Thank you all for coming.
I share Dr. Pipe's frustration. The story that Dr. Pipe told of patients actually not knowing what they're getting and ending up in hospital was the story of my father, who in one summer had three hospitalizations, even with a daughter as a physician. I had no idea that the All-Bran he had every morning was three times as salty in Canada as it is in the United States; I had no idea that the soup he was eating was laced with the stuff. We just threw the book at him, and we kept him out of hospital for three years until he died, by being really strict about this.
This is a daughter who had toxemia in my pregnancy, who drank the soup and then thought, “I don't think I should have eaten this”, and then two hours later was being induced with pre-eclampsia.
This Is so serious. It's the reason I'm a doctor: I ended up with acute glomerulonephritis and on a salt-free diet for three months when I was in grade nine, and I felt that no one else should have to live through that.
Dr. L'Abbé, I actually thought I wanted to be a nutritionist first, because Dean Barbara McLaren brought me shortbread that had no salt in it, and I thought she was an angel of mercy, coming to me with delicious foods that actually had no salt in them.
I just have to say first that, with the frustration you must feel, Dr. L'Abbé, having watched what happened with transfats, how on earth can the sodium working group spend all of this time and not even have mandatory regulations in your terms of reference, so that all you're allowed to come up with is voluntary reduction? It seems quite shocking. I don't see the education program coming.
What are we waiting for? Do they have to wait for your report to do a public education campaign to tell people to reduce their salt or lay off the soy sauce or whatever it is? I don't really see a huge amount of money going into research. This is enough, already. I wonder how on earth we can get at this when what Dr. Pipe is saying is absolutely true. We've heard all this before. I don't know that the Canadian palate is different from the American palate. What are we waiting for?
I would rather have Dr. Pipe ask the people who are saying “yes, but..., but....” Maybe Dr. Pipe could finish his presentation and have a go at the rest of the panellists.