New findings show that many Americansare at risk for high blood pressure. The risk stems from too much salt in ourdiets and is especially high for children.
About eight percent of the saltchildren eat comes from school meals. Dieticians said the new school lunchguidelines are aimed at reducing the amount of salt children eat.
Amber Howells, a Kansas State Universitydietician, said "the schools provide more nutritious meals than fast foodrestaurants just in the fact that they're really focusing on the sodium level,trying to cut back on the sodium level and that there's more of a focus onoffering fruits and vegetables."
School meal programs play an importantpart of a child's diet and could even effect how they eat later on in life.
Howells's colleague Kevin Sauer said "thethought is that with children and obesity on the rise, that if we can startmodeling appropriate behavior while they're in school, that maybe they'll adoptthese practices going on through life."
The CDC report said even a400-milligram reduction in U.S. sodium intake could save billions of healthcaredollars.