Children who eat a diet that is high in salt are at greater risk of becoming overweight or obese, according to a publication in the British Journal of Nutrition. Carrying extra weight around the stomach increases the risk of a number of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes. In order to assess the danger a high salt diet poses, researchers at Deakin Univeristy in Melbourne, measured intake in 666 primary school children aged four to 12.
Dr Carley Grimes, who led the study, said her team wanted to get an accurate measure of just how much salt children are consuming.
'Because we excrete most of the salt that we eat each day in our urine, we asked children to collect their urine for a whole day,' she explained.
'From this we were able to get an objective and accurate measure of how much salt children are eating.'
She said their findings revealed 70 per cent of children are eating more than the maximum amount of salt recommended for good health. On average, the children taking part in the study, were eating six grams of salt each day, which is more than a teaspoon. Guidelines dictate they should be eating between four and five grams a day. Dr Grimes said: 'For every additional gram of salt children ate this was associated with a 23 per cent greater likelihood of being overweight or obese.
Such high intakes of salt are setting children up for a lifetime risk of future chronic disease such as high blood pressure and heart disease.' She said that a lot of the salt in children's diets comes from everyday foods, such as bread, cheese, ham and sausages.
'Foods that contain higher levels of salt may enhance the flavour of foods which are often also higher in fat and energy,' Dr Grimes said.
'And, a salty diet may also encourage greater consumption of high energy sugar-sweetened beverages when these are available. This study is ringing alarm bells as we now have good evidence to indicate the need to cut the amount of salt that our children are eating.'
even for adults, salt should be minimized
ReplyDelete