Hold the salt on that turkey
When you're reaching for the salt shaker during your Thanksgiving feast, here's a new piece of research you might want to keep in mind: Eating a lot of salt increases your risk for strokes and heart disease, according to a new analysis coming out Wednesday.
There's been a long debate over the risks of salt, but studies have indicated that it increases the risk for developing high blood pressure. To examine the effects of that on strokes and heart attacks, researchers at the University of Warwick and elsewhere analyzed 13 studies conducted between 1966 and 2008 in the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, The Netherlands, Finland and China that involved more than 170,000 people.
The analysis found what the researchers called an "unequivocal" link between high salt intake in the diet and increased risk of stroke and heart disease. A drop of 5 grams of daily talk intake would reduce strokes by 23 percent and heart disease by 17 percent.
Given that more than 5.5 million people die from strokes and nearly 17.5 million die from heart disease worldwide, that would translate into a reduction in the annual toll of 1.25 million fatal and non-fatal strokes and nearly 3 million heart problems, including heart attacks, each year worldwide, the researches estimate in a paper published in the British Medical Journal.
Most adults consume about 10 grams of salt each day even though the WHO recommends consuming no more than 5 grams daily.
The researchers noted that a lot of the salt in our diets comes from processed food, meaning it will probably take government intervention with the food industry to cut salt intake.
November 25, 2009; 12:15 AM ET
Categories: Cardiovascular Health , Family Health , General Health , Nutrition and Fitness
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