Less salt please
World Action on Salt & Health has designated March 11-17, 2013 as World Salt Awareness Week. This important week is observed to highlight the importance of reducing salt intake in all populations throughout the world. Hypertension Committee of National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh (NHFB) is also observing World Salt Awareness Week 2013. The theme of this year is Less Salt Please.
Although salt is necessary for normal healthy life, excess salt intake is bad for one's health. There is considerable scientific evidence that high salt or sodium intake causes high blood pressure and related problems like heart attack, stroke and kidney disease and in turns many unnecessary death and disability in individuals without a prior history of heart diseases. We should take proper awareness programmes and measures to change our dietary habit to live a low-sodium lifestyle and to demand that lower sodium products be made available.
Sodium can be absorbed from dietary intake as table salt, cooking salt and drinking water high in sodium. Normal requirement of salt for adult is less than 1 gram per day and children require even less. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that adults limit their daily salt intake to less than 5 grams. Reducing our average daily salt intake by just 1 gram can prevent thousands of death from stroke every year. Adverse effect of high salt intake is not just limited to stroke and cardiovascular disease, high salt intake is known to cause stomach cancer, osteoporosis and is thought to play a major part in the worldwide obesity epidemic.
Sadly, most people in Bangladesh consume excessive salt in their diet. A dietary sodium intake study conducted by the National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute in Dhaka has found that the population tested was consuming 10.5 grams of salt daily more than twice that recommended by WHO.
Salt intake in the population is increasing due to increase in consumption of salt rich western diet such as fast food and soft drinks. A meta analysis study done by the Military Institute of Science and Technology Bangladesh found that in the coastal regions of Bangladesh sodium intake from drinking water can contribute significantly to the mass balance of daily sodium intake.
Time has come to take action against excess salt intake. We can do the following to limit our salt intake:
• Cook and eat our meals at home rather than eat ready-made meals such as take-away and processed food high in sodium.
• Get out of the habit of adding salt at the table to our food.
• Use herbs, spices, chili, pepper and lemon to add flavor while cooking instead of adding salt while preparing our food.
• We can eat healthy snacks such as fruits or unsalted nuts rather than packaged foods like chips or salted nuts.
• We can also limit our intake of soft drinks known to contain sodium and/or water high in sodium.
• Do not be fooled- sea salt and rock salt are just as bad for you as table salt.
Dr Nadim Khandaker is an Associate Professor, Military Institute of Science and Technology, Bangladesh and Prof R K Khandaker is the Chairman, Hypertension Committee, National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh.
E-mail: nhfresearch@yahoo.com
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