Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced, fairly definitively, that Americans eat too much salt, and action needs to be taken to reduce the nation’s salt consumption.
More effort should be made to make the public and food industry change their ways and see the risks of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, that have been conclusively linked to higher sodium intake.
With much of the food we eat today, being pre-prepared in some way, reducing salt intake is no longer as simple as asking people to put down the shaker. It requires a broad population based approach in consort with the food industry.
The report funded and prepared by the Federal Government department makes comparisons with the UK efforts where a broad government effort to persuade food manufacturers and general public to reduce salt consumption, with voluntary salt levels agreed with manufacturers, led to a nearly 10% reduction over eight years.
The researchers estimate that a similar result in the US would save $4 Billion per year in healthcare costs.
Their current recommendation for salt intake is 2.3g per day. However nearly half the population of the United States are considered in as part of a higher risk category that should reduce to 1.5g per day. This includes those with health issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic heart disease, those over the age of 51 and those of African American descent.
Analysis of 2005-2008 data of 19,000 participants in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 98.6 percent of Americans who should reduce their daily sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams, and 88.2 percent of those who should reduce their intake to less than 2,300 mg per day, consume more than those amounts.
Written by Rupert Shepherd