80 HEALTH MATTERS HealtH & Well-being


Salt and your health


– DO YOU KNOW THE FACTS?


With the increasing evidence of the hazards of excessive salt in Irish diets, Dr Siobhan Jennings, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, proposes that we need to be more salt aware and to push for greater reformulation of foods to contain lower salt.


WHY IS SALT BAD FOR US? We each need 4g of salt per day for proper functioning of the body but current Irish data shows that we eat approximately 10g – two-and-a-half times more than we need. The excess is bad for our health as it causes hypertension (raised blood pressure) and other conditions. Hypertension is a major contributing factor to heart disease and stroke, which together account for almost four out of ten deaths in Ireland.


WHAT DOES THE SCIENCE TELL US? For the technically minded there are now hundreds of research papers – observational, animal and genetic models, as well as interventional studies and subsequent meta-analyses to show that reducing salt in the diet results in reduction of blood pressure. In fact, the amount of evidence is almost as weighty as smoking and lung cancer.


At the launch of the Department of Health and Children report ‘SLÁN 2007: Dietary Habits of the Irish Population’, Professor Ivan Perry, University College Cork, emphasised the extent of the problem in Ireland, with 71 per cent of Irish people exceeding the upper recommended intake limit of 6g of salt per day.


WHERE IS THE SALT IN OUR DIETS? Almost 80 per cent of salt is ‘hidden’ in the increasingly processed food that we eat. Bread and processed meats make up about 50 per cent of the hidden salt in our diet. Other culprits are cereals, cheeses, soups and sauces. Also, about a third of us choose to add salt at the table or in cooking.


WHAT CAN BE DONE? The solution in Ireland, as in most developed countries, lies in tackling two main areas reformulation of food so that it is lower in salt and increased public awareness of the


need to omit added salt and choose low-salt products when buying food.


A TAKE HOME MESSAGE


WHAT HAS BEEN DONE? Many agencies have undertaken to influence the levels of salt in our food, such as the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), who have worked with the food sector to promote reformulation of bread, soups, sauces, sausages and rashers among others. Also, academic institutions have targeted the research needed to overcome technical and other barriers.


FOR ALL READERS! 1. Before you sprinkle salt when cooking, think again! – Often it isn’t necessary – Try herbs, pepper or lemon juice instead


2. Hold the salt at the table – Maybe it is just a habit – Remember you can’t detect 10 per cent less salt in food


– When you omit salt, you start to notice more flavours in food


3. Eat less processed foods and more fresh foods


Other initiatives such as Safe Food’s campaign, ‘Shake the Habit’ and Irish Heart Foundation promotions are aimed at influencing the consumer to be salt aware. In being more salt aware, we increasingly omit salt at the table and in cooking. it is it it


– use your consumer power to improve your health when shopping!


– To get tips for shopping, cooking and eating out, check www.safefood.eu Go to Consumer and healthy living and click on shake the salt habit.


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