Some of the jeatwell recommended meals are lower in sodium. Does it really matter???? Americans, on average, take in 10 grams a day. It is recommended by the World Health Organization to take in 5 g or less per day, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
recommends daily intake be limited to 5.8 g. Well a recent study released explains that cutting salt intake does involve more than just not using the salt shaker. Many foods are high in sodium, like ketchup and restaurant foods. In a paper published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, a computer model showed that cutting daily salt intake by 3 grams a day (this is just a bit more than a teaspoon!!!) could prevent thousands of strokes and MI's a year.
Three grams may not seem like a lot of salt. But cutting back by 3 grams would be 30% of the current average, and is estimated (by the computer model) to prevent about 32,000 strokes and 54,000 myocardial infarctions a year. The computer model was developed by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The results of the analysis look at heart disease in U.S. adults ages 35-84 years old. They found that even a gram per day reduction over the next decade would be a more cost effective strategy for treating hypertension (high blood pressure) than the use of even the cheapest anti-hypertensive.
Other studies this year have suggested that a reduction of about 5 grams a day (a heaping teaspoonful) would lower the stroke rate by 23% and reduce overall cardiovascular disease by as much as 17%. Bibbins-Domingo and colleagues reported that a 3 gram per day reduction in dietary salt would "save 194,00 to 392,00 quality-adjusted life-years
and $10 billion to $24 billion in healthcare costs annually." As in any study or estimated, errors can be expected. However, these estimates are thought to be too low, if anything. They may have underestimated the relationship between blood pressure on the heart, brain, kidneys, stomach cancer and osteoporosis (which were not considered in this study).
So, yes! Cutting back on even a little bit of sodium and salt can matter. Three grams of salt comes to about a teaspoonful, but Goldman said it was foolish to think of sodium reduction in terms of such measurements because so much sodium comes from processed foods and from restaurant food. Achieving the needed reduction requires a concerted national effort. It was suggested that in a time when we are considering healthcare reform, we should not forget this inexpensive and highly effective health intervention for the prevention of disease. Jeatwell can help!
