Shaking the salt habit
According to a 2008 survey conducted by the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition, about 70 percent of Canadians say that they are influenced to select foods based on how much sodium they contain. Yet even with this high percentage of people claiming to be “salt conscious,” roughly 90 percent of Canadian men and 65 percent of women exceed Health Canada’s recommended sodium limit of 2300 milligrams per day. The average Canadian consumes 3,100 milligrams of sodium daily – so something is not adding up.
About 60 percent of Canadians say that they changed their eating habits in the past year, but only 12 percent of them say that their change included reducing sodium intake. This is problematic since about one million Canadians suffer from hypertension that is caused by excessive salt consumption. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a leading risk factor for both heart attacks and strokes and also increases the risk of developing heart disease. It’s important to bring sodium levels down at the public health level. Cutting salt consumption by 50 percent across the population could reduce the prevalence of hypertension by 20 percent, and decrease all-cause mortality by seven percent.