According to research at University of Warwick, the low-economic population in Britain consumes more salt than the wealthy, reports Medical Xpress.
The collaborative study carried out by World Health Organization included Center for Nutrition, located in the Division of Mental Health & Wellbeing of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick. The study analyzed the salt intake among the people of Britain and its link with their occupations and educational qualifications.
The data used in the research was taken from the British National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2000-01, included 2,105 participants between19 to 64 years old. The research found a major difference in salt intake among the wealthy and highly qualified people and people with low educational qualification and manual occupations. Low socio-economic population majority from Scotland were found consuming more salt than those from England and Wales, reports Medical Xpress.
"These results are important as they explain in part why people of low socio-economic background are more likely to develop high blood pressure (hypertension) and to suffer disproportionately from strokes, heart attacks and renal failure," said Francesco Cappuccio, senior author and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre, as report says in Medical Xpress.
"Habitual salt intake in most adult populations around the world exceeds 10 g per day and the World Health Organization recommends that daily intake should not exceed 5 g," said Teresa Morris of The Bupa Foundation, which funded the study. "Population salt reduction programmes are a cost-effective way of reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease nationally and globally."
Cappuccio highlighted the fall in salt intake after an imitative was taken to control the salt consumption.
"We have seen a reduction in salt intake in Britain from 9.5 to 8.1 g per day in the period 2004-2011, thanks to an effective policy which included awareness campaigns, food reformulation and monitoring," he said. "Whilst this is an achievement to celebrate, our results suggest the presence of social inequalities in levels of salt intake that would underestimate the health risks in people who are worse off - and these are the people who need prevention most. The diet of disadvantaged socio-economic groups tends to be made up of low-quality, salt-dense, high-fat, high-calorie unhealthy cheap foods.
"Behavioural approaches to healthy eating are unlikely to bring about the changes necessary to halt the cardiovascular epidemic and would also widen inequalities," he said. "Since the majority of dietary salt is added during commercial food production, widespread and continued food reformulation is necessary through both voluntary as well as regulatory means to make sure that salt reduction is achieved across all socio-economic groups."
