Over at The Corner, Ramesh Ponneru writes:

Do the "bodily integrity" and "privacy" [rights] of which Obama speaks include a right to buy high-salt foods?

I've never heard Obama speak of a right to "bodily integrity", so let's just dismiss that as a strawman.

And you don't have a privacy right to buy high-salt food, unless you have warped idea, or no idea, of what privacy is.

But Ponneru's larger argument is whether or not we, as Americans, have a right to buy things that are bad for us.  And the answer is, of course, SURE WE DO.  Cigarettes, alcohol, candy — it's all there.  The thing about THOSE commodities is that we know what we are getting.  Not so much with things like "rat feces in hot dogs" or "high salt content in food".

The problem is that most Americans are unable to limit their salt intake because most of our salt intake comes from processed foods.  We can't take it out once it is in there.

The FDA plan to limit salt in processed foods actually gives us more choices and more freedom to control our own diet.  For people who want less salt, there it will be.  And for people like Ponneru who want lots of salt in their food?  Hey, Ponneru is more than welcome to have it.  Salt itself isn't being banned.

He's also welcome to add rat feces to his hot dogs, too.  I don't care.