Florida Plastic Surgeon - Dr Clevens

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Reducing salt intake as important as quitting somking??

From the New York Times:

Big Brother and the Salt Shaker

If everyone consumed half a teaspoon less salt per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year and between 44,000 and 92,000 fewer deaths, according to scientists at University of California San Francisco, Stanford University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center.

In a report that may bolster public policy efforts to get Americans to reduce the amount of salt in their diets, scientists conclude that lowering the amount of salt people eat by even a small amount could reduce cases of heart disease, stroke and heart attacks as much as reductions in smoking, obesity and cholesterol levels.

Last week, New York City announced an initiative to urge food manufacturers and restaurant chains to reduce salt in their products nationwide by 25 percent .

“For 40 years in this country we’ve been trying to get individuals to reduce the amount of sodium we consume and it hasn’t worked.” “We need to collectively come together and approach the problem with a combination of efforts, including changing the food supply.

“But small incremental changes in salt, such as lowering salt in tomato sauce or breads and cereals by a small amount, would achieve small changes in blood pressure that would have a measurable effect across the whole population,” she said. “That’s the reason why this intervention works better than just targeting smokers.”