Drive to curb salt intake should focus on China

PARIS: Salt consumption exceeds national and World Health Organisation ( WHO) guidelines in most countries, but only the highest- sodium diets, such as in China, are linked to clear health risks, researchers said.

Only individuals with a daily salt intake of at least 12.5 gms – about two-and-a-half teaspoons – were associated with increased blood pressure and a greater risk of stroke, they reported in The Lancet, a medical journal.

WHO recommends capping salt consumption at five grammes per day, but this target is not known to have been achieved at a national level anywhere in the world, the survey of more than 90,000 people spread across 300 distinct communities in 18 countries found.

“We should be far more concerned about targeting communities and countries with high average sodium intake – above five gms (equivalent to 12.5 gms of salt), such as China – and bringing them down to the moderate range” of 7.5 to 12.5 gms of salt, said lead author Andre Mente, a professor in the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Canada. One gramme of sodium equals 2.5 gms of salt.

Four- fifths of the groups examined in China had average daily salt intake of 12.5 gms, whereas in other countries 84 per cent ingested between 7.5 and 12.5 gms.

“Our study adds to growing evidence that, at moderate intake, sodium may have a beneficial role in cardiovascular heath, but a potentially more harmful role when intake is very high or very low,” he said in a statement. — AFP