13 Aug 2011

Cutting salt 'could save millions of lives'

9:35 am on 13 August 2011

Scientists say reducing the amount of salt in food by 15% could save more than eight million lives worldwide in the next decade.

In a report published in the British Medical Journal, they say that after cutting tobacco, lowering people's salt intake is the most cost-effective way of improving their health.

The researchers say there is a direct relation between salt intake and blood pressure, which in turn is linked to heart disease, stroke and kidney problems, the BBC reports.

In the US, cutting salt intake by a third would save tens of thousands of lives and save up to $US24 billion annually in health care costs, the researchers say.

But with 70% of deaths from strokes and heart attacks occurring in developing countries, the report says the impact of reduced intake would be global.

One of the report authors, Professor Francisco Cappucio, of the University of Warwick, said the food industry has a responsibility to take action over the amount of salt in processed food.

However the Salt Institute said the salt reduction agenda was based more on populist ideology than objective science.

The industry body's vice president, Morton Satin, said there had been a number of studies in the past year that questioned the prevailing wisdom on the health damage caused by salt.

The study was carried out by researchers at the universities of Warwick and Liverpool.