because I see that you’ve read Herencia Maldita. Ive been surfing the web and can’t seem to find it in English. Too flojera to read it in Spanish. Is it in English? Could you recommend another book similiar to Ravelo’s. Thanks! Suzanne
By Jeremy Schwartz
February 13, 2009 12:03 PM | Link to this
Suzanne - Diana Washington, the great El Paso Times reporter and authority on the Juarez murders, has a new book coming out on the cartels. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks promising: http://dianawashingtonvaldez.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-book-on-mexican-drug-cartels-coming.html
But I’m not aware of anyone doing the kind of work Ricardo Ravelo is churning out: highly detailed, deeply reported and lots of inside sources. His stuff is the gold standard and it would be great if someone would translate it.
If any readers out there have any favorite books on the drug wars in Mexico, please let us know.
By Dwayne
February 19, 2009 11:44 PM | Link to this
Pass me the salt, please.