With preventive health a growing concern in Government and health care provider circles, one ingredient that could reduce incidents of stroke and heart attacks has taken centre stage this week – salt.
Coinciding with World Salt Awareness Week, which kicked off on Monday, The George Institute in Sydney has released findings showing that 70 per cent of processed meats, cheeses and sauces in Australia contained unacceptably high levels of salt.
According to Professor Bruce Neal, senior director at The George Institute and chairman of the Australian Division of World Action on Salt and Health (AWASH), Australia's efforts in setting salt limits in food has been "piecemeal and progressing too slowly" compared with UK and USA.
"Target levels for salt in processed and take-away foods are urgently required," he said.
"We are passing up one of the greatest public health opportunities we have. A recent report on the US strategy showed that reducing population salt intakes by three grams could prevent up to 92,000 deaths each year."
Prof Neal said there was "overwhelming evidence" that levels of salt eaten in Australia caused high blood pressure, the leading cause of stroke and a major factor in heart disease.
Writing in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, however, US epidemiologist Dr Michael Alderman from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York claimed that universal salt reduction was a "rash route".
"Despite the heterogeneity of blood pressure response to sodium reduction, advocates of this strategy are confident that known beneficial effects will outweigh known negative effects and that there will be no serious unintended consequences," he wrote.