Sodium

OSCAR MAYER THIN SLICED COLD CUTS. Boiled ham, honey ham, roast beef, roast chicken breast and roast turkey breast. 98 cents per 2-ounce bag or $2.25 per 6-ounce bag. BONNIE: Cold cuts are traditionally high-fat foods, containing up to 85 percent of their calories from fat. These new meats from Oscar Mayer are not only sliced thin, but are also lower in fat than traditional cold cuts. But they should not be confused with low-fat foods. These cold cuts are 94 percent fat-free by weight but only 73 percent fat- free in terms of calories from fat (the more traditional way to measure such things)

The chemistry lab and adjacent classrooms at the Harry S Truman High School were evacuated yesterday morning after a block of sodium metal started to fizz in the chemical storage area. School principal Joseph Boles said instructors Joseph Skubis and Bill Haws were teaching an 11th-grade class shortly before 11 a.m. when they noticed the unusual reaction in the jar of kerosene containing the one-pound block of the metal. They notified Boles, who called Fire Marshal Edward Copper and ordered students evacuated from the wing into the school library.

The big idea: Putting Campbell's soups on a low-sodium crash diet. Since 2006, the Camden company has reformulated more than 85 recipes. By August, 48 varieties - including the children's favorite Chicken & Stars - will be "healthy" under FDA labeling laws, with 480 mg of sodium per serving. The key was a unique sea salt. Campbell has exclusive access to the magical crystals, and where they come from is a closely held secret. The company will not divulge the sea salt's country of origin, or even its continent.

Citing 40 years of failed efforts to voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in food, an advisory panel Tuesday recommended that the government regulate sodium for the first time, gradually setting limits that could save 100,000 lives and billions of dollars in medical costs a year. The proposals outlined by the Institute of Medicine envision step-by-step efforts that would both ratchet back Americans' desire for salt and mandate the maximum amount that could be added to various types of foods.

Firefighters had their hands full when they turned out yesterday for a blaze in a Juniata plant that cleanses oil of toxic PCBs. First, they faced the challenge of a fire in sodium metal - a nasty chemical that can react explosively when wet. Beyond that loomed the question whether the blaze might release cancer-causing PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyl, a colorless, odorless pollutant when discharged. And as firefighters moved their deluge gun into position, a blocklong plume of irritating sodium hydroxide fumes rose southward from the PPM Inc. plant on Whitaker Avenue near Hunting Park, leading officials briefly to evacuate two neighboring businesses.

Q. Is the orange and grapefruit juice made from concentrate as rich in vitamins and minerals as fresh juice? George Cuonzo Holiday, Fla. A. To get optimal nutritional value from citrus fruits, the best thing to do is to eat the orange or grapefruit itself. As far as juice is concerned, if you squeeze the fruit yourself and drink it right away, it couldn't be better. According to a research paper published by Sunkist Growers, only about 1 to 2 percent of vitamin C is lost when the juice is pasteurized.

EGG WARNING Since so many holiday recipes call for eggs, here's a warning from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To ensure that eggs are free of salmonella bacteria, which can cause food poisoning, they must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 to 165 degrees. That means that the yolk and whites have to be firm. ORGANIC FOOD LAW Confused about what "organically grown" means? Starting in late 1993, under a new federal law, 95 percent of a processed food's contents (not including water and salt)

Headed out for some physical activity and want to perform like the Eagles' red-hot Duce? Well, drink bottles of water or chug sports drinks, but please, don't guzzle pickle juice. As many fans know, pickle juice was one of the drinks of choice for some of the Eagles players this weekend, a weapon that some say helped them romp the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium, where the mercury on the field climbed as high as 171. But nutritionists issue a stern warning to the amateur athlete - pickle juice can be downright dangerous.

Campbell Soup Co.'s third-quarter profit beat analysts' expectations on strong results from most of its product lines. Net income at the Camden company, whose brands include V8, Pepperidge Farm and Godiva, shot up 31 percent to $217 million, or 55 cents per share, from $166 million, or 40 cents per share, in the same period last year. Those results included a $13 million after-tax gain from the reduction of its legal reserves and a $25 million after-tax benefit from the settlement of an issue related to royalties at Campbell's Canadian subsidiary.

Healthy Choice Barbecue Sauce and Ketchup. Original, hickory, and hot 'n spicy barbecue sauce and tomato ketchup. $1.69 per 17.25-ounce of barbecue sauce, and $1.49 per 22.5-ounce or $1.99 per 30-ounce squeezable bottle of ketchup. Bonnie: Barbecue sauces and ketchup are mostly calories and sodium. Tomato products and sweeteners (sugar and corn syrup) supply the calories; salt the sodium. That's also true of these new condiments from Healthy Choice. A 2-tablespoon serving of any variety of Healthy Choice barbecue sauces contains no fat, 30 calories and 290 milligrams sodium; the ketchup, 10 calories and 110 milligrams sodium.

