Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Problem:A surprising new report questions public health efforts to get Americans to sharply cut back on salt, saying it's not clear whether eating super-low levels is worth the struggle. 
  
 Salt shakers and other condiments sit on a beverage dispenser table at a Boston Market restaurant in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Boston Market has removed the salt shakers from the tables... (Associated Press) 
  
 A salt shaker sits next to an advisory at a Boston Market restaurant in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, May 14, 2014. Boston Market has removed the salt shakers from the tables in their restaurants nationwide.... (Associated Press) 
  
 An advisory on salt shakers location in seen on a table at a Boston Market restaurant in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Boston Market has removed the salt shakers from the tables in their restaurants... (Associated Press) 
  
 Make no mistake: Most Americans eat way too much salt, not just from salt shakers but because of sodium hidden inside processed foods and restaurant meals. Tuesday's report stresses that, overall, the nation needs to ease back on the sodium for better heart health. 
  
 But there's no good evidence that eating very low levels _ below the 2,300 milligrams a day that the government recommends for most people _ offers benefits even though national guidelines urge that certain high-risk patients do just that, the Institute of Medicine concluded. 
  
 Also, there are some hints, albeit from studies with serious flaws, that eating the lowest levels might actually harm certain people _ those who are being aggressively treated for serious heart failure, the report added. 
  
 The prestigious group, which advises the government about health, urged more and better research to settle the best target range. 
  
 "We're not saying we shouldn't be lowering excessive salt intake," said Dr. Brian Strom of the University of Pennsylvania, who led the IOM committee. But below 2,300 mg a day, "there is simply a lack of data that shows it is beneficial." 
  
 The average American consumes more than 3,400 mg of sodium a day, equivalent to 1 1/2 teaspoons. Current U.S. dietary guidelines say most people should limit that to 2,300 mg a day, while certain people _ those older than 50, African-Americans, and people with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease _ should aim for just 1,500 mg. 
  
 Tuesday's report sparked an immediate outcry from health organizations that have long battled to lower the nation's salt consumption. 
  
 The American Heart Association said it stood by its own recommendations, stricter than the government's, that everyone eat no more than 1,500 mg of sodium a day. Studies make clear that eating less sodium helps lower blood pressure, and lower blood pressure in turn leads to less heart disease, said heart association spokesman Dr. Elliott Antman, a cardiologist at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. 
  
 "We're sticking where we have the most solid evidence," Antman said. 
  
 What to study is key to the debate: The IOM committee was asked to examine whether eating less salt directly affects longer-term outcomes such as heart attacks and death. That's harder to prove, especially since the panel stressed many of the studies it reviewed had quality problems. Among those problems, Antman said, was including some patients too sick for diet to matter. 
  
 Debating how little salt is too little is a moot point, added nutritionist Bonnie Liebman of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. 
  
 "The average American is still in the red zone, the danger zone," she said. 
  
 The salt industry, in contrast, has long opposed the push for sharp sodium reductions and welcomed the report. 
  
 "There is no scientific justification for population-wide sodium reduction to such low levels, and the recognition by the IOM experts that such low levels may cause harm may help steer overzealous organizations away from reckless recommendations," said Morton Satin of the Salt Institute. 
  
 Some salt is necessary for good health, although it's not clear exactly how much. 
  
 But today, it's very hard to cut back to 1,500 mg unless you always cook from scratch, or eat too little food in general because of illness, Liebman added. Three-quarters of people's daily sodium come from processed or restaurant food. The average sandwich in a restaurant has 1,000 mg or more, and some restaurant meals can provide a full day's supply of sodium in one entree, she said. 
  
 The Food and Drug Administration is working on a program to get food manufacturers to gradually lower sodium levels in their products, thus helping shoppers who don't scrutinize food labels to get closer to dietary guidelines. The FDA said Tuesday that it was reviewing the IOM report, calling it consistent with its own efforts "to work toward achievable and reasonable voluntary reductions in the sodium content of the U.S. food supply." 
  
 Some restaurants already are taking steps. The Boston Market chain, for instance, has begun reducing sodium in its most-sold items by about 20 percent _ and removed salt shakers from the restaurant tables. "Where's the salt shaker?" read signs sitting next to the pepper that explain the chain's move to reduce sodium and advise that customers who really want an extra pinch will have to get up to find some at the counter. ||||| In a report that undercuts years of public health warnings, a prestigious group convened by the government says there is no good reason based on health outcomes for many Americans to drive their sodium consumption down to the very low levels recommended in national dietary guidelines. 
  
