How much salt is safe? (page3)

The biggest misconception about sodium intake is that many people think that, by removing the saltshaker from the dinner table, they are not eating salt. However, what is not known is that as much as 80 per cent of dietary sodium comes from eating out and from packaged and processed foods since salt is used for taste, to preserve foods, and provide texture. About 12 per cent of the sodium in our diets comes from adding salt and sodium-containing condiments to what we cook and eat. Even some drugs, for example, antacids, have high amount of sodium.

According to Dr. Salako, studies have corroborated that black people that reduce their salt intake by between 25 and 35 per cent could reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by as much as 25 per cent and lower their mortality rates by 20 per cent.

So, what is the best way to reduce your salt intake? Identifying products that are high in salt is a good place to start. For the record, table salt is sodium chloride and is 40 per cent sodium by weight. One problem in finding salt content is that excessive amounts are present in many products generally considered healthy.

He explained that excessive salt intake increases risk of a raised blood pressure because what the salt in the body does is to attract water and increase the blood volume, thus making the heart do more work to pump blood round the body.

“The consequences of too much salt are hypertension, or high blood pressure, which increases the risk of a stroke or heart attack,” says Dr. Babatunde Salako, a consultant physician at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. According to him, people may not be able to do anything about such risk factors as age, sex or even having heredity for hypertension. Other risk factors like high salt intake, obesity and sedentary lifestyle are all modifiable factors that people can work up to reduce their chances of having hypertension and the other diet related diseases that are able to reduce lifespan.

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