Cutting Salt from Your Diet May Prolong Your Life and Well-Being

As this headline may not really surprise you that much, the actual numbers in a recent study are quite staggering.

A new report says that slashing salt intake by just 3 grams a day -- the equivalent of half a teaspoon -- may dramatically reduce the rate and risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular events leading to death.  The results parallel the beneficial effects gained from reducing smoking by 50% and dropping 5% of the body mass index of an obese adult.

While experts generally agree that many Americans over-consume salt in their diet, researchers finally put the idea to a stringent test to see whether cutting salt would make a difference, and if so, by how much.

The study was recently reported in Jan in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The American Heart Association would like to see the typical American consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium daily, but also states that older people, blacks and people with high blood pressure should go to levels under 1,500 mg per day.

However, despite knowing better, the typical American does the opposite of what they should.  Go figure.

In 2005-2006, the same study authors found that men in the United States took in an average of 10.4 grams of salt a day and women consumed 7.3 grams a day, far more than the suggested limit.

I guess they weren't worried about having a stroke or heart attack at the same time they were getting overextended on their credit.

The salt debate has had a resurgency recently as policy-makers have looked for simple implementation steps to curb health care costs.   Naturally, curbing salt would be a no-cost way to do so.

The New York City Health Department, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has announced that it is spearheading the "National Salt Reduction Initiative," which aims for a 20 percent reduction in salt consumption over five years.

Nice, by why stretch it out over five years?  Why not just change...or die?

The initiative is geared primarily toward restaurants and food manufacturers, which supply the gross majority of sodium in American diets.

Only about one-quarter of the salt in the U.S. diet comes directly from the kitchen table salt shaker.

A group of researchers from the University of California at San Francisco, fed previously published data on heart disease in U.S. adults aged 35 to 84 into a computer model, which predicted that the reduction of 3 grams of salt a day would cut the number of new cases of coronary heart disease each year by 60,000 to 120,000; stroke by 32,000 to 66,000 cases; and heart attacks by 54,000 to 99,000.

The annual number of deaths from any cause would be reduced by 44,000 to 92,000.

Limiting salt intake would be good for the fiscal diet as well, saving an estimated $10 billion to $24 billion in health care costs yearly, the paper found.

But if Americans cut even a mere 1 gram of salt from their meals and snacks every day, the effects would still be stunning, the authors stated: 20,000 to 40,000 fewer cases of coronary heart disease; 18,000 to 35,000 fewer heart attacks; 11,000 to 23,000 fewer strokes; and 15,000 to 32,000 fewer deaths.

With so much sodium comes from processed foods, experts urged a public health initiative to curb consumption.

So, we're doing our part by informing you.

The rest is up to you.