Salt Awareness Week - Reduce your salt intake and improve your health

Added 10/03/2014

Buffet of food

During Salt Awareness Week we’d like to raise awareness of what effects too much salt can have on your health as well as sharing our tips to help cut down your salt intake.

Salt Awareness Week is run by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) to help the government, food manufacturers and consumers understand why it is so important to cut the level of salt in today’s’ diet. The 6th Salt Awareness Week takes place from the 10th — 16th March 2014.

One aim is to get the current average daily salt intake reduced from 8.1g to 6g a day. Statistics show that this will have a huge impact on health levels reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Too much salt in your diet? You could be risking your health

It is well documented that too much salt in your diet is harmful to your health, but do you really know how you are putting yourself at risk? The following health problems are linked to a high daily intake of salt:

  • High blood pressure — too much salt in your diet is proven to increase blood pressure levels, leaving you at higher risk of suffering from strokes, heart attacks and heart failure.
  • Kidney Disorders — If you have high blood pressure because of too much salt in your diet then you are putting strain on your kidneys. The kidneys are your body’s filtration system and excess salt causes them to work harder because they are dealing with excess calcium and sodium which is removed from the body through your urine.
  • Osteoporosis — The sodium contained in salt inhibits your body’s ability to absorb calcium so your bones can become brittle.
  • Water retention — Known as hypertension, a high intake of salt leads to your body retaining water. As well as being uncomfortable, hypertension can also lead to a rise in blood pressure.
  • Digestive disorders — Too much salt can lead to acid reflux and heartburn. If this becomes a common occurrence the acid can eventually damage the upper digestive tract.

Ten ways to cut down on your salt intake

  • 1. Don’t add salt to your food when cooking — many people add salt to water when they are cooking vegetables, potatoes and pasta, don’t do this.
  • 2. Buy low salt options — there are low salt options available for bread and cereal.
  • 3. Cut down on processed foods — Processed foods are known for having a high salt content.
  • 4. Don’t add salt to your meals.
  • 5. Cut down on salty snacks such as crisps and salted nuts.
  • 6. Avoid tinned soup — if you look at the nutritional content of most tinned soups you will see that they are full of salt.
  • 7. Make sure takeaways and eating out are a treat, not a habit — the ingredients and method of cooking often involve high levels of salt.
  • 8. Select low salt options when you eat out.
  • 9. Cut down on the sweet stuff — it may come as a shock but some sweet snacks such as biscuits can contain high levels of salt.
  • 10. Check your cheese intake — some cheese, blue cheeses for example, are incredibly high in salt.

Awareness of the damage of a diet high in salt is important and now you understand a bit more about how you are putting yourself at risk we wish you luck in cutting down on your daily salt intake.

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