Low-sodium menus pass school tests - includes recipes

FDA Consumer, April, 1985 by Roger W. Miller

Dramatic indifference might be the way to describe the reactions of school children to two experiments in reduced-sodium diets in their school meal programs. Most of the students hardly noticed that certain menu items had been made with less salt than usual. And those who did notice generally preferred the reduced-sodium foods to their saltier counterparts.

The two experiments were half a continent apart--one in Louisiana and the other in New England--but they are very close on how the school children have responded to less sodium in their foods. The acceptance of the reduced-sodium menus displayed by the students in both cases indicated that the acquired American taste for salt is not all that firm.

Excessive consumption of sodium, usually in the form of salt (sodium chloride), is associated with high blood pressure. High blood pressure, in turn, is linked to increased risk to stroke, heart attack and kidney disease.

In the Louisiana experiment, salt used in recipes for dinner rolls and other baked products was reduced in steps by 25 percent to 75 percent with no recognized difference in quality and no increase in plate waste.

The New England project (still going on) involves monitoring the blood pressure of high school students on two campuses as they go on and off reduced-sodium diets. It's too early to tell whether the diet will lower student's blood pressure. However, officials say it's not too early note that the students don't mind the reduced-sodium diet, and are even beginning to prefer it.

The Louisiana study was done in an elementary school in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb. The dinner roll recipe was the one in which sodium was finally cut by 75 percent, with the amount of salt used for 100 rolls reduced from four tablespoons to one. The kitchen staff tried 17 recipes before it found one that achieved the reduced salt content while maintaining acceptable taste, color and shape. The only other change in the final recipe agreed upon for the yeast-leavened rolls was using 1-2/3 cups of nonfat dry milk rather than 1-1/3 cups. (See the recipe accompanying this article.)

Sodium was also reduced in hamburger buns, hot dog buns, biscuits, cornbread and French bread. It took only three tries to get the right biscuit recipe and that brought a sodium reduction of 50 percent.

Not only was there no discernible difference in food left on the plates after the sodium reductions, but also no negative comments were received from either students or faculty about the changed products.

The Metairie project involved only school lunches. However, an earlier, long-term Louisiana heart study had found that children from 10 to 13 get about 30 percent of their daily sodium intake from school lunches, and that almost a third of the total daily sodium intake came from grain products, including breads and pastas.

With funding for 2-1/2 years from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Metairie program has been expanded and now includes fat and sugar reduction. More "cardiovascular healthy" food items are being prepared and the students' choices monitored in four schools. The expanded project includes an eating and exercise behavior curriculum taught in science and physical exercise classes. Students' knowledge, attitudes and behavior about eating and exercise are measured along with their blood pressure, cholesterol levels and weight.

The New England experiment is being conducted at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H., and at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., private boarding schools for high school age boys and girls. It involves all the regular meals served to the students. The program is a two-year study, with students at both schools alternately being served reduced-sodium and regular diets. Blood pressure is being monitored weekly in 400 students.

In a pilot study for the program, total sodium intake of the students was decreased by 35 percent, according to Dr. R. Cur Ellison of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Ellison is conducting the program under a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The study will deal later with fat in foods, just as the Louisiana study has been expanded.

Both Ellison and Donald Doane, director of auxiliary enterprises at the Exeter campus, said that the reduced-sodium food have been readily accepted by the students. In fact, Ellison said students often complain about the salty taste when the regular sodium fare is returned to the tables.

Ellison points out that in previous studies, "palatability" ratings by students of regular and reduced-sodium items came out virtually the same. These studies are described in an article by Ellison and others that will appear in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Doane thinks that today's students are more nutrition conscious and therefore are presumably more willing to accept salads, vegetables and low-sodium fare. "It used to be that you couldn't put broccoli on the menu," he noted. "Now you'd better have it at least once a week."