Description

We all eat large amounts of salt and this has ill-health

consequences for the population. There is enough evidence

to recommend a modest reduction in salt consumption (e.g.

from 9 to 6g per day) at the population level to reduce the

burden of hypertension and vascular complications, such as

ischaemic heart disease and stroke. The benefits would be

expected to be much greater in older individuals who have

a much higher stroke incidence and in whom the majority of

strokes occur – at levels of blood pressure not always requiring

drug therapy. The implementation of a public health policy

requires the collaboration of the food industry to reduce

the salt content of manufactured foods and bread (major source

of dietary salt in the Western diet). More traditional strategies

of health promotion may be feasible and effective in developing

countries with a high and increasing burden of cardiovascular

disease and a salt intake which is mainly due to salt added

to food by the individuals and, therefore, amenable to modification

with direct counselling. There is hope that with the publication

in England & Wales of the policy document Our Healthier

Nation and the more recent National Service Framework for

Coronary Heart Disease the Government will accept not only

the challenge of initiating discussions with the food industry but also of widening the approach through health promotion,

school representation and more explicit warnings to the public

at large of the danger of high levels of salt intake.