High blood pressure (hypertension) is a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and high sodium in the diet is the main way people increase their personal risk for hypertension. Most simply stated: high salt in your food leads to high blood pressure leads to heart disease leads to earlier death.
Okay, that analysis is pretty loose, but it does summarize the problem effectively: too much sodium leads to health problems. Those problems are not limited to cardiovascular disease. High dietary sodium has been linked to obesity, stomach cancer, osteoporosis, kidney stones and more.
Working with individuals to change their sodium habits is an intensive and often unsuccessful strategy. Even if one person improves their situation, there are millions more lined up with the same needs. Therefore, would it not make sense to approach high sodium using a public health approach? That is, working to make changes globally rather than individually.
How much sodium is too much? The World Health Organization recommends 2000mg or less per day; in Canada and the US, 2300mg is the upper daily limit for those aged nine to 50 (1500mg daily is probably a better limit). With most of the sodium coming from processed food (80 per cent) and somewhat less from salt added to cooking or to the plate, any strategy to reduce sodium intake needs to be wide-ranging. A number of strategies can work singly or in combination to improve population health in this area.
Working with the food industry is a key element. Finland is a good example of how to do it. Since the 1970s it has worked with the food industry to regulate sodium levels, with great success -- they have seen sodium consumption drop by 40 per cent. The important part of this strategy is to have processed food manufacturers reduce the amount of sodium in their foods. This can be done with no change to taste or quality.
Food labelling is another important strategy to help individuals make better dietary choices. A simple system using colours (red for high salt content; amber for medium; and green for low salt) has been implemented at several UK grocery chains. Simple, and effective.
Public education is yet another positive strategy and effective at the population health level. Making consumers aware not only of the health effects of high salt diets and foods, but also helping them make good decisions (simply) benefits everyone.
In some cases, salt substation can also be effective. There are salt-like products that can be used in place of table salt. Various spices and mixes can also be used to pump up flavour in foods instead of just adding salt. This is true both for cooking, and at the table.
Making better food choices requires information. Whether that is from a good labelling program or better education about choices, the result is positive. What do you know about sodium and related health issues? A great place to learn pretty much everything you could want to know is the Sodium 101 website at www.sodium101.com. Try their quiz and see how you do.
Dr. Paul Martiquet is the Medical Health Officer for the Sea to Sky.
