The (Surprising) Truth About Salt

Sonia Angell has a thing about salt. She thinks about it much of her day. When she talks on the phone from her office in Lower Manhattan, she speaks with increasing passion about the mineral-specifically, getting rid of it. "It's a nutrient that we are eating in excess," she says, "to the point where it has become dangerous." Dr. Angell is a general internist with a master's degree in public health, and she is in a good position to act on her conviction: She runs the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Control Program at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), the same place that caused a huge uproar a few years ago when it mandated that all city restaurants get rid of artery-clogging trans fats.