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Cut salt to keep kids thin
21/02/2008 11:20 - (SA)
Washington - Reducing the amount of
salt that children eat could provide a short-cut to keeping
them slim, British researchers reported on Wednesday.
They found that children who ate less salt drank fewer
sugary soft drinks and could reduce their risk of high blood
pressure and obesity.
Writing in the journal Hypertension, they said this could
lower rates of heart attack and stroke in later life.
"Sugar-sweetened soft drinks are a significant source of
calorie intake in children," said Dr Feng He of St George's
University of London.
"It has been shown that sugar-sweetened soft drink
consumption is related to obesity in young people," He added in
a statement.
"If children aged four to 18 years cut their salt intake by
half, there would be a decrease of approximately two
sugar-sweetened soft drinks per week per child, so each child
would decrease calorie intake by almost 250 kilocalories per
week."
He and colleagues analysed data from a 1997 national survey
of more than 2 000 kids between four and 18 in Britain. More
than 1 600 boys and girls had salt and fluid intake recorded in a diary, with everything they ate and drank weighed.
"We found that children eating a lower-salt diet drank less
fluid," He said. "From our research, we estimated that one gram
of salt cut from their daily diet would reduce fluid intake by
100g per day."
The children who ate less salt also drank fewer
sugar-sweetened soft drinks, and He predicted that a one gram
reduction in salt would reduce sugar-sweetened soft drink
consumption by 27g a day, after factoring in
age, gender, body weight and level of physical activity.
He said parents should check labels, choose low-salt food
products and not add salt during cooking and at the table.
"Small reductions in the salt content of 10 percent to 20%
cannot be detected by the human salt taste receptors,"
she said.
According to the American Heart Association, healthy adults
should reduce their sodium intake to less than 2 300 milligrams
or 2.3g per day. This is about one teaspoon of salt.
Americans and Britons consume up to 75% of their
sodium from processed foods like tomato sauce, soups, canned
foods and prepared mixes.
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