Excessive salt consumption has always been associated with a wide spectrum of human diseases, and scientific research confirming this connection has become conclusive, as the World Health Organization warned in a recent report, the first of its kind, that sodium increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and premature death in adults. Too much.
According to the organization, the world is off track to achieve its goal of reducing sodium intake by 30 percent by 2025, as implementing effective policies to reduce sodium, of which table salt is a major source, could save about 7 million lives by 2030, calling for To adopt new policies, including “reformulating foods” to contain less salt.
They will suffer from stress
Cardiologist Dr. Claude Samaan said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia” that salt is the number one enemy of the body, and if it is consumed in abundance, it has negative repercussions on human health, especially for people who suffer from diseases of the heart, pressure and lungs, and from here it is possible to understand what was found. According to the World Health Organization report, reducing salt intake contributes to protecting the lives of millions of people, pointing out that projections indicate that 65 percent of people over the age of 45 in 2025 will suffer from pressure problems.
Changing the way people live
Samaan saw that the spread of pressure disease in abundance comes as a result of changing the way people live, in which there is a lot of lethargy and fatty food full of salt, as reducing the percentage of salt reduces the percentage of pressure patients, noting that when people are warned and made aware that salt It is their number one enemy, and even the healthy ones among them, for sure a large portion of them will respond to efforts to reduce salt intake.
Kill other taste cells
Semaan explains that a person may feel uncomfortable during the first 15 days of stopping eating salt, but this feeling will disappear after this period, pointing out that salt kills many cells in the tongue, which are specialized in tasting different flavors, and therefore stopping eating it for 15 One day, it contributes to the restoration of these cells to their role, and the person becomes more tasteful.
What is the salt replaced with?
Samaan called for eating salt in small quantities or even stopping it, as all foods contain certain proportions of salt, pointing out that the flavor produced by salt can be replaced by adding citrus fruits, thyme, dry mint and other healthy spices.
A hard-to-replace preservative
For his part, food industry and marketing specialist Walid Jabara said, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that the approach of “reformulating foods” to contain less salt is a very difficult matter to implement, as salt, which consists of sodium and chloride, is considered an essential preservative. In the food industry, it is better from a health point of view compared to chemical preservatives, pointing out that salt helps factories producing canned food in metal and glass containers, by preserving these foods for a long time, and therefore reducing the use of salt will reduce the shelf life of the product.
The solution is to create choices for the consumer
Jubara explains that reducing the uses of salt in the food industry is something that will entail high costs in terms of expenses, and the need for the process of disposing of goods quickly before they are damaged, indicating that the solution may be to continue working on the previous approach to food production, with the introduction of new products dedicated to For people looking for low-salt food, the consumer has many choices.
How do humans consume sodium?
Jabara asserts that more than 75 percent of human consumption of sodium comes from canned foods, bread and cheese, while the other 30 percent of sodium comes from foods that we consume while cooking at home.
