Sodium reduction
Can we give up the white stuff? WHO found the average person eats more than double the recommended daily salt intake.
adopt any mandatory sodium reduction policies, leaving their people at risk of heart attack, stroke, and other health problems.”
the department of biological sciences at the Cork Institute of Technology. “The Food Standards Agency in the UK and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland have set target maximum population salt intakes of less than 6g per day in relation to hypertension and CVD risk, but intakes are currently well above this.” The WHO estimates that the global average salt intake is 10.8g per day, more than double the organisation’s recommendation of less than 5g per day. The latest work by the WHO not only urges everyone to reduce dietary salt intake, but the recently launched WHO global report on sodium intake reduction will monitor the progress and identify the areas for action through implementing reduction policies and other measures within member states, across WHO regions and World Bank income groups.
“The Food Standards Agency in the UK and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland have set target maximum population salt intakes of less than 6g per day in relation to hypertension and CVD risk, but intakes are currently well above this.”
5g
The recommended daily intake of sodium salt.
WHO 70
In the report, a sodium country score of one (the lowest level) to four (the highest level) will be allocated to each member state based on the level and effectiveness of sodium reduction policies and other measures. This will be used to estimate the impact of policy progress on population dietary sodium intake and cardiovascular disease. “Unhealthy diets are a leading cause of death and disease globally, and excessive sodium intake is one of the main culprits,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general at the launch. “This report shows that most countries are yet to
The potential of potassium As well as CVD and hypertension, new risk factors appear to be emerging. A recent study by researchers at Vanke School of Public Health at Tsinghua University, Beijing and the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University examined the impact of sodium and potassium – put forward as the healthier alternative to sodium – on the risk of cognitive decline in older people. The results showed high dietary sodium intake is associated with cognitive decline, while elevated levels of dietary potassium is linked with improved cognitive function. A systemic review recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease looked at 15 studies – one clinical trial, six cohorts and eight cross-sectional studies – and investigated the link between sodium intake, cognitive function and dementia risk. It found they reported mixed associations between sodium levels and cognition, nevertheless, the results of the only clinical trial showed lower sodium intake was associated with improved cognition over six months. That link needs to be examined further, but the existing risks of CVD and hypertension are enough to merit serious action on sodium. After all, CVD – which includes ischaemic heart disease and strokes – kills more people each year than any other disease. The appropriate response to these risks seems to be simple, just eat less salt. But controlling the daily intake of large populations is extremely difficult. Therefore, the current thinking seems to be that encouraging the substitution of salt based on potassium rather than sodium would be simpler and more beneficial to health outcomes. A recent study led by Bruce Neal of the George Institute for Global Health, and professor of clinical epidemiology at Imperial College London, recorded a significant reduction in cardiovascular events in a population of more than 20,000 adult participants, many of whom had an existing history of stroke and/or hypertension. The results, published in 2021, show the rate of stroke was lower with the salt substitute than with regular salt – 29.14 events compared with 33.65 events per 1,000 person-years.
“Though the human body does need a very small amount of sodium to function properly, most people nowadays consume too much,” Neal remarks. “Of all dietary risk factors, our current high salt intake is estimated to be responsible for most deaths and disability worldwide – meaning our excess salt consumption is more harmful to health than low fruits and vegetable intake or soft drink consumption, for example.”
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