Australians failing in bid to reduce their salt intake

Australians continue to overdo their salt intake by eating almost double the recommended amount per day. HOW TO CUT BACK

Australians continue to overdo their salt intake by eating almost double the recommended one teaspoon per day, sparking a call from scientists for mandatory regulations.

The disturbing findings come from research from The George Institute for Global Health which reveals the lack of progress in salt reduction in Australia is disappointing given that eating less salt is one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing early deaths from diseases linked to high blood pressure.

“While the government has set some voluntary food reformulation targets, they should be more ambitious and made mandatory to make a real difference. The food industry also has a role to play in making products that have less salt in them,” study author Dr Kathy Trieu she said.

“With more than six million Australian adults — or one in three people — having high blood pressure, reducing salt consumption would save thousands of lives each year as well as millions in healthcare costs,” she said.

Globally, high blood pressure accounts for just over ten million deaths and eating too much salt — a leading cause of high blood pressure — is responsible for almost two million deaths.

To reduce premature deaths from non-communicable diseases by a quarter by 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that Member States reduce population salt intake by 30 per cent in 2013.

At the midpoint for this target in 2019, George Institute researchers looked at all national salt reduction initiatives around the world to determine countries’ progress in achieving the target.

“While we found more countries were taking action on salt, only a small proportion reported decreases in actual salt intakes and no countries have yet met the WHO target,” said Dr Trieu said.

Overall the number of national salt reduction initiatives — like food reformulation, front-of-pack labelling, nutrition guidelines in public institutions and salt taxes — was up by almost a third compared to 2014. Twelve countries saw an average decrease in salt intake of at least 1g per day or more but not Australia.

“While we’ve had food reformulation targets, front of pack labelling and national nutrition guidelines for schools in place for some time, these measures all remain voluntary and are clearly not having an impact on actual salt intakes,” the researcher said.

Previous studies have shown that mandatory or legislative approaches may be more effective and produce larger reductions in population salt intake than voluntary measures.

HOW TO REDUCE SALT INTAKE

* Restrict cured meats like bacon

* Limit snack foods like chips, savoury pastries

* Use soy sauce sparingly

* Don’t add extra salt to meal

* Choose low salt products

* Flavour food with spices

Source: Nutrition Australia