Don't... pass the salt
Monday, 29 January, 2018
Aussie men are ingesting nearly twice the recommended maximum daily intake of salt, with women not far behind, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published online by the .
The World Health Organization recommends a maximum salt intake of 5 g per day, and all WHO member聽states, including Australia, have agreed to reducing the mean population salt intake by 30% by 2025.
鈥淪trong and consistent evidence indicates that a high dietary聽salt intake increases blood pressure, which in turn increases the聽risk of cardiovascular disease,鈥� the authors wrote. 鈥淒espite a steady improvement in mortality rates over the聽past three decades, cardiovascular disease remains the聽leading cause of death in Australia聽鈥� reducing population salt intake is projected to be one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing聽rates of premature death and disability attributable to high blood pressure and vascular disease.鈥�
Led by Professor Bruce Neal, senior director of the , the authors analysed 31 published studies and one unpublished dataset including a total of 16,836聽participants over 26 years (1989鈥�2015). They found that measuring salt intake with methods based on self-report substantially underestimated consumption.
The gold standard for measurement of salt intake 鈥� 24-hour urine collections 鈥� provided the 鈥渂est聽estimate鈥�, the authors said.聽鈥淎fter adjusting for non-urinary salt excretion, the best estimate of salt intake in Australia is 9.6 g per day.鈥� The mean weighted intake was 10.1 g per day for men and 7.34 g per day for women.
The problem, the authors wrote, is that despite a number of programs for reducing salt intake being聽implemented in Australia, 鈥渢here has been no robust assessment of national intake levels that would permit聽the success or failure of these programs to be quantified鈥�.
鈥淥ur results also highlight the need for systematic, standardised and repeated assessments of a national聽sample of the population in order to determine whether salt reduction programs are achieving the target of聽a 30% reduction in intake by 2025,鈥� the authors concluded.
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