Advice you definitely shouldn’t take with a pinch of salt

Whenever there was a plate of food in front of him, the first thing my father always did was to reach for the salt.

It infuriated my mother, who took it as a slight on her cooking, but it was probably a hangover from growing up during the 1940s and 50s when food was, well, bland.

Until recently the odd sprinkling of salt didn’t matter too much, but with most diets now packed with processed food the scales are beginning to tip.

Just two slices of certain types of bread can provide nearly half the daily recommended salt intake of 6g, and increased consumption can lead to numerous health problems, including cancer and heart disease.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has just revealed that one in seven cases of stomach cancer in the UK could be prevented, if everyone cut their daily salt intake to 6g – a level teaspoon’s worth.

Salt is made up of 40 per cent sodium, which is an essential mineral, and 60 per cent chloride. While a small amount is essential for the body to function normally, adults need just 1g a day (a large pinch) and children need even less. However, the average daily salt consumption in the UK is now more than eight times that and the campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) has warned that almost everyone is eating too much of the white stuff.

According to CASH, bread is responsible for a fifth of our daily salt intake, and one in four loaves contains as much salt per slice as a packet of crisps.

“One loaf of bread can have half as much salt as another,” says CASH’s campaign director Katharine Jenner, a public health nutritionist. “But it’s difficult to know that without looking at the label and understanding it.”

Other culprits include some types of ketchup and other sauces, processed meats, smoked fish, convenience foods like pizza, pasties and ready meals, and salty snacks like crisps and salted nuts.

The WCRF is calling for a standardised “traffic light” system on the front of food and drink packaging, to clearly flag up salt, fat and sugar levels.

“The easiest thing to happen would be for manufacturers not to put so much salt in food,” says Jenner. “But people can take control of their own salt intake by adding less when cooking, using fresh foods, and looking at the labels on food and choosing the lowest salt option.”

Stomach cancer was the cause of 4,966 deaths in the UK in 2010, according to Kate Mendoza, head of health information at the World Cancer Research Fund. Of these, 14 per cent could have been prevented by cutting salt intake, which can cause changes to the stomach lining, making it more vulnerable to cancer-causing substances.

“Stomach cancer is difficult to treat successfully because most cases aren’t caught until the disease is well-established,” says Mendoza. “This places even greater emphasis on making lifestyle choices to prevent the disease occurring in the first place – such as cutting down on salt and eating more fruit and vegetables.”

As well as kidney problems, excess salt is also linked to high blood pressure, the main cause of stroke and a major cause of heart disease, the biggest killers in the UK. Too much salt disrupts the body’s natural sodium balance, causing fluid retention, which raises blood pressure.

About one in three adults in the UK (16m people) have high blood pressure, with almost a third not even aware of it. CASH says that reducing the UK adult’s average daily salt intake to the recommended 6g could prevent about 12,500 heart attacks and strokes a year, half of which would be fatal. Dr Wayne Sunman, a consultant stroke physician, agrees. “Consuming salt puts blood pressure up a small but important amount. The more you take, the greater the effect,” he says.

“Conversely, by reducing the amount of salt we take, we could all reduce our blood pressure.”

High salt consumption is also linked to osteoporosis, a condition which causes bones to become weak and fragile and prone to fracture. An estimated three million people in the UK are affected.

Calcium is a major part of bone mass, and CASH says studies show a high salt intake increases calcium losses in the urine (calciuria), some of which will be directly from bones.

“Sodium and calcium work in similar ways, and the sodium displaces the calcium, leading to weakening of bones in the long-term,” says Jenner.

“There are lots of reasons for developing osteoporosis, but it’s known that if you reduce salt, you lower your risk.”