News Item - SALT
‘Take this ban with a pinch of salt’
‘Keeping our favourite seasoning off school dinner tables won’t necessarily improve children’s health’
Daily Telegraph December 2005
There has been a steady stream of articles in our newspapers and infomercials on television currently focusing on salt. The Foods Standards Agency (FSA) are continuing to recommend as a nation we cut down on our salt intake to around 6g a day for an adult, with worrying statistics that a large proportion of the population ingest an excess of 12 grams of salt daily.
Salt is an essential part of our diet and keeps muscles contracting and nerves transmitting efficiently, and can be found in many of our foods. An averaged balanced daily diet will contain 75% plus of our salt intake without us having to add salt to our meals. There is often salt in foods you would be unaware of like biscuits and cereals. The FSA is specifically working with food manufacturers to cut salt levels in foods, particularly those aimed at young consumers, processed foods and ready meals.
The health concern in having excess salt in the diet is it is implicated in 220,000 deaths in the UK every year from heart disease and strokes related to high blood pressure. Obesity also contributes to high blood pressure due to a poor diet and little or no exercise.
Our bodies retain extra fluid to dilute the presence of extra salt, sometimes up to 2.5 litres more, causing retention that makes our circulation sluggish, encourages high blood pressure and added stress on our kidney’s to function normally.
Eating salty foods when young tends to set a taste and trend for the foods they like and how they eat them. If children are introduced to and begin to eat a wide range of processed foods, salt added at the cooking phase as well as adding salt to their food when on the plate is rapidly increasing their daily intake, putting them at a much higher risk of potential long term health problems .
A combination of the results of 10 research trials in London (966 children aged 8-16 years and 551 infants) demonstrated that reducing children’s salt intake by half resulted in an immediate reduction in blood pressure, reducing it to an appropriate range for their age. This information alone gives the potential answer to reducing incidences of strokes, heart attacks and heart failure facing our younger generations as they age.
Best practice with cooking for children is not to add salt to the cooking at all and assist them in not acquiring the taste for salt on there meals in the first place. Alternatives like herbs, spices, lemons and limes can be added to food to enhance taste and flavour. Lemon or lime juice will emphasise the natural salty taste in food.
Unfortunately there are numerous snacks and processed foods readily available that we either unwittingly feed to our children or they choose as they get older. The average child will be exceeding the recommended salt intake by the time they start school. The recent Sid the Slug campaign by the FSA has possibly brought about a recent 12% reduction in salt sales, but unfortunately the more unhealthy options of foods continue to be consumed in great amounts.
Recommended Daily Salt Intake
0-12months 1g (0.4g sodium)
1-3 years 2g (0.8g sodium)
4-6 years 3g (1.2g sodium)
7-10 years 5g (2.0g sodium)
11-adults 6g (2.4g sodium, often rounded to 2.5g)
What to look out for:
Manufacturers will often label their salt content in the product section as sodium. This can be deceptive, to relate this to actual salt content 1 gram of sodium per 100 grams is in fact 2.5 grams of salt per 100 grams, (therefore multiply 1 gram of sodium by 2.5 to give you a salt content) of the overall product.
Products high in salt are foods like tinned vegetables, baked beans, tinned spaghetti, biscuits, cereals, cooking sauces, stocks, gravy powders, bacon and sausages. The general rule is the more processed the food the higher the salt content.
You will find manufacturers promoting their product with claims of salt reduction. Walkers for instance now claim a 25% reduction of salt in some of their crisp products. A standard packet of their crisps has now between 0.5-0.8 grams of salt, which is approximately 13-15% of the daily salt intake. However a packet of salt and vinegar potato twirls contain 5.8 grams, and cheese quavers 3.5 grams of salt per 100 gram so there are certainly healthier choices to be made on snack foods.
Another area where healthier choices can be made in reducing salt intake is the breads that we consume. An average leading brand loaf, white, brown or wholemeal can contain 0.5 grams of salt per slice. It does not sound a lot but having toast and then maybe sandwiches in one day can add up to 55% of the recommended daily salt intake for toddlers.
The breads with a reasonable salt content of 0.25 grams per slice are Wholemeal Warburton’s and Nimble, and White Warburton’s, Sunblest and Mother’s Pride.
By taking a few simple measures of being aware and purchasing food products that have sensible salt/sodium levels, by not adding salt at the cooking stage or on the food after, nurseries can play a key role in assisting infants to stay within the safe daily recommendations of salt intake.
Every effort is made to ensure the information provided by Ideal Nutrition Consultants Limited is current and accurate. The content of this site is not a substitute for professional advice from a Dietitian or Paediatrition, and therefore no legal responsibility is accepted for any errors, omissions, misleading or misinterpreted statements.
All Rights Reserved © 2007 Ideal Nutrition. Site by Internet Creation Ltd
