Like adults, children consume more salt than the maximum recommendation. Simple measures need to be taken to help reduce their salt intake and therefore reduce the number of people suffering from cardiovascular disease.
Children are considered a vulnerable group in society often with little influence on or involvement in what they eat. Evidence suggests that dietary habits in childhood and adolescence also influence eating patterns in later life. Liking salt and salty foods is a learned taste preference and so it is vital that children do not develop a taste for salt in the first place. A high salt intake in children can influence blood pressure and may predispose a child to the development of a number of diseases including: high blood pressure, osteoporosis, stomach cancer and obesity. Unfortunately reducing ones salt intake isn’t as easy as it should be, with a lot of salt hidden amongst the foods we buy. This is shown in children’s survey, which found 1 in 4 meals to contain 2g or more of salt per dish, the maximum daily recommended salt intake for a 1-3 year old!
This year for Salt Awareness Week they want to ensure that everyone understands the importance of a healthy start for children. As part of the week they will be encouraging the food industry to act more responsibly by reducing the amount of salt they add to children’s food and to stop advertising high salt food to children.
How much salt do we eat?
Most people eat too much salt without even realising it. You could be eating too much because about 75% of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy; only a small amount is added to our food at home. Cutting out processed foods and cooking from scratch can really help you with this.
How much salt should we eat?
Adults should eat no more than 6g of salt a day, and children even less. Reducing the average daily salt intake for adults to 6g could prevent about 17,500 deaths from heart attacks and strokes a year. (UK based stats)
Our bodies need a little bit of salt to survive, but the amount we eat is far more than we require. Evidence has shown that regularly eating too much salt puts us at increased risk of developing high blood pressure. High blood pressure is the main cause of strokes and a major cause of heart attacks and heart failures, the most common causes of death and illness in the world.
Here are some common questions answered about salt:
1. What is salt?
By salt, we mean table salt, which is otherwise known as sodium chloride. It is the biggest source of sodium in our diets and it’s this sodium that’s the problem in relation to blood pressure. While we do need some sodium in our diet to help regulate fluid in the body, it’s unusual for us not to get enough – and only too common for us to have too much.
2. What’s the daily limit?
The Government recommends that we eat no more than 6g of salt a day, which is about a teaspoon. Currently, we are consuming 8.1g a day, which is about a third more than the maximum recommendation, so we still have some way to go.
3. Why are we going over this limit?
Many people unfortunately don’t realise they are eating too much salt. That is because about 75% of the salt in our diet comes from process foods.It’s not just in ready meals, soups and sauces, though – keep an eye on everyday foods such as breads and cereals, as well as sweet foods harbouring a salty surprise. Foods don’t necessarily have to taste salty to be salty. This is one of the reasons it can be tricky to reduce our salt intake, as it is often already in the foods we buy, and we can’t take it out. Read food labels to make sure that you are making low-salt choices, our use our free health app FoodSwitch, which tells you which foods are less salty!
4. How can I cut back?
We acquire a taste for salt and, over time, get used to a certain amount in our diets. If you cut back drastically and suddenly, you may at first find that your food tastes bland. However, flavour doesn’t only come from salt. Fresh and dried herbs, spices, black pepper, chilli and lemon are all great ways to add flavour. So while you reduce the amount of salt you eat, substitute it with these other flavour enhancers and you won’t notice the loss as much. It only takes 3 weeks for our taste buds to adapt and become more sensitive to salt, so you get the same flavour impact from less salt.
5. Are other types of salt better for me?
Don’t be fooled into thinking that fancier types of salt are better for you. Whether it’s pink, black, rock, crystal or flakes, they still have the same effect on your blood pressure as standard table salt. Although less refined salts might contain more nutrients than everyday table salt, these will probably only be in very small amounts and can probably be sourced from other foods in your diet. Bigger crystals also taste less salty, so you are likely to add more than refined salt.
It’s the sodium that we really need to watch out for; we should also monitor ingredients such as fish and soy sauce and raising agents such as baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
Thank you for reading you FABULOUS people
❤ Clare with the Hair ❤
ClareWithTheHair.Com 