WHO salt alert: If you have less than 5 gm salt per day, you could avert deaths from heart and kidney disease in 10 years

The test subjects for the study were 25-year-olds in 2019. The effects of the intervention were simulated over 10 years, 25 years, and over the population lifetime. If Indian adults could comply with WHO benchmarks, the model showed that this could lower mean sodium intake by 138 mg per day in women and 184 mg per day in men after four years of implementation. This would correspond to a 21 per cent and 19 per cent reduction in pre-intervention sodium intake levels from packaged foods for women and men, respectively; or a 5 per cent and 6 per cent reduction in total sodium intake, respectively.

Such studies are part of the WHO’s attempts at reducing population sodium intake by 30 per cent by 2025. It is one of the nine global targets recommended by WHO for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.

HOW INDIA CONSUMES SALT?

Discretionary salt use (salt added by the consumer when cooking or at the table) is the main source in India, making up more than 80 per cent of the sodium intake in 2014, according to the report. However, sodium intake from packaged foods is increasing as India, similar to other low-income and middle-income countries, undergoes a rapid nutrition transition. For example, the sales of salty snacks increased by 17 per cent between 2011 and 2021and the market for ready-to-eat products (often high in sodium) was projected to nearly triple from INR 32 billion in 2019 to INR 94 billion in 2025, according to the report.

Apart from cooking, much of the salt comes from processed and ultra processed foods and food accompaniments like salted butter, spice mixes, baking soda, baking powder, and monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Despite these consumption trends, India, at present, has no national sodium reduction strategy in place, the report says. To assist more countries to implement national sodium content targets, the WHO had released global sodium benchmarks for 58 packaged food groups in 2021.

HOW HIGH SALT CONSUMPTION AFFECTS YOUR HEALTH?

High sodium consumption is currently the leading dietary risk of death and disability globally. Leading cardiologist Prof K Srinath Reddy of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) says high sodium consumption has shown to be consistently associated with a higher risk of elevated blood pressure leading to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney dysfunction.

“The effects on blood pressure and related health disorders are mediated not only by high sodium consumption but also by a low consumption of potassium-containing foods like fruit and vegetables. So in populations where diets have a high sodium to potassium ratio, it is necessary to encourage people to reduce dietary sodium intake,” Prof Reddy said.

He explained how many ultra processed foods (UPF) have a high salt content, adding excess sodium to the sodium that is naturally present in some of our food sources. “Reducing the amount of salt added while cooking or eating is helpful. Controlling the salt content in manufactured and marketed UPF is an important policy measure which will have an impact at the population level,” Prof Reddy said. “While FSSAI has undertaken some steps to educate people (‘Eat Right India’ campaign) and has proposed warning labels related to salt, sugar and fat content on manufactured food products, it is necessary to undertake effective policy measures through a comprehensive salt strategy. The health and economic gains of such a policy intervention will be very high, as this study suggests,” he added.