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Seven million people could die of salt-related diseases before the end of the decade if governments don’t immediately enact tougher salt restrictions, a World Health Organization report warned on Thursday. The authors call on governments to introduce stricter sodium targets for food, to label salt levels more clearly on packaging, and to raise public awareness of the health hazards of eating lots of salty foods.
“Excess sodium intake is the main risk factor for unhealthy diets and is responsible for 1.8 million deaths each year,” said Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Division of Nutrition for Health and Development.
Eating too much salt is one of the causes of cardiovascular disease, which WHO estimates kills 17.9 million people each year. It can also lead to stroke, which kills 5 million people worldwide every year – and other serious illnesses.
Governments could save many of those lives by imposing mandatory limits on the amount of salt the food industry can add to processed foods, Branca said – adding that this accounts for the bulk of the sodium consumed by most Americans, not salt that sprinkled on food in the kitchen.
“It’s really something that doesn’t cost anyone money,” Branca said. “It’s a simple intervention, but it’s incredibly effective.”
Most people in the world consume about 10.8 grams of salt per day, more than twice the recommended amount by the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which suggest eating no more than one teaspoon of salt per day take. While salt is an essential nutrient, sodium — which makes up 40 percent of it — narrows and stiffens blood vessels.
“As you keep more salt in your body, blood pressure slowly increases,” said Graham MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the report but is campaigning for reducing salt intake . “This elevated blood pressure then causes strokes, heart attacks, or heart failure.”
Many other health organizations — including the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — also recommend consumers drastically reduce their sodium intake. This position is based on decades of scientific evidence (including analysis of hundreds of published studies underscoring sodium’s health dangers), which remains unchanged despite multiple studies in recent years that have challenged it.
Salt is in all foods. Here’s how to reduce your daily sodium intake.
The WHO hopes to reduce global salt intake by 30 percent from 2013 levels, a 12-year goal that all 194 member states agreed to at the time – but that none is on track to meet, it said on Thursday. Branca said he was considering extending the goal to 2030.
In a review of the salt reduction strategies implemented by the world’s governments, the WHO found that only nine of its members had taken sufficiently comprehensive measures to reduce excessive salt consumption – 5 percent of their members.
The United Nations Health Agency is urging governments to raise public awareness of the dangers of eating too much salt and promote salt content more prominently on packaging. WHO officials believe mandatory salt levels are also needed to kick the world out of its deadly salt habit – given the high levels being used by food manufacturers rather than being added by individual consumers.
“There’s no point in telling people to stop putting salt in their food,” MacGregor said. “It’s already in.”
According to the Food and Drug Administration, more than 70 percent of the salt in the American diet comes from packaged and prepared foods, rather than from the salt shaker at home.
In September, the FDA announced plans to change the rules for nutrition labeling on food packaging to indicate it’s “healthy.” Manufacturers would have to comply with certain limit values for sodium, among other things.
In response, the Consumer Brands Association, which represents 1,700 major brands including General Mills and Pepsi, said the proposed rule was overly restrictive and instead proposed “revising nutrient thresholds to slightly higher values for added sugars and sodium.”
Americans can’t cut salt short. A likely reason: Packaged and prepared foods are filled with it.
One reason food manufacturers continue to add so much salt, despite the known health risks, argues WHO’s Branca, is that years of adding too much salt to our foods has caused people’s taste buds to become desensitized to excessive amounts. “You expect a certain amount of salt, and you think the food is tasteless if you don’t have that much salt,” Branca said.
“Manufacturers don’t want to take the initiative to reduce sodium when there is a competitor that has higher salt levels,” he said, urging governments to set mandatory targets forcing food manufacturers to lower those levels.
The benefits of reducing salt intake come on relatively quickly, scientists say. According to the CDC, blood pressure begins to fall in most people within weeks, and sensitivity to salt soon returns.
“Your taste buds will get used to reducing the salt content, and you’ll be able to taste the other flavors better,” Branca said. Your food, he suggests, might even start to taste better.
Marlene Cimons and Laura Reiley contributed to this report.
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