Salt is a condiment that must be used in daily life. How much is suitable to eat in a day? Do you stir fry vegetables and put more salt in your home? According to the data, the Chinese eat too salty! At present, the average daily salt intake of adults in China is 10.5G, far higher than the 6G suggested in the 2016 Chinese dietary guide.
When it comes to eating less salt, let's first understand why people eat salt.
Salt is the first of all tastes. Many dishes are saltless. In addition to seasoning, salt can maintain the osmotic pressure of extracellular fluid, participate in the regulation of acid-base balance in vivo, participate in the generation of gastric acid and increase appetite, which is indispensable in maintaining physiological function.
In fact, animals also need salt. Many animals will lick the saline alkali soil to supplement salt.
Under normal circumstances, how much salt does a person need to eat every day? I'm afraid few people will quantify it.
According to the 2016 dietary guidelines for Chinese residents, it is recommended that adults should not consume more than 6 grams of salt per day, while less than 5 grams of salt per day is enough to meet the needs of the body.
According to the Chinese society of nutrition, China is currently one of the countries with the highest salt intake in the world. In 2012, the average daily salt intake of residents aged 18 and over in China was 10.5G, 75% higher than the recommended 6G.
In particular, some elderly people, due to the age of the taste has declined, eat very salty food.
What's the harm of eating too salty? One of the main components of salt is sodium ion. The Chinese society of nutrition points out that as an independent risk factor, high sodium intake is an important risk factor for hypertension, cardiovascular disease, gastric cancer and other diseases. It has become a serious health risk that affects the health and life expectancy of Chinese residents and covers a wide range.
Therefore, it is very necessary to carry out "salt reduction action", and the government has put forward the goal.
In July 2017, the general office of the State Council issued the national nutrition plan (2017-2030), which proposed to reduce the per capita daily salt intake by 20% by 2030.
In addition, according to the medium and long term plan for the prevention and control of chronic diseases in China (2017-2025) issued by the general office of the State Council in the same year, the per capita daily salt intake in China has decreased by 10% by 2020 and 15% by 2025 at the current baseline level of 10.5G.
How to achieve this goal? First, let's look at the source of salt we eat in our body, mainly including family, restaurant and food.
In particular, the source of 'food', according to Yang Yuexin, President of China Nutrition Society, said that the sodium content of some prepackaged food sold in the market, such as soy sauce, pickled vegetables, fermented bean curd, puffed food, instant noodles, pastries, etc., has room to reduce.
With the rapid development of food industry, the source of salt has shifted from household cooking salt to processed food. 'said Yang Yuexin.
In order to reduce the salt consumption in prepackaged food, on April 18, 2018, the Institute of nutrition and health of China Society of nutrition and China Center for Disease Control and prevention jointly held a seminar on salt reduction guidelines for China's food industry in Beijing. It is planned to launch the first "salt reduction guidelines" in China.
According to the guidelines, food enterprises are encouraged to increase R & D investment and new product development efforts, and salt reduction measures are discussed by means of process improvement, multi flavor integration, trial use of substitutes, improvement of packaging form and shelf life.
In fact, more than half of the countries in the world have launched national salt reduction guidelines or actions. According to Wang Zhu, director of the food nutrition evaluation office of the Institute of nutrition and health of China CDC, salt reduction actions in Finland, Britain, Japan, Australia and other countries have achieved initial results.
The effect of 'salt reduction' on reducing disease risk and morbidity, medical costs and expenses is expected.
According to Yang Yuexin, research shows that reducing salt intake has a clear effect on lowering blood pressure. If each person can reduce 6 grams of salt per day, the prevalence of hypertension will be reduced by 7 percentage points, which can reduce stroke by 24% and coronary heart disease by 18%.
"For China, it can avoid 360000 deaths from stroke and coronary heart disease every year, and reduce the direct medical cost of more than 15 billion yuan. The number of patients with hypertension in the country can be reduced by 30 million. 'she said.