Salt and Your Heart
Thursday 19th July is Chest Pain Awareness Day
In preparation for the BHF’s Awareness Day, I’ve decided to write a few articles on Heart Health, to be discussed over the next couple of days. Today’s topic - Salt!
What is Salt?
Salt is composed of 40% sodium and 60% chloride. When we speak of the problems associated with salt, we are usually referring to the part of the salt called sodium. Salt will often appear as ’sodium’ on food labels (6g of salt is equivalent to 2.5g of sodium).
Interestingly, sodium is unlike any other mineral necessary to humans, in that we recognise it as a particular taste, adding it in our cooking, and consuming it in processed foods.
Sodium is actually essential for many important functions, such as:
- Regulating the bodies fluid balance
- For nerve and muscle (including the heart) activity
- Absorbing nutrients across cell membranes
However, The Department of Health state that currently, the average daily intake of salt, by adults, in the UK is far too high with many people consuming over 9g of salt each day.
What are the problems associated with consuming too much salt?
- High blood pressure, which increases the risk of developing heart disease
- Fluid retention
- Kidney stones
Current recommendations - adults should consume less than 6g of salt a day, this includes both the salt we add in cooking and at the table, and the sodium already present in the foods we eat.
But, what does 6g of salt look like? One level teaspoon contains 6g of salt! Not very much, is it?
An astounding 75% of a persons dietary salt intake comes from processed foods alone. So, what foods are the greatest culprits?
- Processed foods, such as canned and packet soups, bottled sauces, stock cubes, soy sauce
- Snacks, such as crisps, salted nuts, some cakes and biscuits
- Hard and processed cheeses
- Breakfast cereals
- Takeaways
- Ready-prepared meals
What can we do to protect our heart health?
Try to make sure your diet is low in fat, salt and sugar, and eat lots of fruit and vegetables. This will reduce your risk of developing heart disease by keeping cholesterol, blood pressure, and your weight to healthy levels. Later this week I’ll be posting a few pointers on reducing the salt intake in your diet.
Please remember to contact me with any further queries!
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