Chair of AWASH, Dr Bruce Neal, welcomed the AMA report which highlights the substantial public health gains that can be achieved from reductions in salt intake. “There is clear evidence that salt is a major cause of high blood pressure, translating into greatly increased risks of heart attacks and stroke,” he said.
“Not nearly enough is being done to reduce salt in people’s diets and Australians are consuming far too much. Most are eating well above the 6 grams per day recommended by the Heart Foundation of Australia. A reduction to 6 grams a day would prevent about one fifth of all strokes and heart attacks in Australia each year,” said Dr Neal.
An author of the AMA report, Dr Stephen Havas (AMA) said "In the past, people weren't fully cognisant of the fact that most of the salt was coming from restaurant and packaged foods. The message we had been giving to the public - don't use salt at the table, don't use salt when you're cooking - was advice of very limited value, since 80% of people's salt was coming from restaurants and processed foods.”
The AMA report reinforces the messages of the Australian ‘Drop the Salt!’ Campaign launched in May by the Australian Division of World Action on Salt and Health (AWASH). AWASH aims to work with the Australian food industry to achieve a 25 % reduction in the salt content of processed food over the next five years. During this same period, AWASH will join with key consumer and health organisations, to raise consumer awareness and encourage individuals to take positive steps to reduce their salt intake.
It is now internationally recognised that people need to reduce their salt intakes. A World Health Organization (WHO) report released in April 2007 highlighted the strong scientific evidence for the damage to health caused by eating too much salt. The report called for countries around the globe to urgently adopt national approaches to reduce the salt content of foods.
Despite this, a statement released by the Salt Manufacturers’ Association UK, this week, has criticised the UK government’s salt reduction strategy. The group says that the current UK policy is putting the population at risk, suggesting that long-term, large-scale controlled trials are required to see if low- salt diet improves life expectancy.
Dr Neal, a Senior Director at The George Institute for International Health, has led several global studies addressing the impact of dietary salt on population health. “The UK government’s salt reduction policy is based on sound scientific evidence,” he said. “The Salt Manufacturers’ claims that such a salt reduction strategy may actually do harm are based on vested interests and ignore the weight of the evidence that links salt to blood pressure and blood pressure to cardiovascular disease.”