Salt – we love it but it hates us!

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First of all, some relevant facts:  Salt contains sodium which is an essential nutrient that maintains our water balance as well as our blood pressure.  Salt also helps regulate muscle and nerve activity, so, yes…. we need it, but not as much as we’re consuming.  The recommended limit is about 6g (1 tsp daily) – less for children – but the UK is currently estimated to be consuming around 8.5g salt daily.You say you’re not adding that teaspoon to meals?

Hmmm, you don’t need to.  According to research papers [He and MacGregor, 2009, Journal of Human Hypertension; & SACN, 2003 ‘Salt and Health’] about 70-80% of our daily salt intake is already in our foods.  Breads, cereals, ready meals , canned food products and snacks are all the obvious culprits.And this is why salt is a very real health problem.   We’re consuming it daily without even realizing it.Not only is salt intake a major risk factor in high blood pressure & cardiovascular disease (the latter still being the leading cause of death worldwide), it’s high intake is also linked to stomach cancer (irritates the gut lining a.o.), oedema and kidney disease.  It can also cause osteoporosis because high salt leads to high urinary loss of calcium which in turn leads to our body compensating for this loss by drawing calcium from our bones.

Look at this salty list on the NHS ‘Choices’ website:  ham, cheese, bacon, olives, pickles, prawns, anchovies, salami, soy sauce, stock cubes, yeast extract, smoked fish, smoked meat, gravy granules… and of course salted nuts and crisps.  A lot of these foods may not be obvious salt sources to everyone.  And even sweet snack foods are on the list because the food industry knows that taste buds love sweet ‘n salty!

The following too can also be high in salt:  tomato ketchup, takeaways, pasta sauces, bread products (like ciabattas or bagels), pizzas, ready meals and soups.

The word ‘salt’ is invariably not listed on labels, however ‘sodium’ may be.  But sodium isn’t salt, it’s just part of it.  In fact 1 g sodium is 2.5g salt…which is a lot more salt intake in a given food than we may have realized.

Is there any good news about all this?

Firstly eating less of any processed snack will be a great start.  Unsalted nuts and seeds or a piece of fruit because really it does seem as though most snack foods contain salt (apart from, for example, salt-free crisps – but those are deep fried and full of trans fats which is another topic for another time).
And if we cook more from scratch we will be in charge of how much salt goes in the pot.
Checking labels is another obvious step.  Choose the canned or packaged goods with the lowest salt or sodium content.

The really good news however is that as our salt intake drops, our salt taste receptors in the mouth adapt.  After 1-2 months we won’t miss it at all!

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