by Playfuls Staff |
19th March 2007
Next time you’re making food supplies for your home, check product labels for hidden salt content.
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Great Britain’s Food Standards Agency has warned that sometimes salt can be found in unexpected food products, which is why you should always check labels, especially for readymade foods like pizza, sandwiches, pasta sauce and ready meals.
The government agency conducted tests on 1,287 adults. They were first tested in 2001 and again in 2007. The results showed that the average salt intake had dropped to 9g per day from the 9.5g per day registered 6 years ago.
However, as the FSA recommends a maximum of 6g per day, a daily 9g salt intake is still too much and poses serious health risks.
The agency carried out urinary sodium tests and found that men seemed to consume more salt, an average of 10.2g per day, compared to women who consumed less than 7.6g a day.
FSA chairperson Dame Deirdre Hutton appreciates what progress there is but emphasizes the need for more work in order to reduce the intake of salt by the general population.
“The urinary sodium results illustrate the progress that is being made in reducing the nation's daily salt intake. However, there is still some way to go before we reach the 6g target and we all now need to build on this to ensure that the downward trend continues,” Hutton said.
The 50% higher than safe salt intake is responsible for high blood pressure – a 2003 scientific report said that reducing British citizens’ salt intake would lower average blood pressure and this in turn would help reduce heart disease.
According to the report, high blood pressure is at least partly to blame for 170,000 deaths in England each year. The FSA campaign proceeds while paying attention to the 2003 study.
Campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) welcomed the average drop in salt consumption. “A half gram reduction in salt intake is predicted to prevent approximately 7,000 stroke and heart attack events per year in the UK alone, 3,500 of which are fatal,” they said.
There is another separate survey, carried out among 1,990 Britons last month, which has found that at least 40 percent of the population was consciously trying to reduce the intake of salt. Over 90 percent of those who were surveyed said that they have stopped adding salt to their food, while 12 percent said that they are trying to avoid processed food.
Salt consumption has been linked to conditions such as asthma,osteoporosis,stomach cancer and hypertension (high blood pressure).
