News

A coalition of powerful health groups is calling on Canadians to drastically slash their salt intake, saying that doing so would reduce the incidence of heart disease and stroke by a whopping one-third.

The National Sodium Policy statement, issued yesterday, calls for sharp reductions in the sodium content of processed foods and fast foods (either voluntary or enforced by regulation), better labelling of packaged foods and an education campaign to persuade Canadians to abandon their salt shakers.

"It's been said that reducing dietary sodium could result in the biggest improvement in public health since clean water and drains," said Senator Wilbert Keon, a renowned cardiologist who praised the new initiative as far-reaching.

"Canadians consume twice as much salt as is healthy and the result is an epidemic of high blood pressure and heart disease," he said.

About five million Canadians have high blood pressure and excess salt is one of the principal causes.

The coalition of 17 groups, which includes the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association and Canadian Pharmacists Association, among others, said its goal is to see daily salt consumption of individuals fall to between 1,200 and 1,500 milligrams a day by 2020.

Canadians consume, on average, 3,092 mg. of sodium daily, according to Statistics Canada. Men ingest markedly more sodium than women - 4,100 mg. a day, compared with 2,900 mg.

Norm Campbell, president of Blood Pressure Canada, said proponents of the new action plan are "sending a message that action is urgently needed on this significant public health issue."

And that message appears to have been heard in both government and industry.

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement announced yesterday the creation of a Sodium Working Group, which will develop a long-term strategy for reducing sodium in foods. He said the issue needs to be tackled because excess salt is "one of the largest controllable factors" that contributes to heart disease and stroke.

Phyllis Tanaka, director of food and nutrition policy at Food & Consumer Products of Canada, said industry supports the initiatives to reduce dietary sodium but also faces some daunting challenges, including product reformulation and consumer acceptance.

"In some cases, consumers reject lower-sodium products. They are perceived as bland," she said.

Ms. Tanaka said she appreciates that consumer groups have laid out a plan that calls for reductions in salt over the long term because "this can't be done overnight."

Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, said industry deserves some credit for acting on the issue, and noted that the action plan calls for incentives to prompt further action, and that it recognizes that food companies need time to adjust.

But she said that, ultimately, change will come about as quickly as the public demands it, as occurred with trans fats. "When the public realizes that salt - like trans fat - is not really necessary and is bad for their health, they will want to see changes. So we have some education work to do too," Ms. Brown said.

The Centre for Science in the Public Interest estimates that as many as 15,000 Canadians a year are dying annually because of excessive salt consumption.

*****

WORST OFFENDERS

Salty snacks, paradoxically, are not necessarily where you will find the salt.

Rather, pizza, burgers, sandwiches, along with other bread-based dishes are the products that contain the most salt.

Soups, pasta, milk, chicken, cheese and cereals aren't far behind.

Salt is added to foods that would otherwise be bland to bolster their taste and, to a lesser extent, used as a preservative.

Diet foods are among the worst offenders. When sugar is removed, salt often substitutes.

"It's a consumer beware issue," said Norm Campbell, president of Blood Pressure Canada. "You really have to learn to read labels."

As a rough guide, dietitians say that any food where the sodium content exceeds 400 milligrams a serving should be avoided. But caution is in order there too because theoretical portion sizes are often well below servings in the real world.

Some salt is necessary. The U.S. Institute of Medicine has established that the adequate daily intake for a healthy adult is between 1,200 and 1,500 mg. of sodium.

That's the equivalent of about three-quarters of a teaspoon a day of salt. But Canadians ingest about two teaspoons worth a day.