High salt intake can shorten your lifespan - Health Ministry

by Carol Aloysius

Sri Lankans consume one of the highest salt intakes on a daily basis, a study by the Health Ministry has revealed. Although the recommended dose is between 3.75 – 5 grams a day, the average Sri Lankan adult consumes over 12.5 grams a day, according to Health Ministry data in 2012. Gender-wise men between 20-60 in urban and rural areas consume more salt than women daily. The main sources are adding salt to rice and curries and salt intake through processed food.

“Excessive salt is the cause for the surge in hypertension and other serious non communicable diseases,” a Health Ministry official said. “Excess dietary sodium or salt intake is a well established fact for hypertension.

Diets high in salt even among the normal or high-normal range are associated with direct vascular and cardiac damage, obesity, stomach cancer, osteoporosis, kidney stones and increased severity of asthmatic symptoms.

Food with high salt also increases thirst and leads to consumption of calorie dense soft drinks thus indirectly contributing to childhood obesity” the official said. He said most Sri Lankans did not consume enough fruits and vegetables which are freely available and were good sources of potassium and could reduce the impact of sodium (salt) on blood pressure.

According to a WHO study, South East Asian countries consume the highest amount of salt, resulting in over one-third of the adult population having hypertension and the cause of 1.5 million (9.4 percent) of all deaths in the region.

A study by the Global Burden of Disease found excess salt intake to be the seventh leading cause of mortality in South East Asia.

The Health Ministry has joined the Initiative to reduce salt in selected countries in South Asia by 2015.