Eating a little less salt cuts risk of heart attacks

NEW YORK, Jan 22 — Reducing 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 do.

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 a study conducted by scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Stanford University Medical Centre and Columbia University Medical Centre.

The report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, comes as the health authorities at federal, state and municipal levels in the United States are considering policies that would have the effect of pressuring food companies to reduce salt in processed foods. Last week, New York City announced an initiative to urge food manufacturers and restaurant chains to reduce salt in their products nationwide by 25 per cent over the next five years.

California, according to UCSF Associate Professor Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an author of the study, is considering setting salt limits on food the state purchases for public institutions like schools and prisons.

A panel appointed by the Institute of Medicine, the widely respected independent research arm of the National Academies of Science, is close to issuing a report that will make recommendations about reducing salt intake, including actions governments and manufacturers can take.

Bibbins-Domingo also said the Food and Drug Administration was considering whether to change the designation of salt from a food additive that is generally considered safe to a category that would require companies to give consumers more information about high levels of salt.

But not every expert is persuaded. Professor Michael Alderman at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine said the research was based on the assumption there would be no other effects of reduced sodium.

He said salt reduction could lead to insulin resistance and imbalances of hormones in the adrenal and kidney systems, and that clinical trials comparing these effects with the benefits of lowering blood pressure need to be conducted. — NYT