Citing 40 years of failed efforts to voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in food, an advisory panel Tuesday recommended that the government regulate sodium for the first time, gradually setting limits that could save 100,000 lives and billions of dollars in medical costs a year. The proposals outlined by the Institute of Medicine envision step-by-step efforts that would both ratchet back Americans' desire for salt and mandate the maximum amount that could be added to various types of foods.

Q: Hi, Mr. Salt Guy. I'm hoping that someone who throws that much salt on the floor can help me with a few questions I have about salt. - Trying to Eat Healthier First, to clarify one point, I am not throwing salt on the floor. What I am doing, and was doing long before the TV show began, is tossing spilled salt with my right hand over my left shoulder. The old saying is that spilled salt is bad luck, but by doing what I do, you'll hit the devil squarely in the eye. It's not that I'm superstitious, but I'm not above maximizing my chances for good luck, knock on wood.

The big idea: Putting Campbell's soups on a low-sodium crash diet. Since 2006, the Camden company has reformulated more than 85 recipes. By August, 48 varieties - including the children's favorite Chicken & Stars - will be "healthy" under FDA labeling laws, with 480 mg of sodium per serving. The key was a unique sea salt. Campbell has exclusive access to the magical crystals, and where they come from is a closely held secret. The company will not divulge the sea salt's country of origin, or even its continent.

I LOVE a luscious bowl of soup during the fall and winter months. Maybe you do, too. But beware of soups in restaurants and on grocery shelves, because most commercially prepared soups have huge amounts of sodium. Some pack a wallop of fat as well. As much as I know about nutrition, I fell for this trap on the first sort of chilly day this month. I hadn't brought my lunch to work like I normally do and, since it was rainy and cold, I decided to hit a nearby Cosi restaurant. I thought that would be a smart choice - a place where I could get a nice, nutritious bowl of soup accompanied by their delicious hot bread.

Campbell Soup Co.'s third-quarter profit beat analysts' expectations on strong results from most of its product lines. Net income at the Camden company, whose brands include V8, Pepperidge Farm and Godiva, shot up 31 percent to $217 million, or 55 cents per share, from $166 million, or 40 cents per share, in the same period last year. Those results included a $13 million after-tax gain from the reduction of its legal reserves and a $25 million after-tax benefit from the settlement of an issue related to royalties at Campbell's Canadian subsidiary.

After a legal tussle in the 1980s, Campbell Soup Co. stopped using the slogan "Soup is good food" - in part because of its soups' high sodium content. But behind the scenes in Camden and in university research laboratories, the 137-year-old company kept slogging away at its sodium problem, which is the top reason consumers do not eat soup more often, the company said. Today, at an investment conference in Arizona, the world's largest soup-maker plans to announce what executives said was Campbell's most significant breakthrough ever in sodium reduction.

Call it the quiet diet. Without fanfare, snacks sold in Philadelphia schools have started meeting strict new nutrition standards for fat, sugar and sodium. The standards, implemented on a trial basis this academic year, are considered by some experts to be among the most rigorous in the nation's public schools. Hundreds of snacks have been axed from the district's list of approved items, leaving slimmed-down cookies, chips and pastries, according to district food-service officials.

Headed out for some physical activity and want to perform like the Eagles' red-hot Duce? Well, drink bottles of water or chug sports drinks, but please, don't guzzle pickle juice. As many fans know, pickle juice was one of the drinks of choice for some of the Eagles players this weekend, a weapon that some say helped them romp the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium, where the mercury on the field climbed as high as 171. But nutritionists issue a stern warning to the amateur athlete - pickle juice can be downright dangerous.

Management changed hands yesterday at DuPont's 118-year-old Repauno facility, where the Wilmington-based chemical giant's sodium nitrate business was sold to U.S. Salt Holdings, a company based in Jacksonville, Fla. The business, which will continue to make sodium nitrate and nitrosylsulfuric acid, will operate as Repauno Products L.L.C., a subsidiary of U.S. Salt. Sodium nitrate is used in a wide variety of products, including bacon preservatives and rubber tires. Nitrosylsulfuric acid is used mainly in the textile-dye industry.

Iremember the shame of my first public salting. It came in the shape of a big crock of chicken Marengo, bubbling hot from the ovens of my French cooking school, into which I had dumped a few too many spoonfuls of sel. As my classmates suffered through the ensuing lunch, chef Claude looked up from his plate with a sour pucker on his face: "Peut-etre, ce n'est pas ton truc. " Perhaps, this cooking thing isn't for you. Later, Claude brought me to the stove, where he took my hand and plunged it into a dish of salt.