Initiatives to Reduce the Content of Sodium in Food Products and Meals and Improve the Population’s Health

Abstract

Table salt is the main source of sodium (Na) in the human diet. Excessive supply of Na in a diet is strongly linked to many non-communicable human diseases, such as hypertension, obesity and stomach cancer. The World Health Organization recommends that daily intake of salt in adult diets should be kept below 5 g/person/day, which corresponds to 2 g Na/person/day. However, on average, adults consume about 9–10 g/person/day, and children and young people about 7–8 g/person/day. Initiatives to reduce salt intake include modifications of food composition in collaboration with the food industry, education of consumers, salt marking on foodstuff labels and taxation of salt. A need also exists to educate society so that they choose low-sodium products. In view of the food technology and amount of salt intake, the most important and the easiest change to make is to reduce the content of salt in baked goods. This paper analyses the results of surveys regarding strategies to reduce salt content in food products and considers multifaceted initiatives to reduce salt intake as a possible efficient method of improving the population’s health status.

Plant‐based meat alternatives in South Africa: An analysis of products on supermarket shelves

“…In the UK study, plant‐based sausages had a similar salt content to their meat counterparts, which was also seen here, where plant‐based sausages had comparable, or slightly higher, sodium content than meat sausages. Reducing sodium in food is widely recognized as a cost‐effective approach to improve public health, and hence, regulations to mandate sodium levels in PBMA products are required and necessary (Jachimowicz & Winiarska‐Mieczan, 2023 ). PBMA manufacturers have a vital role in providing consumers, restaurants, and caterers with products that do not contain excessive amounts of sodium.…”

Climate Change and Stroke: A Topical Narrative Review

“…84 Discussions on nationally mandated reductions in salt and sugar content in processed food or introducing a sugar tax represent more recent examples. [85][86][87] Clinicians treating stroke are generally not trained to facilitate these types of advocacy-dependent stroke prevention strategies and may feel ill-equipped to do so. A good place to start may be by simply acknowledging that systemic environmental problems, be it diet or climate change related, This narrative review focused on literature specifically linking climate change and stroke, and despite the supplementation of other papers known to the authors who have extensive experience with the topic, it is possible that relevant evidence pertaining especially to individual environmental stroke risk factors may not have been included.…”