DANGERS OF EXCESSIVE INTAKE OF SALT (SODIUM CHLORIDE) INTAKE IN YOUR FOOD

Too much intake of salt (sodium chloride) can raise your blood pressure, which puts you at increased risk of health problems such as heart disease and stroke. But a few simple steps can help you to cut your salt intake.

You don't have to add extra salt to your ready-to-be eaten food on your dinning table as it amounts to too much salt in your food that would impact negatively in your body system.
Studies have shown that about 75% of the salt we add to our food on our dinning tables is already in our natural everyday foods such as bread, breakfast cereal and ready meals.

A diet that is high in salt can cause increased blood pressure, which currently affects more than one third of adults.

High blood pressure often has no symptoms, and it is estimated that about one in every three people who have high blood pressure don’t even know it. But if you have it, you are more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke. If you're aged 40-74, you have to regularly have a check on your blood pressure in a health facility.

Cutting down on salt lowers blood pressure, which means that your risk of having a stroke or developing heart disease is reduced.

HOW MUCH SALT IS ENOUGH FOR ADULTS?

Some schools of thought opines that  Adults should eat no more than 6g of salt a day – that's around one teaspoon. While children should eat even less (see below for recommendations for babies and children).

Salt and sodium in your food

Salt is also called sodium chloride. Sometimes, food labels only give the figure for sodium. But there is a simple way to work out how much salt you are eating from the sodium figure:

Salt = sodium x 2.5

Adults should eat no more than 2.4g of sodium per day, as this is equal to 6g of salt.

DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN USE NUTRITION LABELS TO CHECK SALT LEVELS?

Cutting down on added salt is only a small part of the solution. To really cut down, you need to become aware of the salt that is already in the everyday foods you buy so that you would choose lower-salt options using label information.

Fortunately, nutrition labels on food packaging now make this a lot easier. Most pre-packed foods have a nutrition label on the back or side of the packaging.

Many foods also display information about the salt content on the front of the packaging. This may show the salt content as a percentage of your refrence intake (RI) or have colour-coded nutrition information to show whether the food is low, medium or high in salt. Where colour-coding is used, red means high. Try to eat high-salt foods only occasionally, or in small amounts, and aim to eat mainly foods that are green (low) or amber (medium).

Look at the figure for salt per 100g:

High is more than 1.5g salt (0.6g sodium) per 100g. These foods may be colour-coded red.
Low is 0.3g salt (0.1g sodium) or less per 100g. These foods may be colour-coded green.

If the amount of salt per 100g is between 0.3g and 1.5g, that is a medium level of salt, and the packaging may be colour-coded Amber
International salt content color code:

1) RED  COLOR CODE        -  HIGH SALT
2) AMBER COLOR CODE - MEDIUM SALT
3) GREEN COLOR CODE  - LOW SALT

As a rule, aim for foods that have a low or medium salt content. Try to have high-salt foods only occasionally, or in small amounts.

Of course, one easy way to eat less salt is to stop adding salt to your food during cooking and at the dinner table especially. However, if you regularly add salt to food when cooking, try cutting it down or adding less.
Also when you sit down to eat, taste your food first to see if it needs salt before adding any. It doesn't take long for our taste buds to get used to less salt and you might find you start to appreciate other flavours even more.

HOW MUCH SALT IS ENOUGH FOR BABIES AND CHILDREN?       

Babies and children under 11 should have less salt than adults.

Babies under a year old should have less than 1g of salt a day. If a baby is breastfed, they will get the right amount of minerals, including sodium and chloride, from breast milk. Formula milk contains a similar amount to breast milk.

Don't add salt to your baby’s milk or food and don't use stock cubes or gravy as they're often high in salt and their kidneys can’t cope with it.
Remember this when you’re cooking for the family if you plan to give the same food to your baby.

Avoid giving your baby processed foods such as ready meals as these are often high in salt. However, food manufactured specifically for babies should meet the recommended levels. If in doubt, always check the label.

The daily recommended maximum amount of salt children should eat depends on age:
1 to 3 yrs   –  2g salt a day (0.8g sodium)
4 to 6 yrs   – 3g salt a day (1.2g sodium)
7 to 10 yrs – 5g salt a day (2g sodium)
11 yrs plus– 6g salt a day (2.4g sodium)

Making sure your child doesn’t eat too much salt means you’re also helping to ensure that they don’t develop a taste for salty food, which makes them less likely to eat too much salt in adulthood.

Foods that contain salt

Some foods are almost always high in salt because of the way they are made.

Other foods, such as bread and breakfast cereals, can contribute a lot of salt to our diet. But that’s not because these foods are always high in salt – it’s because we eat a lot of them.

DO YOU KNOW THAT SOME SOLUBLE VITAMIN SUPPLEMENT OR PAINKILLERS ALSO HAVE SALT CONTENTS?

NOTE: If you routinely take effervescent (dissolvable) vitamin supplement, or take effervescent painkillers when necessary, it's worth remembering that these can contain up to 1g salt per tablet. Therefore, you may wish to consider changing to a non-effervescent tablet, particularly if you have been advised to watch or reduce your salt intake.

- Special thanks to NHS-UK