Eating just a teaspoon of salt a day puts you at risk of silent killer, experts warn

EATING just a teaspoon of salt each day could raise your risk of heart disease and strokes by 18 per cent, researchers have found.

The NHS says that adults should avoid eating any more than six grams of salt each day.

But new research carried out by experts in London has found that this could be too much.

Eating too much salt can contribute to high blood pressure and this in turn can lead to other health issues such as heart attacks or strokes.

Published in the the New England Journal of Medicine, experts found that every 2.5 grams increase of salt each day was associated with an 18 per cent increased risk of heart disease.

The study also found that for every 1,000mg per day increase in potassium excretion, the risk of strokes and heart disease was 18 per cent lower.

In order to garner the results the experts used multiple 24-hour urine collections on more than 10,000 healthy adults over a period of time.

This, they say, is the most accurate way to measure salt intake.

The findings confirm the link between salt intake and strokes and heart disease between the range of 5 and 15g/day with the lower the salt intake, the lower the risk of illness.

Professor Graham MacGregor, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary University of London, Chairman of Action on Salt and co-author of the study said reducing salt is the most cost effective measure to lower blood pressure and reduce health inequalities.

He added: "For too long the UK Government has allowed the food industry to be in charge of public health at our expense.

"The new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities must now get the food industry, either by legislation or taxation, to reduce the salt that they add to the food we buy.” 

From 2003-2011 the UK government helped drive down salt intake in the UK after it was one of the first countries to devise a voluntary salt reduction programme to get the food industry to slowly take out the excessive amounts of salt they add to our food.

Many other countries copied the programme with some even implementing legislation on salt.

The UK has kept this voluntary and evidence shows salt intake across the country has remained the same since 2014.

Professor Feng He, Professor of Global Health Research at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health (Queen Mary University of London) and co-author of the study said the link between salt intake and cardiovascular disease is clear.

"We should therefore no longer be questioning the science but take direct action to lowering the amount of salt we consume. Recommendations have been put in place to reduce population salt intakes for many years now: it’s time to act", they added.