 Those levels, 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, or a little more than half a teaspoon of salt, were supposed to prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at risk, including anyone older than 50, blacks and people with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease — groups that make up more than half of the American population. 
  
 Some influential organizations, including the American Heart Association, have said that everyone, not just those at risk, should aim for that very low sodium level. The heart association reaffirmed that position in an interview with its spokesman on Monday, even in light of the new report. 
  
 But the new expert committee, commissioned by the Institute of Medicine at the behest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was no rationale for anyone to aim for sodium levels below 2,300 milligrams a day. The group examined new evidence that had emerged since the last such report was issued, in 2005. 
  
 “As you go below the 2,300 mark, there is an absence of data in terms of benefit and there begin to be suggestions in subgroup populations about potential harms,” said Dr. Brian L. Strom, chairman of the committee and a professor of public health at the University of Pennsylvania. He explained that the possible harms included increased rates of heart attacks and an increased risk of death. 
  
 The committee was not asked to specify an optimal amount of sodium and did not make any recommendations about how much people should consume. Dr. Strom said people should not eat too much salt, but he also said that the data on the health effects of sodium were too inconsistent for the committee to say what the upper limit of sodium consumption should be. 
  
 Until about 2006, almost all studies on salt and health outcomes relied on the well-known fact that blood pressure can drop slightly when people eat less salt. From that, and from other studies linking blood pressure to risks of heart attacks and strokes, researchers created models showing how many lives could be saved if people ate less salt. 
  
 The United States dietary guidelines, based on the 2005 Institute of Medicine report, recommend that the general population aim for sodium levels of 1,500 to 2,300 milligrams a day because those levels will not raise blood pressure. The average sodium consumption in the United States, and around the world, is about 3,400 milligrams a day, according to the Institute of Medicine — an amount that has not changed in decades. 
  
 But more recently, researchers began looking at the actual consequences of various levels of salt consumption, as found in rates of heart attacks, strokes and death, not just blood pressure readings. Some of what they found was troubling. 
  
 One 2008 study the committee examined, for example, randomly assigned 232 Italian patients with aggressively treated moderate to severe congestive heart failure to consume either 2,760 or 1,840 milligrams of sodium a day, but otherwise to consume the same diet. Those consuming the lower level of sodium had more than three times the number of hospital readmissions — 30 as compared with 9 in the higher-salt group — and more than twice as many deaths — 15 as compared with 6 in the higher-salt group. 
  
 Another study, published in 2011, followed 28,800 subjects with high blood pressure ages 55 and older for 4.7 years and analyzed their sodium consumption by urinalysis. The researchers reported that the risks of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and death from heart disease increased significantly for those consuming more than 7,000 milligrams of sodium a day and for those consuming fewer than 3,000 milligrams of sodium a day. 
  
 There are physiological consequences of consuming little sodium, said Dr. Michael H. Alderman, a dietary sodium expert at Albert Einstein College of Medicine who was not a member of the committee. As sodium levels plunge, triglyceride levels increase, insulin resistance increases, and the activity of the sympathetic nervous system increases. Each of these factors can increase the risk of heart disease. 
  
 “Those are all bad things,” Dr. Alderman said. “A health effect can’t be predicted by looking at one physiological consequence. There has to be a net effect.” 
  
 Medical and public health experts responded to the new assessment of the evidence with elation or concern, depending on where they stand in the salt debates. |||||
Solution:
Go easy on the salt, but not too easy. That's the surprising finding of a new study from the prestigious Institute of Medicine, reports the New York Times. The report concluded that people who follow the advice of groups such as the American Heart Association and limit intake to 1,500 milligrams a day, or about half a teaspoon, may actually be doing more harm than good. Current US dietary guidelines say most people should cut it off at 2,300mg a day, and the IOM researchers found no benefits in going below that threshold. "We're not saying we shouldn't be lowering excessive salt intake," says the University of Pennsylvania doctor who led the panel. It's just that below the 2,300mg mark, "there is simply a lack of data that shows it is beneficial." Before unholstering the salt shaker, know that the study reaffirmed that most Americans consume an unhealthy amount of sodium—about 3,400mg a day—and it urged them to cut down, reports AP. The heart association, meanwhile, rejects the report's conclusion and is sticking by its recommendation of 1,500mg.