Low salt diet checks heart disease
A low-salt diet can provide people with a 25% lower risk of heart disease compared to people on their normal diet without being salt-conscious according to researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the US.
Although a limited amount of salt daily from the salt shaker on the table would be acceptable, the researchers said the problem was that three quarters of the salt we eat comes not from the salt shaker but from processed food and restaurant meals. And people are eating more and more of this type of food with manufacturers routinely putting lots of salt in foods to make it flavoursome.
With some foods the salt content can be checked by reading the label on the bottle or pack. A low salt food has a level of less than 120mg per 100g, but on the whole, people are not good at reading food labels. Some foods are not labelled so many people don’t know how much salt is being consumed.
As a general rule research diet professionals make the following suggestions about salt consumption:
. Cut out manufactured and takeaway foods and if you must use prepared foods, buy ‘low-salt’ varieties.
. Don’t eat fast food, snacks, or packet foods like instant pasta, noodles or soups (they have lots of salt) and eat low-salt brown or multigrain bread instead of white bread.
. Cut out processed meats like salami and sausages (they have a high salt content), use fresh vegetables rather than canned (salt is often added to canned veggies, especially tomatoes) and don’t add salt to food – instead, add flavour using herbs and spices like garlic, oregano and lemon juice.
